David Tua vs. Tony Thompson is a possibility for August

By Boxing News - 03/23/2013 - Comments

tua43By Allan Fox: Ducco Events, the promoters for 40-year-old David Tua (52-4-2, 43 KO’s), have reportedly made a verbal offer to 41-year-old American heavyweight contender Tony Thompson (37-3, 25 KO’s) for Tua’s comeback in August, according to stuff.co.uk.

The 6’5” Thompson is one of the top names that Tua’s promoter is hoping to get for the August fight. There’s no word whether Thompson has accepted or not.

It’s doubtful he’ll say yes unless it’s a really good offer because Golden Boy Promotions is interested in matching Thompson against their unbeaten heavyweight Deontay Wilder (27-0, 27 KO’s), and British heavyweight David Price is also interested in facing Thompson.

Price was stopped in the 2nd round by Thompson last month in Liverpool, UK in a surprise upset loss.

Tua hasn’t fought since losing by a 12 round unanimous decision to Monte Barrett in August 2011. Tua was pretty well dominated by Barrett until knocking him down in the 12th round. However, Tua was unable to finish him off and ended up losing because of that.

Tua is really serious about the comeback and plans on sparring with Alex Leapai to get ready. Tua has already reportedly lost 10 kilograms in weight since he started training, but he still has a lot of work to do in order to get in shape.

This is a bad match-up between Tua and Thompson, and hopefully this fight doesn’t materialize for Tua’s sake because he doesn’t have the reach to compete with the long-armed 6’5” Thompson.

Tua would have to score a knockout to beat Thompson, but he doesn’t throw enough punches to KO someone like Thompson, and Tua’s habit of throwing leaping left hooks isn’t going to get the job done against Thompson because he would easily get out of the way of any of Tua’s desperate shots. Tua fought a heavyweight Thompson’s size in 2000 when Tua was easily beaten by Lennox Lewis by a 12 round unanimous decision.

A win over Thompson would likely get Tua ranked in the top 15, but even it’s doubtful that the Klitschko brothers would pick him out for a voluntary title defense.



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