By Eric Thomas: 39-year-old former world title challenger David Tua (52-4-2, 43 KO’s) plans on resuming his boxing career next year in hopes of finding success. Tua hasn’t fought since last year in August, losing a 12 round unanimous decision to Monte Barrett.

Tua told the stuff.co.nz “I didn’t want to let them down knowing I had some outstanding issues to sort out. But I believe that is behind me now. I’m looking forward to fighting again and giving it one last try. It’s going to be a case of one fight at a time.”

You can make an argument that Tua hasn’t beaten a quality opponent since beating Michael Moorer in 2002 in a 1st round stoppage win. That was a long, long time ago, and Tua’s best wins since then have come against fringe contender Shane Cameron and Friday Ahunanya.

Tua’s career went into a giant stall after he fought IBF/WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis in November 2000. Tua was soundly beaten by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision, and he never seemed to regain the momentum that he had going into the Lewis fight. Tua fought Chris Byrd and was beaten by a 12 round decision in August 2001. Things just never turned around for Tua following those losses.

Tua still has the power to knockout anyone in the heavyweight division, but his workrate is a major problem for him, as is his lack of height and reach. Tua is dangerous when he’s throwing fast combinations, but he doesn’t let his hands go like he did when he was younger. His fight against Ike Ibeabutchi in June 1997 was one of the most exciting heavyweight bouts of all time with both guys throwing bombs back and forth for 12 rounds. Tua was capable of throwing a lot of punches back then. If he could fight like that right now the chances would be high that he would be a world champion.