ANOTHER MIRACLE KO FOR TUA
GOOFI WHITAKER'S CAREER HITS NEW LOW

Tua wins again!Before stepping into the ring with Fres Oquendo, David Tua correctly concluded that the bout was "do or die" for his flagging career. Who knew that he would do both? Yes, Tua got the job done, knocking out Oquendo in the ninth round with a series of crunching left hooks. But along the way, Tua turned in his worst performance ever in a boxing ring, renewing serious doubts about his future as a top contender. Then again, it could be worse... he could be Lance Whitaker.

For a guy who knew a loss could mean retirement, David Tua sure didn't look like a hungry fighter on the scales. Tua weighed in at a thick 243 lbs (ten more than he had in his loss to Byrd and twenty over what he weighed in his prime). When the opening bell sounded, Tua rushed at Oquendo and launched a series of wild left hooks, any one of which would have crippled Oquendo had they not been a mile off target. The West Virginia crowd, unaccustomed to big time prize fighting, oooh'd and aahh'd each home run swing. For almost a full minute, Tua pressed forward with his frenzied assault. And then... well, that was it.

After only one minute of action, David Tua's cheeks began bulging with each labored breath. That's right, the Tuaman was already out of gas. Oquendo had retreated with haste under Tua's attack, but now that the danger was gone he was able to implement his own gameplan: jab and move.

Oquendo is no Ray Leonard on his feet, but compared to a slow plodder like Tua, he's a freakin' ballerina. Pumping out a quick (and relatively powerless) jab allowed Oquendo to move any way he wanted in the tiny 18' ring. First he would circle left, pop Tua with a few light jabs, then circle right. Tua, like an oil tanker, is unable to stop on a dime. Every time Oquendo switched directions, it took Tua a second to stop plodding one way and begin plodding the next. Against Chris Byrd, Tua was being kept away with a series of quick combinations from a variety of angles. But as early as one minute into the bout, Fres Oquendo showed that you could keep Tua away with little more than a range-finding jab.

After a one-minute break, Tua had regained enough energy to go another hard 30 seconds, and he began the second round by grazing Oquendo with a left uppercut and missing with more telegraphed haymaker hooks. By giving up 11 inches in reach, Tua usually needed to leap across the distance to throw his hook, and Oquendo had little trouble staying away from these wild attempts. A few big tosses had Tua huffing again, allowing Oquendo to take over the fight. Fres shuffled left and right, forcing a lumbering Tua to give slow chase. Unlike Byrd, Oquendo rarely ventured beyond the jab in these early rounds. Occasionally he would follow with a right, or hook off his flickering stick, but mostly he was content to bank another easy round with just a jab. It's not easy to win a round with a tapping jab, but Tua was too tired to throw punches. With 1:15 left in the round, Tua finally swung another improbable hook at Oquendo, then waited 30 seconds before missing with a windmill right. Those were the only two punches Tua threw in the final half of the round.

Tua's corner was beside themselves after the second, and began begging Tua to throw more punches... or any punches at all. Their request would go unfulfilled. Tua came out for the third and followed Oquendo around without throwing a punch for a full minute. When he finally did throw a bomb, Tua again got a rise out of the crowd. It was a left hook (of course), and it caught part of Oquendo's head. Oquendo, awakened by the sudden incoming, quickly fired back three punches, catching Tua with a cross. Oquendo, with only 13 knockouts in 22 fights, is not known for his power, and Tua was completely unfazed. But rather than engage his light-fisted opponent in an exchange, Tua simply went back into statue-mode. For the third consecutive round, Tua's attempted punches in the final two minutes of the frame could be counted on one hand. Oquendo seemed so surprised that he was able to completely tame Tua with nothing beyond a light jab that he began smiling late in the round. His smile grew to a laugh, and by round's end he broadly grinned at Tua and began taunting him to throw a punch. None came.

By the fourth, Tua looked finished. In addition to breathing hard and not throwing punches, his visible frustration seemed to be morphing into visible resignation. Tua didn't throw a punch for a full minute, then after missing with another reaching hook, waited another minute before throwing again. Oquendo looked like he was doing a training drill: shuffle, jab, shuffle, jab, shuffle, jab. Oquendo landed an occasional right hand, but again none of his punches landed with authority.

Tua didn't throw any punches in the first minute of round five, either. Then, all of a sudden, he unleashed a beautiful double hook, downstairs and up. The body shot landed loud and clean, and the hook upstairs wasn't flush, but it rattled Oquendo anyway. The old Tua could throw more than two punches at a time. The current version can't, and Oquendo quickly reestablished the pace with his jab. Tua's two-punch rally couldn't win him the round but his chances improved when he caught Oquendo with his back to the ropes in the final minute and unleashed a wicked right and left to the body. Again, Oquendo got off the ropes and circled back to center ring. A huffing Tua simply followed him, but this time Oquendo launched a left uppercut. The punch landed square and was followed by two jab-crosses from Oquendo. Tua walked into most of these blows, making them the most effective punches Fres had landed all evening, and giving him the only close round.

A dejected looking Tua emerged for round six, and immediately began following Oquendo around the ring without throwing any punches. Breathing hard and moving slow, Tua had nothing to offer. He looked more out of shape than he had against Lewis or Byrd. Two minutes into the round, Tua finally returned to the body, again landing a hard shot to each of Oquendo's sides. But during the two minutes of inactivity that preceded those shots, an accumulation of Oquendo jabs had raised a small but noticeable mouse over Tua's right eye. Worse, Oquendo was now becoming bolder with his offense, which included a huge right hand to Tua's ear at the end of the round. The punch rocked Tua's head to the side (one of the few Oquendo punches that did) and momentarily stopped him in place.

By round seven, Tua was looking so shot that even his opponent was beginning to notice. After a minute of non-action, Tua suddenly launched a wild hook at Oquendo. The punch missed by a mile and was so forcefully thrown that Tua spun around and crashed sideways into Oquendo. Oquendo initiated a clinch, but couldn't help from laughing. He was still smiling widely at Tua when, after the break, he threw and landed a crisp jab-cross combination. Aside for a couple of Tua rights to the body later in the round, Oquendo was again unopposed.

The eighth round was mostly more of the same. It was Tua's turn to smile early in the stanza when Oquendo initiated a sudden clinch. Before the ref could yell for a break, Oquendo suddenly shoved Tua off and then hammered him with a roundhouse right. It was a Bernard Hopkins signature move, and it was one of the best shots Oquendo landed all night. Tua offered little in return, except for another left hook with five seconds left on the clock. Unlike his previous efforts, this hook landed flush. But if Oquendo was hurt, he didn't show it. The bell rang, and Oquendo simply smiled, raised his arm in the air and returned to his corner as though he had just won the fight. He hadn't... but he had just banked the eighth round, giving him a clean sweep on the Boxing Chronicle scorecard.

The rest of the fight seemed like a mere formality. Oquendo was clearly not going to knock Tua unconscious, and Tua didn't appear to be able to throw (let alone land) any significant punches. This even seemed obvious to the combatants, both of whom did very little for the first half of the round. Then, without warning, Tua launched an overhand right that clipped Oquendo in the chin. Oquendo was shaken and tried to clutch Tua. Tua had been unable to avoid clinches all night, but now he was throwing. Instead of keeping his hands up, Oquendo was trying to hook Tua's arms. But Tua's left had already begun flying, and it made contact on the point of Oquendo's chin.

Still unable to clinch, Oquendo now backed up a few steps and found his back to the ropes. He slipped another Tua right and then saw another Tua hook headed his way. As he had done many times before, Oquendo leaned back to avoid the punch. Maybe the ropes didn't give him enough room... or maybe he wasn't fast enough... but the punch landed on the jaw and sent his exposed chin flying into the air. How many times have we seen Tua do this to an opponent in the late rounds?

That's gotta hurtUnlike most of his opponents, Oquendo did not fall to the canvas in a heap. Somehow he withstood the blow, and circled out to center ring. But his legs were not well, and when a charging Tua came straight at him, he backed straight up... all the way across the ring into a neutral corner. Oquendo was trapped and hurt. Tua was all over him, unloading with both hands, throwing more punches in these final 10 second than he had in the previous six rounds combined. Oquendo tried to bob and weave around the onslaught. A few of Tua's early blows only grazed him or were blocked on the arms. But after a half dozen attempts, the clean punches started coming. A hook, another hook, a miss and then a massive overhand right. The ref moved closer to the action as Tua landed another hook and another right. The ref was staring at Oquendo and practically between the men when Tua's biggest hook of the night slammed into Oquendo's head. That was enough for the official, who jumped between the fighters and waved the bout off. Because the flurry was so quick and Oquendo was still standing and trying to weave, for a brief moment it seemed like a quick stoppage. But as Tua ran to his corner to celebrate, Oquendo took a few steps forward, unaware of where he was, and began wobbling/dancing in place. He instinctively grabbed the top rope to avoid falling over backwards, and was still in la-la land when trainer Felix Trinidad Sr. finally made it over to him. The stoppage turned out to be 100% correct.

And so once again, David Tua snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. In his corner, Tua was overjoyed. He can now stave off retirement for another day. But the facts remain: Tua looked horrible. Worse than vs. Lennox. Worse than vs. Byrd. Worse than... ever. He was undertrained, slow, unimaginative, and unable to adapt. Oh, and he didn't throw any punches. At the time of the stoppage, one judge agreed with Boxing Chronicle, and had Oquendo sweeping every round. Two others gave Tua only a single round. Given this performance against a fighter as powerless as Oquendo, just who does Tua think he's going to beat?

Well, maybe the answer is Lance Whitaker. If you want to talk about a fighter losing all credibility, you need look no further than Whitaker, who fought on the Tua-Oquendo undercard. Whitaker was fighting on television for the first time since coming to the ring overweight at 274 lbs. and losing to Jameel McCline. This night he weighed in at an untrained 281 and couldn't even beat a 16-3 club fighter that had taken the bout on a week's notice. Did we mention that Whitaker closed ray Austin's right eye early in the second round, and he still couldn't beat him. Couldn't even hit him. Rarely even tried.

In this miserable excuse for a tune-up, Goofi earned his new nickname by putting on a boxing display that would make Mia St. John blush. When a 281 lb. man gets exhausted, as Whitaker did even earlier than Tua, punches become slaps. Actually, slaps is a compliment. They become waves. Whitaker, when he gathered enough energy to throw, lightly tossed his open gloves at his opponent as though he were shoo-ing flies... in slow motion. Oh, sure, occasionally Whitaker would really lay into Austin with heavy blows, but those efforts came only briefly in rounds 8 and 10. If this had been a 12-rounder, Whitaker might have had a heart attack.

In the end, the judges called it a draw. To be fair to Whitaker (who is an incredibly nice guy outside the ring), we actually scored this fight for him by a slim margin. But many rounds were close, and while our cards said Whitaker, our eyes said Austin. One man looked like he knew how to fight and landed clean punches. The other looked like he had a mosquito problem, and badly needed a nap.

At the end of the night, neither Tua nor Whitaker lost... and in today's heavyweight division, that and a little name recognition can make you millions. Both men will fight on, but after these bouts it's clear: neither man will ever become heavyweight champion of the world.

 .....Chris Bushnell
(Please send comments to us at:
BoxingChronicle@aol.com)



BOXING CHRONICLE.COM SCORECARD:

ROUND
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
TOTAL
TUA
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
9
KO
OQUENDO
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10

ROUND
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TOTAL
WHITAKE
10
10
9
9
9
9
10
10
10
10
96
AUSTIN
9
9
10
10
10
10
10
9
9
9
95

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