On This Day: New Zealand’s “Fight Of The Century” And David Tua’s Last Electrifying KO

Whenever we fight, fans think of two things: a great heavyweight puncher and a heavyweight fighter who should have achieved more than he actually did; plenty of us think of David Tua. It’s been almost 11 years since the powerful (see lethally so), stocky Samoan fought, and it was exactly 15 years ago today when “The Tuaman” scored his last knockout. And what a chilling display of brutal punching it was on this day in 2009.

Dubbed “The Fight of the Century,” the all-Kiwi showdown between Tua and Shane Cameron was a fight that was years in the making, yet was over in a veritable flash when it finally went down. And Cameron, who was 23-1 and had never been stopped, went down hard. Tua had been inactive by the time the fight came – to the tune of two years of idleness. This, and the fact that Cameron was five years the younger man, swayed some fans and some experts into thinking this one might go either way.

Instead, in rock-solid shape, as well as fast and as accurate as he had been when he had flattened good men such as Michael Moorer, Obed Sullivan, and seemingly way, way back at the time of the Cameron fight, John Ruiz (this KO still ranking today as one of the most blood-curdling ever seen), Tua was to roll back the years.

At age 37, Tua had missed the boat as far as ever becoming a world champion, or so the thinking went. After wasted months, and after being heavily outpointed by Lennox Lewis, this as it turned out, Tua’s one and only shot at the world crown, Tua seemed destined to go down as one of the best big men never to have ruled the world. But the ruthless display that saw Tua dismantle Cameron forced plenty of us to have a rethink.

Tua came out blazing, meaning business, and he caught Cameron with some bombs early. Slinging out hurtful sledgehammer hooks with both hands, Tua decked “The Mountain Warrior” twice in the opening session. Cameron never recovered or got into the fight, but he did somehow manage to make it out of the round. But Tua, always a clinical finisher, ended his short night’s work in round two, his fierce attack forcing the third man to call a halt to the fight.

Tua was back for a while. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, Tua was unable to build on his fresh momentum, he laboring to a dull decision win over Friday Ahunanya before being held to a draw by Monte Barrett. Tua was then beaten by Barrett in a return, and he was then bested by Alexander Ustinov, this ending his once oh, so promising, sure thing for world domination career. Through it all, Tua, as blessed with a great chin as he was blessed with cracking power in both hands, was never once stopped.

To many of us, it really is a mystery to why and how Tua could look so lethal and powerful in a fight and then show up listless and comparatively harmless in another. Tua, on this day 15 years ago, seemed to be back on track. Instead, “The Fight of the Century” gave us Tua’s final sizzling KO. Tua’s final record reads 52-5-2(43).

Cameron fought on until 2014, this a year after Tua’s final fight, and interestingly, Cameron scored a nasty KO win over the man Tua couldn’t put a dent in, in Barrett. Cameron then lost three on the spin, with him retiring with a 29-5(22) record.

To this day, Tua’s highlight reel pulls in many viewers, especially on YouTube. Tua really was a special puncher!