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David Tua - Source: Photosport -
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David Tua's comeback has thrilled Kiwis but a highly respected boxing writer says he is not a real contender.
ONE Sport's Craig Stanaway spoke to Thomas Hauser, who is probably the most respected boxing writer in the world with 34 books and a Pulitzer Prize nomination to his name.
And he had some brutal words about where Tua is at.
"Tua was once an elite heavyweight. There is no reason to believe he is anymore".
Hauser is a confidant of boxing legend Muhammad Ali and appeared in the Oscar winning documentary When We Were Kings.
The American says he likes Tua and considers him fun to watch but thinks the Kiwi is far behind the current top heavyweights.
"There's no reason to believe at the present time that he would be a credible challenger to Klitchko....He certainly couldn't beat Vitali and whether he could wack Vladimir on the chin and knock him out? I don't know," Hauser told Stanaway.
Hauser also descibed Tua's current ranking of third in the world as "silly" and says for Tua to get noticed in America again he really has to step up.
"He's not even fighting hasbeens, he's fighting guys who never were and that's a far cry from the David Tua who could knock out guys like John Ruiz and Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev with one punch".
Tua's global promoter Cedric Kushner read the transcript of the interview with Hauser and says he agrees with some aspects.
"I would love (Tua) to be more active and I wish 18 months hadn't gone by without him taking a fight"
Kushner says he tried to get Chris Arreola to New Zealand to fight Tua and offered 100% of the American revenue to promoters but there was no interest.
There is no doubt interest in Tua within New Zealand is at an all time high but Kushner has a tough fight ahead of him to get America interested in the Tuamanator again.
Read the full transcript of the interview here
