David Tua took care of Michael Moorer in thirty seconds
On August 17, 2002, Heavyweight knockout artist David Tua added another one to his career as he destroyed former heavyweight titleholder Michael Moorer in the time you would see a television commercial.
That’s right, in thirty seconds the aptly nicknamed “Tuamanator” took care of the two-time titleholder Moorer at the Drumpf Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
The irony of this HBO “Boxing After Dark” broadcast questioned the distance it would go began even before the bell rang. Commentator Larry Merchant asked Emanuel Steward, “Emanuel, is it possible for heavyweights to give us a (Arturo) Gatti versus (Micky) Ward or a (Erik) Morales versus (Marco Antonio) Barerra or do they hit too hard?” Steward answered back, “Yeah. It could happen.”
For this fight, Merchant gave us all the heads up not to blink.
As soon as the bell rang, Tua took the fight to Moorer and had him up against the ropes early on. Blow by Blow man Jim Lampley was stating how it could become a chess match if Moorer went for an extended period with Tua. At that moment, Tua landed two body shots and a sickening right hook that sent Moorer on his back and out the ring. From that moment, the next thing you saw was the ringside physician attending to Moorer, and this one was over officially at thirty seconds in the first round.
Moorer said after the loss, ‘I got hit with some looping punches that I couldn’t do anything about.”
Both Tua and Moorer were both Houston natives and met at the same gym back in 1992. That friendship didn’t extend once the bell rang as Tua said after the bout, ”The knockout was there, so I took advantage of it.”
Moorer took some time off after this one and would continue to box primarily in Florida on shows before he retired n 2008.
Tua for his career, still goes down in history as one of the best heavyweights to never capture a world title. The only opportunity Tua would have a shot to achieve that was a loss to the hands of Lennox Lewis a few years prior in 2000. For his career and after several comebacks, Tua finally hung up the gloves in 2013 with a record of 52-5-2 with 43 knockouts.
Check out below, if you have a minute, literally, to see Tua wipe out Moorer back in 2002
Marquis Johns is a unknown humorist and avid boxing fan. His love for the sweet science goes back to when matches were 15 rounds and has been covering fights since closed-circuit pay-per-views. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth is not only a quote by Mike Tyson, it's also a pretty good reminder to keep your guard up.
