Tua's legal fees could likely to cost him millions

BY STEVE KILGALLON

Last updated 05:00 27/09/2009

JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post

FAMILY SADNESS: David Tua has lost an aunt in today's tsunami in Western Samoa.

Relevant offers

David Tua will earn $500,000 when he steps into the ring with Shane Cameron on Saturday for their heavyweight boxing bout in Hamilton but he's set to lose out on many more millions of dollars.

His former manager Martin Pugh has revealed that $5 million in past Tua earnings, frozen in a high court account due to their long-running legal dispute, may now be entirely eaten up by ballooning legal fees.

And Tua's current promoters, Cedric Kushner and David Higgins, say Tua could lose out on another $1m in fight purses after Maori TV boss Jim Mather told the Sunday Star-Times he would "not compromise" on a three-fight, $50,000 per fight broadcast deal with his channel that Kushner and Higgins claimed would prevent Tua from picking up any more big fights.

"Based on what I know David Tua could net for his next three fights, if the Maori TV deal is enforced, it could cost David at least $1 million," Higgins said.

The Star-Times has learned that Tua is still suffering financially from the ravages of his long court battle with Pugh and his former trainer, Kevin Barry, and recently had to step in financially to save his parents' house from being repossessed by the bank.

But Pugh's admission may dash Tua's hopes that one day he might reclaim some of his old fight earnings.

Many people assume the court case, which began back in 2005, was long over but Pugh said it may not be settled until 2011. And he said that the disputed $5m could be consumed by the lawyers.

"I feel sorry for him," Pugh told the Star-Times. "He should be fighting to make money he's lost all his money to these lawyers. It's my belief David's legal fees are now around $4.2m. He has already articulated in many news articles that he's going to get nothing from this."

Pugh said he had a December 2007 memo recording Tua's legal fees at $3.8m and estimated they had grown since, while putting his own bills at "one-eighth" of Tua's.

In another blow for Tua, Kushner said a "done deal" for Tua to fight a rematch with former world champion Hasim Rahman in Auckland on December 13 had been scuttled by the broadcast deal with Maori Television. Kushner said the deal also "destroyed" any chance of promoting a big fight with Tua in the US.

Mather said Maori TV, having stepped aside from its old contract with Tua to allow the fight against Cameron to be screened on Sky pay-per-view, would not rip up the new deal.

Ad Feedback

In another development, millionaire businessman Sir Bob Jones has advised Kushner and Higgins to challenge that contract in court, claiming it is "outrageous" that a channel established to promote Maori culture could instead promote a Samoan boxer, a claim Mather said was "disingenuous".

The deal gives Tua a $35,000 sign-on fee, $50,000 a fight and 75-100% of advertising sales over $100,000. But Kushner and Higgins say a pay-per-view deal for Tua could be worth 10 times that and they cannot promote big fights on Maori TV.

"It simply wouldn't work," Kushner said. "How do you pay a top-five contender on a TV rights fee of $50,000? Are you going to charge $3000 a ticket at the gate to make up the difference?"

Higgins said Mather was denying Tua "the right to feed his family" and the contract "grossly undervalues" Tua.

Whether it's Tua or Cameron who wins at Mystery Creek on Saturday, the two are unlikely to meet again in the ring, Higgins confirming there is no re-match clause in the fight contract and Cameron's manager Ken Reinsfield saying it's unlikely the winner, whoever it is, would see any value in a re-match.

And one of the night's undercard fights is in doubt, with WBO Asia-Pacific light-heavy champion Soulan Pownceby likely to withdraw from his meeting with former kickboxing champion Shane Chapman after suffering whiplash in a car crash last week.

- © Fairfax NZ News