Tua in high demand

Lippy Latino Chris Arreola is the latest world class heavyweight to be calling out New Zealand's David Tua.

Arreola, Californian-born but with a Mexican background, has joined former world champ Oliver McCall and Aussie contender Kali Meehan in saying he wants to jump in the ring with Tua.

"We'd be open to fighting Tua, absolutely," Arreola's trainer Henry Ramirez told ESPN as he tries to sort out his fighter's future following the 10th round TKO loss to world champion Vitali Klitschko in Los Angeles in late September.

It was Arreola's first loss in 28 fights and the 28-year-old is keen to get back in the ring quickly with a December 5 gig that he hoped would be against Tua.

The short notice and small budget made that impossible, something confirmed to Sunday News yesterday by Tua's global promoter Cedric Kushner.

"We could have had that fight but for the kind of money they were talking about I never entertained the thought of it," said Kushner.

It might happen further down the line and with 24 knockouts and a clever fight game Arreola is rated a genuine act by most boxing websites, who place him inside their top 10 heavyweights.

Whether he is too dangerous for Tua at this stage of the Kiwi's comeback is a moot point, though Kushner brushed that aside.

"I can say this without equivocation – there is no one he won't fight.

"He has never shied way from anyone at any point of his career and most certainly at this stage of the game he isn't going to walk away from anyone," said Kushner, who is trying to map out a route to another world title fight for Tua.

"If it makes sense, the fight will be made. If it doesn't make sense then the fight won't be made."

Arreola is an emotional character. He had a meltdown in the ring after his fight against Klitschko was stopped two rounds from the end. He had been frustrated by the big Ukranians jab and broke down in tears in his corner when the bout was halted prematurely.

Meanwhile, the calls from the contenders haven't gone unnoticed by Kushner, who is happy to see his fighter stay in the headlines since his second round demolition of fellow Kiwi Shane Cameron.

"I'm delighted they are calling David out. It's the old adage that any kind of publicity is good publicity and there has been no shortage of it here in the States."

But Kushner emphasised he was still preoccupied with first finding a venue and a date for Tua's next fight.

"It's location, date and opponent in that order," Kushner said brushing off New Zealand reports of Tua's opponent being announced today as being premature.

He is targeting January which would give Tua's trainer Roger Bloodworth time to get involved again. And Kushner has Hawaii, Sao Paulo, Berlin and New York as his shortlist.

- © Fairfax NZ News