David Tua, in his own words
Three conversations with the heavyweight who came out of South Auckland — and what he says about the gym that made him.
David Tua fought 52 times as a professional, challenged for a world heavyweight title, and threw the most famous left hook this country has produced. He is also the reason a particular kind of gym exists in New Zealand at all — the small, unglamorous, South Auckland sort where the equipment is old and the coaching is not.
Amit Sharma recorded three conversations with him for the Paji Podcast. They are linked in full below, on the channel, rather than reproduced here: what he says is worth hearing in his own voice, and a transcript of a heavyweight talking about his own career is a worse document than the recording of it.
The three conversations
Episode one is the long sit-down. Episode three puts Mark Hunt in the room alongside him — two heavyweights out of the same few streets, one who went to boxing and one who went to mixed martial arts. The short is the one most people send on: why he turned down a career-defining fight because of who was standing in the other corner.
Why this sits on a directory
Sideline lists every boxing gym in New Zealand we can find and takes no money from any of them. What it cannot tell you is what walking into one is actually like. This can. It is the only thing on this site that was not compiled from a map — it was recorded, and it is here because a list of addresses is not the same as a reason to go.
Questions people actually ask
- Where can I watch the David Tua interviews?
- All three are on Amit Sharma's YouTube channel, @AmitSharmaNZ: two full Paji Podcast episodes and one short. Episode one is embedded on this page.
- Is Sideline connected to David Tua or his gym?
- No. The interviews were recorded for the Paji Podcast by Amit Sharma, who also publishes this directory. No club, gym or person featured has paid to appear on Sideline.
