However, the IBF and the WBO will be after him (so they can get their sanctioning fees) to defend against their No1 rated fighters. For the IBF it is the aforementioned Pulev; for the WBO Russian Denis Boytsov - a strange choice as he has never fought a rated fighter. So Wladimir's schedule is likely to be rather crowded.
Should David Tua lose against Alexander Ustinov it will be a sad career end for one of the nicest men in boxing. It is impossible to reflect on his career without recalling an iconic line from an iconic film delivered by an iconic actor. The film was On the Waterfront, the star was Marlon Brando, as an ex-pug, and the line was - "I coulda been a contender."
Well, Tua "coulda been a champion." In fact he should have been a champion. His story is one of missed opportunities - pugilistic and financial. Title challenges that were there for him were not taken; big-money fights never eventuated.
Since Tua's challenge to Lennox Lewis, and Lewis' subsequent retirement in 2004, the title "heavyweight champion of the world" has become debased because of the plethora of ranking organisations. The WBC, IBF, WBO and WBA have between them recognised no fewer than 13 fighters as "world champion".
Two of those 13 - the Klitschko brothers -Vitali and Wladimir - have dominated the division in the last several years to the extent that they have virtually run out of credible challengers and have had to go looking for them.
But it is instructive - as well as depressing from a Tua, Samoa and New Zealand perspective - to look at the other 11. They are Lamon Brewster, John Ruiz, Evander Holyfield, Shannon Briggs, Chris Byrd, Hasim Rahman, (all United States), Nikolai Valuev and Sultan Ibragamov (Russia), Sergei Liakovich (Belarus), Oleg Maskaev (Uzbekistan), and Samuel Peter (The US via Nigeria).
Four of those fighters Tua has already fought. In March 1996 he sensationally knocked out future WBA champion John Ruiz in under 30 seconds. In April 1997 after a seesaw battle he finally caught up with future WBC champion Oleg Maskaev and stopped him in the 11th round. And in December 1998 he stopped future WBC champion Hasim Rahman by 10th round technical knockout.
In his second fight after the points loss to Lewis (he stopped capable Danell Nicholson in the sixth in his first) he fought former WBO and future WBA champion Chris Byrd in what was a WBA title eliminator. Tua lost on points, Byrd being too slick, quick and evasive.
Tua would have to have been given a better than even chance in title bouts against Ruiz, Maskaev and Rahman. Brewster, Briggs and Liakovich were all hittable fighters, so Tua would have had a good puncher's chance against each of them. Valuev, at seven foot two, might have been too big, and Byrd, Ibragamov and a rapidly ageing Holyfield, too streetwise and clever. But probably only Byrd would have been a certainty against an in-form and in-shape Tua.
It's been a career of missed opportunities - fistic and financial. The American boxing public was crying out for Tua to fight fellow sluggers Mike Tyson, Chris Arreola and Peter - all fights which would have guaranteed huge purses. But they all sank in the sands of prolonged periods of inactivity and managerial disputes.
Yet if an abiding memory of Tua's career is of potential unrealised, there are many good memories, and Tua has much to be proud of. His record of 52 wins (43 by stoppage), two draws and four losses is up with the very best of the heavyweights in the last two decades.
His fight with Ike Ibeabuchi (a narrow points loss) was one of the greatest ever, and still holds the record for the most punches thrown in any fight between two ranked heavyweights. He knocked out future world champions Ruiz, Maskaev and Rahman, and former world champion Michael Moorer.
His legacy will be that he was the best heavyweight of the last two decades not to win a world title.
