Boxing: 'It hurts' says Kevin Barry of rift with David Tua

8.30am

The sacked trainer of heavyweight boxer David Tua said today he feels hurt but he is not sure yet whether their relationship is finished.

Kevin Barry arrived back in Auckland today in an effort to sort out the rift between himself and Tua.

"I have given it 100 per cent and I think I have done a pretty good job," Barry said on his arrival at Auckland airport early today.

"The news is hurtful."

Barry said he still held out hope that he and Tua could patch up their relationship.

"I've been a mother figure, I've been a father figure. David has said many times, 'My relationship with Kevin Barry is like a marriage'," Barry said.

"Well that marriage is going through a rocky state at the moment. I don't know if it's divorce yet, but we'll see."

Before he left his Las Vegas base to fly back to New Zealand, Barry said he had managed Tua and had helped him become one of the world's top heavyweight boxers.

He said he marketed and promoted him to the New Zealand public and refined him to become one of the most recognisable names in the country.

Tua announced the rift earlier this week but did not give a reason.

However, rumours swept rough the boxing world that American promoter Don King was involved.

Barry said he would do anything to protect Tua and the partnership they shared.

He said he was asked by Tua to take over as his trainer in 2001. It was a position he never aspired to and the physical toll it took, on his body was "painfully damaging".

Yesterday Barry said in a statement that although he would not be training Tua any more, he still had a management contract.

"I will still work to the best of my ability to guide and manage his career," Barry said.

Barry, who won an Olympic silver medal in Los Angeles in 1984 but never fought professionally, said Tua was nearing the end of his career, with two or three years left and maybe five more training camps.

"For David to do that he has to have that burning desire."

Barry said he had been organising Tua's next fight and was mystified over the reasons for the rift.

Although Tua said on Wednesday that he had ended his relationship a week ago, Barry said today that if that was the case Tua's World Boxing Association title fight against American Hasim Rahman on December 13 would be in doubt.

That bout had been arranged for Atlantic City just 48 hours before Tua dropped his bombshell that he had split from Barry.

"If I hadn't carried on I don't think we'd be having a title fight on December 13. These things don't just automatically appear out of the sky," Barry said.

He said it was too late for Tua to take a different path in his boxing career.

"Unfortunately in business, and which is always the case in the boxing business, money plays a very big part in it," Barry said.

"David is the godfather of my two twin boys. They love David Tua. My boys are eight my daughter's 10 and they are scratching their head...'Doesn't David love us any more?' this sort of thing," Barry said.

- NZPA