By Johnny Walker
One thing that was striking about the two excellent heavyweight fights in 2010 and 2011 between New Zealand’s David “Tuamanator” Tua and American Monte “Two Gunz” Barrett was the total respect the two men showed to one another both before and after each contest.
But now, Tua has changed the game up by angrily accusing Barrett of using performance enhancing drugs before their second bout, held last August in New Zealand. In that fight, Barrett rose from a brutal, jaw-breaking Tua knockdown punch in the last round to claim a unanimous points win.
With the win, Barrett took home the WBO Asia Pacific and Oriental heavyweight belts.
Reports out of New Zealand today say that Tua is accusing Barrett of failing a urine test, with the drug methylhexaneamine, a stimulant that was added to the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list in 2009, being found in the American’s system.
An angry Tua is quoted in the New Zealand publication Truth Weekender saying, “Monte came to New Zealand telling everyone how hard he had worked to get into the best possible shape for the fight. Now we know he is just a drugs cheat.
“He has fooled everyone and cheated me out of an honest result.
“There’s only way one way to put this behind us. He needs to come back to New Zealand and step into the ring with me again. I’ll make sure he needs some drugs by the end of the fight.”
For his part, Barrett is just as angry about Tua’s contention that he is a cheater, and he fired back at the Tuamanator today in an interview with Boxing Insider.
Barrett is suspicious about the timing of this drug test revelation, coming three months after the fight in question took place. He says he has lost sleep over Tua’s besmirching of his professional reputation.
Barrett admits to using the workout supplement 1.M.R., a nitric oxide powder sold over the counter at GNC, but says he was unaware that it contained any banned ingredients. He also says he was using the supplement when he fought Charles Davis to a lethargic draw in January of this year, and did a drug test then that came up negative.
“If I would have failed a [urine] test, they would have never let me leave out of New Zealand with those belts,” says Barrett.
“I’ve never been a cheater,” says Barrett. “I bust my butt. I sparred 125 rounds; I ran countless miles; I trained countless hours; I put so much work in,” Barrett says of the fight in question. “I busted Tua’s butt fair and square: that’s the bottom line.”
Barrett claims that a broke and desperate Tua is at the end of his career and is trying to distract attention from his own shortcomings. “Tua’s whole career has been excuses. He has never lived up to his potential that New Zealand thought he would be,” says “Two Gunz.”
“He never was world champion. He never really fought the fight that put him over the top. And it’s not because of nobody else, it’s not because of drugs or his opponents – it’s because of him. He’s a lazy ass. He’s a lazy ass fighter, and he doesn’t apply himself and he doesn’t train hard.
“If he want me to, I’ll move to New Zealand, train there for the whole time, and he can watch me eat, watch me train, watch the supplements I take, and I’m still gonna bust him down,” says the angry Barrett.
“Tua is an emotional queen. He’s the Queen of New Zealand.”
