African Assassin slugs it out with David Tua

Ghana's Abraham ?The African Assassin? Okine will on Friday, November 3 confront David Tua who will be on his 50th career bout at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. Tua (45-3-1, 39 KOs) is trying to get back into the heavyweight mix and was slated to fight Ross Puritty (30-19-3, 27 KOs), but Puritty suffered a cut to his forehead during training and had to withdraw from the bout. Hence a late substitute was needed to fight the heavy-handed Samoan from Aukland, New Zealand.

Enter Abraham Okine (14-2, 8 KOs). A native of Accra, Ghana, which has produced such stellar talents as former champions Azumah Nelson and Ike Quartey, Okine now fights out of Pittsburgh. Standing at 6-foot-2, The African Assassin had reeled off 14 straight wins without a defeat before two recent setbacks this year, one to Shannon Briggs, who fights Saturday for the WBO heavyweight title against the champ Sergei Liakhovich, and the other against Timo Hoffmann.

Tua was inactive for two years and has won three straight since returning to active duty. And while he has been written off by those who never like his plodding style in the first place, he does have wins against current WBC champion Oleg Maskaev, as well as former champs Michael Moorer, Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz. Tuaman said it was a ?great, great honor to return to New York and fight here,? and thanked his promoter Cedric Kushner for ?believing in me.?

Still suffering the effects of ring rust, Tuaman said, ?I need to get my timing back. It?s going to take some time.? He also said he was ?readjusting his style last minute? to cope with Okine instead of Puritty, ?because we didn?t know who I was fighting.?