STUFF.co.nz - Respected Fiji-born Australian Kali Meehan has put his hand up to fight David Tua, and his No 3 ranking with the WBA might be a temptation as New Zealand's comeback heavyweight looks to manoeuvre his way back up the various ladders.
Tua's hopes of a rematch with Hasim Rahman in Auckland in December look doubtful. It seems on the back of Tua's devastating knockout win over Shame Cameron last weekend, Rahman might be running scared.
In the immediate aftermath to Tua's win, reports out of America suggest the inactive Rahman is now looking at a November bout with 48-year-old Ray Mercer, a former WBO heavyweight champion, in New York.
Original plans for last weekend's promotion at Mystery Creek were for Rahman and Meehan to fight on the undercard.
It was to be an eliminator with the winner of that bout fighting the winner of the Tua-Cameron clash.
It never eventuated because Rahman priced himself out of the market, leaving Meehan idle. But the issue continues to simmer.
"We must work out who the big fish in this pond is," Meehan said of the Australasian heavyweight scene in an interview with American website fightnews.com
It's a question of whether Tua wants another tune-up fight or wants a bigger name.
At 39 Meehan has been around. He has been ranked by the IBF and WBC and was the WBA No 1 contender behind champion Nicolay Valueav, the massive Russian, before dropping to No 3.
That ranking will be something of a lure for Tua. Having demolished Cameron, the WBO No 7, in such emphatic fashion, a win over the rated Meehan would get Tua moving in other rankings in the alphabet soup of organisations that shape boxing's global organisations.
Meehan has fought 38 times in a professional career that started in 1997, winning 35 with 29 knockouts.
