Tua Returns With KO of Nicholson

No one will ever mistake Danell Nicholson for Lennox Lewis.

But Nicholson was just what David Tua needed to take the first steps on what he hopes will be a comeback trail.

After struggling some in the opening rounds, Tua floored Nicholson with a roundhouse left in the fifth round of Friday night’s International Boxing Federation heavyweight elimination match and then put him away with a short left to the jaw in the sixth at Texas Station.

Referee Joe Cortez watched Nicholson’s head bounce on the canvas, saw the fighter staring up at the ceiling, eyes wide open but seeing nothing, and stopped the fight 34 seconds into the round.

Tua improved to 38-2 with 33 knockouts in his first ring appearance since losing a heavyweight title fight to Lewis last November. Nicholson dropped to 39-4.

“It was just a matter of time,” Tua said. “I want to earn another shot at the heavyweight title.”

Nicholson protested the stoppage, but that only was after he came to his senses and realized where he was.

In a battle of unbeaten heavyweights in the semi-main event, Fres Oquendo improved to 20-0 with 11 knockouts via an eighth-round TKO over Clifford “The Black Rhino” Etienne (19-1).

Using a blistering overhand right to the top of Etienne’s head, Oquendo knocked him down seven times, three in the first, again in the second, third, seventh and eighth. The same punch did the damage each time.