Former Heavyweight boxer David Tua reveals battle with depression

“I went through a depression that I started to think like a serial killer.” So were the thoughts in former heavy weight boxer To’aletai David Tua depressed mind after losing everything – money and assets he earned during his boxing career of which he blamed the people around him which he took to court.

Source: Talamua

Tua was speaking in Apia where he traveled from Auckland, New Zealand to support Marie Grace in concert and her efforts to share their lives stories and experiences to help young Samoans who maybe going through the same problems.

But Tua is now changed focusing on the positive encouraging young Samoans to stay with God and obey their parents.

“It was through the grace of God,” he professed. “I went through very challenging times. As a (professional) boxer, you put your trust in people that you trust will do the right thing. If people kill for a pair of shoes, $20 million dollars is alot of dead people,” he said.

“I went through a depression that I started to think like a serial killer.”

“But then I had to stop as I was thinking who was going to look after my parents? Who is going to look after my son? If I was going to jail, who was going to take care of that?

“But more importantly, I fear God. But then I thought about the bad name Samoa will have. It will not be me alone, it will be my parents name, our family, village and the whole nation will go down.”

The only Samoan and New Zealand heavy weight to have a crack at the world heavy weight title, Tua now spends his energy helping young people and through sports and training gyms, he and his wife are working with partners to open a medical center in one of the training gyms in Auckland to help the community.

While he admires the stellar rise of young boxer Lupesoli’ai Joseph Parker, he has a word of caution as he has been there before especially those around the boxer handling his (financial) affairs.

Asked how he sees the rising ill-disciplined youth and fighting between college students in Samoa, he said children should listen and obey their parents. He said he himself went the way he did because he listened and obeyed his parents.

Tua said the focus and the promotion of the rights of the child is a 50/50 thing that has emphasized the rights of the child at the expense of the rights of the parent.