By Keith Idec

David Tua hasn’t participated in what would be considered a relevant heavyweight fight in the seven years since he drew with Hasim Rahman in their rematch.

Tua’s dubious streak won’t end tonight.

One of the hardest-hitting heavyweights in boxing will continue his snail-like crawl toward another title shot by boxing a shopworn Monte Barrett at Tropicana Resort & Casino in Atlantic City. The 12-round heavyweight fight for two regional titles will be televised as the main event of a four-fight pay-per-view show ($24.95; 8 p.m. EDT) largely because there wasn’t a cable executive interested in broadcasting what clearly is a mismatch at this point.

A Tua-Barrett bout would’ve been worth watching 10 years ago, but now it’s mostly designed for the 37-year-old Tua (51-3-1, 43 KOs) to continue his nine-fight winning streak.

The 39-year-old Barrett (34-9, 20 KOs) has lost his last three fights, two of which were brutal knockout losses to WBA champion David Haye (24-1, 22 KOs) and unbeaten Cuban Odlanier Solis (16-0, 12 KOs), and is 3-6 since August 2005. Barrett looked particularly terrible during his one-sided defeat to Solis on Oct. 10 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

The Queens, N.Y., native has since gone the distance with undefeated Russian prospect Alexander Ustinov (21-0, 16 KOs), who beat Barrett by unanimous decision in their 12-round fight Dec. 12 in Berne, Switzerland. But he is roughly a 14-1 underdog against Tua, who views this fight as a necessary exercise to fight for a world title again.

“I believe everything happens for a reason,” Tua said, before referring to a lawsuit against former manager/trainer Kevin Barry that stalled his career. “I look at my time away from the sport, not by choice, when I was able to be with my wife and boys, and I also got a good rest. I’ve been blessed. I’m luck to still be fighting at this level.

“I’ve come back and gotten to this point in my career. At this stage of my life, I just want another world title shot. To have that chance, I need to take care of business [tonight] against Barrett.”

Tua’s uninspired performance in his first title fight, a lopsided points loss to Lennox Lewis in November 2000, set him back more than Tua ever could’ve imagined.

The Samoan-born slugger figured he would’ve received a second shot long ago. Who could blame him? After all, Jameel McCline got four heavyweight title shots in less than five years since Lewis beat Tua.

The 5-foot-10 Tua, who weighed in at 237½ pounds Friday, has instead toiled mostly in anonymity since the Lewis loss. The likeable, polite Tua had four fights televised either by HBO or Showtime in the subsequent 2½ years, but he hasn’t appeared on premium cable since he settled for a draw against Rahman in relatively boring bout in March 2003 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

Perhaps his biggest win since the Rahman rematch came on Oct. 3, when Tua knocked out New Zealand rival Shane Cameron (24-2, 20 KOs) in the second round in Hamilton, New Zealand. Tua’s handlers think wins such as those might’ve done more harm than good, especially since they’ve noticed that he is less reliant on his lethal left hook as he was when he challenged Lewis.

“David is a more confident fighter today,” said Roger Bloodworth, Tua’s trainer. “He’s a very experienced fighter who is now moving a lot defensively and is no long a one-handed fighter. He still has that one big hand, but he’s punching well with both hands and, surprisingly, even throwing a good jab.”

Though there seems to be little reason for either Wladimir Klitschko (54-3, 48 KOs) or Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KOs) to avoid Tua, especially given the way he performed against a tall, skilled champion like Lewis, Bloodworth believes Tua won’t get another title shot until he becomes someone’s mandatory challenger.

“The heavyweight division is wide open, but at the same time, closed,” said Bloodworth, who considers Tua a “young 37” because he hasn’t fought in many wars. “There are top contenders like David, but these champions seem to pick and choose their opponents. We’d love to fight Haye or the Klitschkos. The Klitschko brothers are both big and have talent, but they also have Achilles’ heals, and David can take advantage of that. [Their promoters] all have [Tua promoter Cedric Kushner’s] phone number, but nobody’s called. The only way to get a world title shot, it seems, is to become the mandatory challenger.”

Tua is the WBO’s No. 2 contender and could become the Puerto Rico-based sanctioning organization’s No. 1 contender if he beats Barrett because Russia’s Alexander Povetkin is currently the WBO’s No. 1 contender. Povetkin (19-0, 14 KOs), also the IBF’s No. 1 contender, is scheduled to challenge Klitschko on Sept. 11 in Frankfurt, Germany.

“In any sport, including boxing, the goal is to compete for a world title,” said Tua, who is not ranked in the top 15 by the IBF, the WBA or the WBC. “My one chance didn’t go my way, but I still consider that the highlight of my career to date. I have a goal, and that’s to fight for the world title again. I’m not going to be fighting forever. I figure I have two to three good years left. I would be satisfied to reach my goal and say I did it. After that, I can finish on my own terms. That would be sweet.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com.