Tua vs Holyfield circa '96-'97?

Very interesting conversation, however fact of the matter is Holyfield fought and beat superior fighters than Tua. Boxing is not all about power, Holyfield has more strings to his bow. Aside from Moorer Ruiz, Tua was behind in all of his highlight fights before he got the ko. Tua ain't outpointing Holyfield or koing him.

What Holyfield may lack in explosive power he makes up with accuracy and great counterpunching abilities .

Also lets not forget, Tua did walk into a ringpost in the final seconds of the Lewis fight.

Tua was never the most feared.fighter, that was always Tyson. I don't want to turn.this. Into a Tua Tyson thread. But Tyson was head and shoulders above Tua

 

If Riddick Bowe can knock out Holyfield then Tua can and most likely will KO Holyfield over the course of a 12 round fight due to Holyfield's come forward style, unlike Lewis, Holyfield wouldn't dance around all night.

Trust me if you ever boxed, you would fear Tua more than Tyson, the difference between the two is that Tyson's mind is easily deterred and you could hurt him and knock him out like Buster Douglas did whereas Tua who's NEVER been knocked out is MUCH more sturdier mentally and physically, as a fighter going against Tua there's NO chance of hurting him or knocking him out, he fought Lennox Lewis with a debilitating rib injury and walked through his punches for over 12 rounds.

 

Riddock Bowe was bigger than Tua, had a longer reach than Tua and was a better boxer than Tua.

Holyfield fought Tyson, Lewis Foreman and Bowe a total of 8 times, he was only ever stopped once and all of the above were better than Tua

 

i have boxed actually and i know Tua would be easier to outbox than Tyson would.

Tysons opposition was levels above Tua

 

You can try to outbox Tua and hope to survive but good luck to you because you will NEED it as 43 professional boxers out of 56 of have found out the hard way that it is NOT easy to outbox or even SURVIVE against David Tua as they ended up slumped over the ropes or laid out in the middle of the ring and out of those 43 professional boxers who were knocked out by Tua 5 were heavyweight champions who held titles and they still got knocked out in brutal fashion.

Also answer this, if Tyson was feared moreso than Tua then why didn't Lewis dance around all night against Tyson like he did against Tua? And by fear I don't mean the media hype and the perception of the fans, I mean as in who was feared moreso by their PEERS. I don't know what you saw but what I saw was Lewis standing inside with Tyson while mauling and brutalizing him and of course he knocked Tyson out which is something Lewis didn't even dare to attempt with Tua, just shows how much Lewis respected and feared Tua.

 

No, he was taller than Tua, that's about it and we're talking about the same Riddick Bowe who almost got killed by Golota a year after knocking out Holyfield.

Weight, not height is the barometer of size and that's why you have WEIGHT divisions, not height divisions. Tua is actually bigger than Bowe if you were measure the CIRCUMFERENCE of the fighters. An in-shape Bowe hovered around 230, only 10 more pounds than an in-shape Tua who hovered around 220 despite Bowe being 7 inches taller. At 5'10 Tua possessed 19 inch arms and 24 inch calves, some of the biggest measurements in heavyweight boxing history regardless of height. And Tua ABSOLUTELY hits MUCH harder than Bowe.

 

And the irony is that Tua is a prime example of that. Look, nobody is hating on Davd Tua, indeed he was a fearsome guy and certainly one of the most dangerous heavyweight punchers in history.
But he IS being hypothetically matched against one of the most competitive and well-rounded heavyweights of all time. It's no disgrace to 'lose' to a fighter of Holyfield's caliber.
This is all in fun anyway...:good

 

I still don't understand the reasoning of the poster who stated that Holyfield would drop Tua when a much larger, stronger, harder hitting Ibeabuchi couldn't do it over 12 rounds of hitting Tua with EVERYTHING he had.

 

I've explained my reasoning twice. But go ahead and accuse everyone who disagrees with you of "never stepping into the ring", continue insulting a beloved all time great like Holyfield, and go on hyping Tua as the second coming, you'll make lots of good friends here like me.

 

Holyfield shutout decision.

 

Sorry but I don't see Holyfield knocking Tua down when Ibeabuchi couldn't, even if Holyfield deliberately headbutts him multiple times like he did against Tyson.

 

He could do it by landing body punches. Tiring him out by making Tua move his feet to do anything. A fatigued fighter can definately hit the canvas and Evander is capable of taking this guy out to deep waters. A quick combo could do the job as well. Most heavies fall in after throwing a right hand or a left hook. Evander keeps his balance and a quick 1 2 could do the job.

But Tua is like Brewster more than anything else. Big chin. 1 punch power in 1 hand throughout the fight. Zero legs. Horrible defense. Never fights smart in fights. Usually underprepares going into fights.

Those are all a big big minus. All he has at his disposal is a left hook to bail him out. That works a lot better against Jeff Wooden and David Izon types than top 5 heavies. He couldn't catch a guy like Byrd and Chris stood in front of him and didn't even have to bother with lateral movement.

 

-Good points.

-The way I see it, is Evander's timing allowed him to drop guys like Mercer, who like Tua was regarded as being made of iron.

-Byrd also hurt Tua to the body.

-The left hook also didn't bail him out against Jeff Wooden. It ended up being a close MD win for Tua.

 

When Holyfield throws that right straight to Tua's body, Tua will retaliate with a left hook to the side of Holyfield's chin, I don't think it's much of a debate as to who's punch will inflict more damage.

As far as tiring Tua out and knocking him out in the later rounds, that has NEVER occurred in 59 professional bouts, if anything it's Tua's opponents who get tired and break down in the later rounds due to the mental pressure and physical damage of fighting against such a dangerous opponent but on the other hand Holyfield has gassed and lost fights due to fatigue numerous times. Matter of fact, early in his career, Holyfield in his fight against Qawi was gassed by ROUND 5! That was a fight where Holyfield almost DIED from fatigue, he lost 15 pounds in that fight and had to be hospitalized for multiple days. Holyfield gassed yet AGAIN in his loss to Michael Moorer who Tua destroyed in a mere 30 seconds.

As far as Tua's defense being horrible, if you actually understood the mechanics of boxing it's not hard to observe that Tua actually has a pretty efficient cross arm shoulder roll defense perfectly suited to his build and style. Again if you actually WATCH and OBSERVE his defense, you will see that he very RARELY gets hit by power punches. Yes Tua has a monster chin but the fact that the man has NEVER been knocked out and knocked down only ONCE in his career is a testament to the efficiency of his defense as well as to the sturdiness of his renowned chin. Whereas Holyfield has been knocked out twice by 2 different and Holyfield has even been knocked down to the canvas by JOHN RUIZ out of all people.

Byrd and who?