Would David Tua struggle in the heavyweight division today?

He probably struggles against the top five in any era to be honest.

 

Simply because he struggled against top five opponents in his own era?

 

Strange to think that Ike was ranked #4, by the Ring, in 1999. He was just steps away from the big time before being carted off in cuffs.

While both Tua and Byrd recovered well from their respective losses to Ibeabuchi, I do wonder how his continued presence on the scene might have constrained their career paths, going into 2000.

 

Not so sure in this era. He'd most likely be looked upon as the 2nd coming of Mike Tyson with the lack of talent the division has to offer these days.

Edit: Although it is getting better...

 

More because he struggled with people who were not among the top five of his own era.

 

He is an enormous force in any pre-superheavyweight era, just rangy enough and as powerful a puncher as the ring has seen. However, if you are of the correct dimensions, strong as hell and skilled in creating the proper range of engagement, the book has been written on him.

 

I don't buy it.

Byrd handled him well enough, and he was never much more than a light heavyweight.

He consistently came up short, every time he fought a ranked opponent.

I wouldn’t bet a second hand spit bucket on him getting to the top in any era!

 

I think he makes a major impact on the guys from the 20's thru 50's. Tua's biggest enemy was himself. He often lacked dedication and seemed lose a love for the sport pretty quickly. A sharpened focus Tua, such as that existed, would be too much fighter, too much power for a lot of eras.

The best argument against him is that he rarely applied himself 100% to the task.

 

This is a fairly overwhelming argument at world level!

 

Folks seem to be forgiving of Jack Johnson, Max Baer and various others for this indiscretion.

 

That gets easier when somebody is actually toppling fighters rated in the top ten.

Becoming the lineal champion is also a nice tickle!

 

For sure. Would have been interesting how he'd fare at the top of the tree too. Could he have outpaced Tua?

 

Tua was a destroyer but he had physical disadvantage's like height and
reach would mean he would always be vulnerable to over 6'4 fighters
who had skills. Still can't forget his lacklustre effort against Lewis.
Will beat 99 % of today hw but doubtful on the other 1 %.

 

He could be a top echelon fighter, but he would come up short against the elite SHW fighters. People compare Tua to Tyson, sure there are similarities. But they're two completely different fighters. Tyson had elite skill, power, chin and stamina. Tua had the power, chin and stamina so he would always be a decent fighter. But he didn't have the elite skill set and that's what made the difference.

 

That depends on what you mean by "outpaced".

If it's 'workrate' and stamina then, I think at the time that they fought, it was Ibeabuchi, who out-threw and out-landed Tua. (I think their bout set some sort of punch output record, as well)

If it's general speed of movement, I also think Ibeabuchi was learning to cover ground more rapidly and effectively, which led to his TKO of Byrd.

In my view, Ike was the one on the steep learning curve and demonstrating he could actually improve. On the other hand, Tua was Tua; he generally had one mode of fighting, which often relied on his late KO power. I think that, had an Ibeabuchi/Tua rematch happened, Ike would have beaten Tua more convincingly the second time around.

If by "outpaced' you mean generally 'outdone' then I have no doubt that Ibeabuchi would have caused bigger problems than Tua was able to, for just about every top-flight heavyweight around. I think he would have been a serious contender - most likely able to lift a world title; something Tua was not able to achieve.