David Tua did have a great chin however...

Really good post

 

Correct. Tua punked out vs Byrd. Byrd landed a good one, and Tua actually withdrew from the action.
He was risk adverse vs Lewis as well.

You could argue he was pacing himself due to his lack of conditioning, or he just did not risk what he needed to to win.

He came from behind to beat a green Maskeav, but Oleg gassed, which is a reason why Tua came on late.
Known for a good chin, his wasn't often tested based on the way he fought.

Rhaman did floor him and was jobbed into a draw in the re-match in 2003. Tua defeated Rhaman in 1998, but it really should have been a no contest.

IMO, Tua is one of the most overrated boxers on this forum. Yes-- he was a top puncher, but he wasn't a good boxer, and often lacked the will needed to win. Hassim Rhaman should be 2-0 vs Tua.

 

This is all true!

 

He was also knocked down by Hasim Rahman and Monte Barret, if you want to get really picky.

 

And KO'd in one round by Savon in the amateurs when he was 20 I think

 

Great post. Tua played it safe to an extent.

 

He was a week off of 19years old.

 

I find Tua overrated in here for sure.

 

His chin was 2nd tier compared to Chuvalo's IMO.

 

David tua is not overrated at all if anything he is underrated. He had brutal power,iron chin, great stamina and was a very good finisher, tua was much.better than earnie shavers for example... In fact tua would destroy shavers early and brutally.
Guys that got more credit than tua but h2h probably would get killed by him would be:
Ken norton
Jack sharkey
Max schmeling
Rocky marciano
Jess willard
Probably carnera too

 

Sure. Like the young Clay collapsed like a sack of rise against Cooper. What does it tell?

 

Shavers had more heart. When did we ever see Shavers go gun shy? Guy was a warrior. Kill or be killed.

 

That, somehow, comparisons were (and are still) being made between Tyson and Tua remains a mystery to me. There is no realistic comparison. There never was one.

Tua was not a swarmer. He was a half-reasonable pressure-fighter-cum-slugger and could never cover ground the way Tyson did. Nor could he put combinations together like Tyson. Tua had concussive KO power, which he could carry into the late rounds and a chin as solid any heavyweight could want and, for that, he is overrated on these boards.

But this should come as no surprise, because he came onto the scene, as a massively hyped prospect and was dropping opponents left right and center. He was also in some high-drama/action/output bouts, which helped sustain the buzz around him. But, I would say (and I think some others on here might agree with me) that the writing was already on the wall for Tua, as far back as the Izon and Maskaev bouts - both of which showed he could be pushed and that he relied almost exclusively on his power to win a fight.

Nonetheless, at this point, he was still winning and still stopping opponents, until he met Ibeabuchi on his way to world title contention. I think, in this fight, we saw both the best and the worst of Tua over 12 furiously paced rounds. And, despite him gaining much kudos in defeat, it was a setback; how much of one, for him personally, we can't really know. Suffices to say, it would be another three and half years before he got his title shot (which was quite possibly helped by Ibeabuchi being effectively off the scene by then).

During the build up to the Lewis bout, he didn't really improve, at all. Instead, he put on mass, which was apparently intentional, as Tua felt he needed to be bigger to take on a giant like Lewis. In my opinion, this was a huge mistake and placed him somewhere around 20lbs+ above his ideal weight; not that he'd have beaten Lewis, anyway.

Given the above, to suggest Tua "never really risked getting knocked out to get a win, when he was tired, hurt or behind on points" is somewhat of a left-field comment. To give, as example, the idea that in the Lewis bout, Tua "made a conscious and clear choice to not find out if he could be HW champion by risking getting countered" is a big statement. I couldn't subscribe to either of those notions.

Tua was a walking liability when it came to exposing his chin; tired or no; hurt or no; behind or no. The reliance on his power and his chin kept him believing that he could end a fight the winner. Against Lewis, Tua was just simply out of his depth but, quite ironically, given the angle of this thread, it was Lewis playing the cautious game; utilizing his physical advantages to the maximum; fighting off the back foot; jabbing Tua's head off; using the ring; constantly moving (almost always to Tua's right).

Whenever Tua made a leap forward, Lewis just simply leaned backwards and glided out of range, leaving Tua swinging at air and back at square one. If Tua drifted into range; Lewis moved forward to hold and smother him. The early Lewis body attack on Tua was probably quite effective in laying on some movement-stifling hurt and some of the powershots he caught Tua with were very heavy indeed - but Tua kept coming forward; kept leaping at the space Lewis had, only a split-second earlier, occupied.

There's no telling what was going on in Tua's mind, during perhaps his worst career outing. But I would say that one might want a little more evidence than merely Tua not being able to respond to his cornermen's pleas for him to chase Lewis down, before categorically stating that Tua made a “conscious” decision not to risk himself. He already had done and continued doing so, until the very end. Lewis was just too good.