Is David Tua overrated ?

“If you come to war, you have to bring your whole arsenal, not just a left hook and a haircut.” -

- Lennox Lewis on his near-shutout of David Tua, 11/11/2000.

 

Judge his effort and will to win in the fight. It was very poor.

 

Yes. Tough fighter with some pop but very unadaptable.

 

I think I remember reading an argument between Henry Cooper and Joe Bugner. Joe tried to brag about going the distance with Ali while Cooper got stopped twice. Cooper said something to the effect of "Joe, some of us were trying to win" which I find to be a profound statement.

A fighter who isn't giving their all and is cautious is hard to stop, but a fighter doing their absolute best and letting their hands go will always run the risk of getting clipped on the chin. . Having an opponent who is 6'5 240+ lbs is not an excuse for not giving it your all. If he really wanted the title he would have done more.

 

Tua actually put up a good effort early and was winning through the first 4 or 5 rounds. He checked d out after that.

 

Yes - the ‘better with age’ analogy. He was also occasionally talking about himself in the third person, by then, as well.

The comment of his I quoted, however, was one of those few moments in which I think Lewis hit the nail on the head.

To my mind, he had not been too keen on the Tua fight, in the first place. But, this was probably on account of Lewis having been made to fight Tua, already knowing that what we ended up seeing would be the likely outcome.

I don’t think Lewis ever perceived Tua as a challenge.

 

But that wasn't his only shot at glory.

He was also offered title eliminators against Byrd and Rahman.

Perhaps it isn't fair to ask him to beat Lewis, but by god he should have been ready when Lewis started dropping belts!

 

I agree, that Tua should have been more ambitious against Lewis, with the world title on the line. Much more! I don't disagree with you on that point.

What I disagree with is your contention, that because Tua wasn't able to become world champion in his own time - he wouldn't have been able to beat Corbett, because he was able to become champ in his era.

I also disagree with your idea, that it would take an "enormous" assumption to believe the 1990s was a better/stronger era than the 1890s. Yes, yes, I know... we can never prove anything. But would it really be far-fetched to think, that heavyweight boxing had become much stronger over those 100 years?

 

His skills maybe. He relied on his power too much. But Ruiz and Moorer were impressive.

 

By the end of round 5, Tua might have won a round; already looked like he’d been on the wrong end of a fight and had, at no point, looked like he was “winning”.

 

So he was spectacular against Jeff Wooden but sub-par when he KTFO Moorer and Ruiz?

I'm not sure if your brain is working properly.

 

David Tua looked like Mike Tyson compared to Sam Peter.

 

Just for the record I'd bet on Louis to beat Tua, but it comes with the caveat that he fully understands the danger he's going up against and tailors his gameplan accordingly. Tua was fairly beatable if you fought a certain type of fight and had the quality not to get overwhelmed by his occasional bumrushes, but that was often easier said than done given that he could end a fight at any stage if he caught you. It's not a matter of levels here but of styles.

I generally factor in stylistic attributes when determining how well Tua might do in a hypothetical matchup. Anyone who relied on winning fights through toughness and punching power is obviously going to have less success than someone who relied on outboxing and outspeeding opponents, since one plays into Tua's strengths and the other his weaknesses.

Tua showed in his career that he had the ability to both flatten world class fighters and struggle with nobodies, and the common denominator here was the gameplan an opponent chose to use, rather than their overall quality. Wooden and Lennox opted to fight him at range, and Tua was hopeless against both. Moorer tried to trade with him on the inside and was put to sleep inside twenty seconds. Given that, there's no guarantee that anyone beats Tua just because of their career accomplishments, and on the flipside no guarantee Tua knocks out an opponent who tended to fold against big punchers. Tua's the type of fighter that could get outpointed by Carnera then flatline Rocky. That's what anyone who rates fighters by 'levels' fails to understand.

 

That sounds smart, but go watch the fight and look at Lederman's card.