David Tua - Where'd It All Go Wrong?

Tua has rare late clutch knockout power few in history have. I dont think people empasize this point enough. Guys like Rocky Marciano, Joe Louis, even Mike Weaver, david tua are rare breeds.

I think it went wrong when many of the alpha champs refused to give him shot at titles. he would have knocked many of them out.

 

Exactly. But due to him not fighting frequently he slid down the rankings and the champs had an excuse to not give him a title shot. Even if he fought against mostly fringe contenders but fairly frequently he would be given a shot because hes a big draw and would be a mandatory contender.

 

Went wrong when he made a left at Burger King ........

 

It all went wrong when Tua let his weight go off the scale and he had no conditioning left to be able sustain any kind of concerted attacks late in fights.

 

It's one thing to be oversized and limited (Shannon Briggs is obviously an easy example, but another one could be Danny Williams) but still make a good career of it. I'm sure that, when he retires, Briggs will look back on his days in boxing fondly.

HOWEVER, to be oversized, limited AND inactive is a recipe for nothingness. I also don't think Tua ever had the proper management that he needed, which is why he was often in bizarre fights, whether it was facing too weak opposition or too strong opposition, almost always at inappropriate periods in his career.

 

Tua's commitment clearly took a dive after stumbling upon defeat.

It was his fighting personality, but he started to 'plod', as people have put, after he seemed contempt with the short bursts of effort to make things happen with his favored arm.

Tua was as powerful and tough as anybody, but did not develop enough from his 220lbs days into the effective swarming/slugger he needed to be - a result of set backs and training habits - squat heavyweights need very good trainers to blossum.

 

And verry good training habits.

 

The Ibeabuchi fight seemed to take a toll on Tua. Not sure whether it was purely psychological or also physical.

 

Getting hit in the face by giants for a living sucks., especially when you hold only one overwhelming advantage and everyone knows what it is. 12 rounds with Ibeabuchi especially dampened the flame. Management didnt exploit him while he was hot. He was not designed to have a long career in the division.

 

He was just always far too one dimensional, he was always gonna be exposed at the highest level.

 

With decent management he could easily have gotten a alphabet belt.
I mean John Ruiz got a never ending string of WBA belts.
Tua had one championship fight.

 

Look , Tua o'ed Michael Moorer and John Ruiz, two world champs in about a minute combined so he absolutely could have become champion .. he just happened to fight the best fighter of the 90's in his prime in Lennox Lewis who also happened to offer the hardest stylistic match up for Tua who could be outboxed by a giant with a terrific jab .. I also think Tua would have had a terrific shot at beating the faded Holyfield of the 1999 - 2001 vintage .. he also beat (say what you will ) Rachman , another champion .. as far as Briggs he would have flattened Shannon as well ..

 

His forum resume is on par with the best of them!

 

Marciano, Frazier, and Tyson arguably were also one-dimensional though, and they all enjoyed great careers...

 

He also had power late, & excellent endurance. He participated in a couple of the highest punch output HW fights earlier in his career.
His hands were neither slow nor fast.
He gained too much weight, but he had a very big frame.
It is just that nobody at a max. of 5'10" is likely to be best at 240 lbs.
But he could have been much better in the mid 220's.

It was said he had a serratus (side of the ribs) injury against Lewis. If not just an excuse, he was a fool to not delay the fight if he could not fight effectively.

If he had greater motivation & dedication to training & strategy he would have swarmed more effectively & the big punch & chin would have been the back up. He would have had a title.