Prime George Foreman vs prime David Tua

Tua is massively overrated. I see him favored over the likes of Tyson, Foreman, etc. He faced one opponent of their caliber, ONE, and he failed miserably.

 

Exactly.

 

Tuas chances are worse than Tysons vs Foreman because he doesnt have the offense down the middle. Foremans defense negated roundhouse attacks.
He also cant box off the backfoot whatsoever. Most of his career he was too heavyfooted to have any lateral movement at all even to the extent frazier showed in the rematch. Nor was he particularily elusive or sharp enough on the counter.
Tyson vs foreman could go the other way there is an argument atleast but not for tua.
He gets smashed inevitably even if he puts up a good fight. going into a shell wont help him either because foreman wont be content to box to a decision like many tua opponents did.

 

I respect your opinion but I feel if anyone is overrated it's the 70's Foreman who never won a fight by jabbing and boxing, never fought a guy that was as strong as him and never met anyone like Tua stylewise .. Look at the Ike fight and tell me who that Foreman fought like that guy ? To actually compare the 70's Foreman with the skill set of the polished Lennox Lewis developed by Manny Steward ? Not me ... again in my opinion the Foreman that fought Holyfield has a much better shot , with the calm head, the polished jab , the focus than the Foreman that fought Frazier. The 70's Foreman was an incomplete, insanely overrated fighter who was a monster against some styles but highly exposed ( Ali, Lyle, Young) against others ... His style was made for Tua if he stood there, threw slow looping shots and traded with the much faster, just as strong, better conditioned, iron chinned , murderous punching Tua .. it's all styles .. I think the prime Tyson murders him and Ray Mercer would have beaten him as well ..George was made over Frazier but as great as Joe was he was a tiny heavyweight, almost a cruiser, a slow starter and simply not strong enough ... Tua/Tyson/Mercer types are a different match up ..

 

Massively overrated ? It's purely styles here, not all time H2H ranking .. Tua KO'ed an undefeated Ruiz who fought everyone and stood toe to toe the rest of his career .. , He flattened Maskaev, He stood toe to to and threw over 700 punches in a war with an incredible Ike in a fight I've seen a dozen times over and could have went either way .. Foreman didn't throw 700 punches in his first three title bouts .. he beat Rahman, he fought a terrific fight against Chris Byrd, a better Jimmy Young and didn't fall apart mentally or physically ... so he lost to a prime Lewis ? So what, 99.9% of the fighters that ever lived would have .. you know what that Lewis would have done to the 70's Foreman ? Flattened him like he did Golata .. it's all about styles ... so essentially he KO'ed three former champs , fought an all time war with Ike, lost a thin decision to a great and highly underrated Byrd and was decisioned by Lewis .. that's not nothing .. the 70's Foreman is all about crushing a faded Frazier and a weak chinned Norton ... he won because he was so much stronger and in ways bigger than everyone else (Big George Foreman, get it ?) .. At 218 the 70's Foreman was small, not fast, had questionable stamina and a porous defense .. not a great recipe against other styles ..

 

Don't even pretend like Foreman isn't closer to Ike than Lewis, minus the stamina.

 

A few things you fail to mention is Maskaev outboxed Tua fairly comfortably for 11 rounds until he got caught, and Rahman outboxed Tua both times and was on the end of a terrible stoppage in 1st fight, and then Rahman was robbed in the 2nd fight and should've won the decision.

Fought a terrific fight vs Chris Byrd ? He lost 8-4 to Chris Byrd and was outboxed and out fought along the ropes ? Better than Jimmy Young ? Debatable. Byrd was getting gift decisions vs Golota, McCline, Oquendo, during his short title reign.

TBH your hyping up performances vs Maskaev, Rahman, Ruiz. In 3 of those fights vs Maskaev, Rahman, Tua lost about 20 rounds all in all. And Ruiz lost to two Middleweights in RJJ, Toney, and is considered one of the weakest belt holders in history. Give me wins over Norton, Frazier, any day of the week.

 

Foreman exists in a superior class to Tua.

Tua takes too much punishment and succumbs.


Foreman W TKO 6

 

On the other hand, Foreman didn’t win a 12 round fight until a mid nineties robbery, and Tua only lost by decision.

 

Well that's not a really negative is it being able to stop your opponent a majority of the time instead of going the distance.

And getting a gift decision at 45/46 years old is a bit different than getting two gifts over Rahman in your prime losing about 14 rounds all in all in both fights.

 

I can’t really think of any brickhouse, 220+ opponents who Foreman stopped. Lennox Lewis was very complimentary of Tua’s defense too.

In the 70s, Foreman went 0-1 in fights that went 12. Overall, he went 3-4 in fights that went 12 and got stopped once.

I don’t see this as a good match up for Foreman.

 

1 fight idfk

50 fights i got george 26-24

 

Short come forward brawlers have absolutely no chance vs. either version of George Foreman.

You can't even point to any fight in his career where this style was even very competitive against him............in either incarnation.

You can't beat him that way

 

I can’t even point to a fight in which Foreman fought someone like Tua. The closest I’m getting is Tommy Morrison and he lost.

 

we both picked foreman and i agree with every word you wrote.

the 70's version(i think is the overall best), but say tua survives what he would have to to get to the 7th, from there tua's the favorite.

there are few fighters who have enough chin and punch to just go in and busy with foreman, tua might be the guy.