Tua wouldn’t beat a lot of the guys who Vitali beat. It would may be at all surprising if someone like Adamek or Gomez outboxed him. He’d have zero chance of beating them all in succession. Vitali + a rotator cuff would obviously outclass Byrd and Sanders would knock him out of the ring.
Wouldas don't exist. We're talking about things that actually happened, not fantasy fights in someone's head. Vitali clearly struggled with Byrd in real life, injured himself swinging at air and quit. Didn't want any parts of him after that.
It’s amusing that you brought up things that actually happened and then completely invented that he injured his shoulder from missing a punch.
McCall, maybe; Peter, I don't think so. Peter should've lost to a 38-year-old James Toney and gotten beaten by Eddie Chambers. Tua beat a much better version of Maskaev, absolutely flatlined Rahman, and took John Ruiz out in about 30 seconds. All much better wins and on a better level, the only argument you can make for Peter is that he had Wlad fighting scared and put him down, but that was Wlad's transitionary period from being flawed to being an ATG, then he got smashed in the rematch a few years later. Peter doesn't have any wins of that would rank next to Rahman or a prime Maskaev, I know he beat Maskaev, but he was finished by that point. Tua would've beat Peter, I don't think he'd have beaten McCall.
Maskaev wasn’t finished. He was a champion. He was finished because Peter finished him. Peter was way out of shape for Chambers. Peter roughed up a pretty good version of Wlad. Tua checked out against Lewis. Peter beat Toney twice. Peter was a champion. Tua wasn’t. Peter should be ranked slightly ahead. btw Tua’s best win, against Rahman, was due to a foul.
Toney should've got the nod in the first fight, and the fact he had such a difficult fight against a 38 year old blown up light heavyweight shows he was at least on the same level of Tua. Peter and Tua were both limited, but I just can't see the argument for one being a level above the other, probably on a similar level I think. Peter won a belt because of the geography of the division of the time. Tua knocked out Maskaev and Rahman who both went on to win the same title Peter did, so I think saying Peter is a level above Tua because he was champion doesn't paint the full picture.
Well, Tua won controversially against Rahman and tanked it in the rematch. Peter won controversially against Toney and won conclusively in the rematch. Toney was owning Rahman in the rematch before Rahman found a way out if you watched that. Peter beat Maskaev more easily than Tua did, and yes the title holding version was at least as good as the ten fight version who Tua fought.
Yeah I'd put them all in the same basket together really, not much to separate them in terms of skills at heavyweight. Obviously P4P Toney is streets ahead but he had zero business up at heavyweight at 38. I think it's hard to argue that any of them are conclusively above the other, I only think McCall would beat Tua because of his chin and his style.
Toney actually showed up for the Rahman rematch after fighting Tua. If you’re talking about resumes, it’s close. If you’re talking about who was more of a problem at their best, I think it’s Peter because he was much more difficult to win rounds off of and could be counted on to give a full effort.
Wrong. There were rumors going into the bout about his left shoulder. Not that big of a concern over Ruddock but a different concern against a Chris Byrd.