All the Tua threads lately (most recently one asking who had a greater legacy tua or ruiz) had me wondering what your opinion on this was. So who has the greater career legacy chris byrd or david tua? (and yes I know they already fought)
Byrd. come on, Byrd actually held belts! He has a long career with multiple defenses. He only lost to 2 men at HW in his prime, Ibeabuchi and W.Klitschko. He beat men who were considerably physically larger then him and he had pillows instead of fists. Chris Byrd may not be a top10 ATG at HW but he's a legend in his own right... Tua is a "should have been but never was".
Completely agree with you. Now that he's retired I fully appreciate what byrd was able to do (didnt feel that way while he was boxing as I was a klitschko fan). Put the question out there more as a way of showing all the recent people that thing tua could beat the klitschko's that he's not all that good.
really , a hard question. these should come to consideration : (1) tua was outpointed by byrd but went the distance (even won for some , maybe i am amongst them)with ibeabuchi who was the first to both beat and stop byrd and at least the first (on paper) loss of tua. (2) tua was yet to be stopped professionally , unlike byrd who was stopped 4 times as a professional and also have more losses than tua. both have faced tremendous level of opposition - byrd's was tougher even than tua's. i guess even the toughest of all currently fighting hw's - even tougher than evander holyfiled's and james toney's. he really fought an all time level of opposition. (3) tua is surely the more capable of decisively winning against his opposition (winning by stoppage) it is a hard call between teo greats , and i think it should be close , wherever it goes.
Byrd at this point in his career is shopworn, he's done all there is to do for a guy like him and made a great career out of it against the odds. Tua on the other hand completely squandered his prime, he's been basically inactive for the last five years. Sure Tua had a hotly contested close fight with Ibeabuchi and still lost, but even though Byrd doesn't have the chin that Tua does he was doing MUCH better on the cards up until the stoppage, had the fight gone the distance he had a very good chance of winning. Guys like W.Klitschko and Ibeabuchi are stylistic nightmares for Byrd while guys like Byrd and Lewis are stylistic impasses for Tua - this has little to do with either of their legacies.
