I ask this question cause many i have read from here and other sites that Tua beat nobody really good well he became the first man to tko Rahman. He became the first man to tko Maskaev. He became the first man to tko Ruiz ( ko him in 10 seconds in the first round). He became the first man to tko Oquendo in which Oquendo was undefeated. And Tua went toe2toe vs vs dangerous power puncher Ike in which i thought and some thought Tua won that fight. Imo if Tua weigh in under 230 pounds, he would have give Lewis a better fight.
Well its these results that had everyone excited about David..and perhaps if anything they overrated him because of that. Some good wins there though..not just that he beat them but how he beat them aswell. He also obliterated Moorer too.
I thought Moorer was a done fighter when David ko him but it was a dangerous ko in which Tua did with a straight right hand instead of his money punch the left hook.
He was not peak thats for sure...but he was on somewhat of a comeback trail. They were saying how much fitter he was for this fight and how he wanted to make a run for a title. MM did come back to stop Jirov not long after. Maybe not a done fighter...but yeah probably not all that a notable win for David actually.
Looked like a right hook to me anyway Tua had some really good wins I'll always like him for knocking out Ruiz and the war with Ike.
He was not done but past his prime. Still the W is very impressive with him getting it in under 30 seconds.
Maybe "done" was not a good way to say it but it did show one thing that Tua can ko a fighter with his left hook or the straight right hand or right hook when he landed.
At first I though of that as a joke but looking back Tua was Ruiz's first solid opponet and he got flattened so that could be im not willing to do the research to see if Ruiz was a grappler before hand though.
I havent seen much of pre-Tua Ruiz..I cant say he is a fighter I would care to much looking into. But in the highlights I saw of I think it was the Tucker fight..He looked a lot more aggressive and free flowing with his punches He was just really an average heavy..and didnt possess the skills or athleticism to really go places..so they developed a style that could see him punch above his weight so to speak. With a little help from Don, the rest is history. Im not sure how much of that style was in an early Ruiz..but Id say Tua had a lot to do with the latest incarnation.
i think so and i think ruiz has as much as admitted it before. tua's resume is very good for the era. he fought a lot of top 10 guys, many of whom would go on to bigger things (ruiz) and some that were a big deal at one time (moorer). tua knocked out one future world champion (rahman), one former champion (moorer), two future titlests (maskaev, ruiz), and then a slew of decent contenders like oquendo and sullivan. people remember his weight, and loses, but he really was something back in the day. he'd never beat lewis but he could have been valdez to his monzon and been the number 2 man of the era with some more luck and a lot more discipline.
Actually I just had a look and the tucker fight was after Tua...Plus I doubt I could have really got a gauge for his grappling from a highlights package...They would be doing the best they can do edit that out.
You know what suck about this is when Tua ko Ruiz it was in early 1996 the same year that Tyson was the man in the heavyweight division. It sucks that Don King was scared to put Tyson in the ring with the dangerous ko power of Tua. Tua have said he wanted to fight Tyson back in 96 but Tyson team would ignored it.
You're quite right, man. David Tua was a better than decent heavyweight (especially in light of his huge height disadvantage) who just didn't keep his weight at an optimal level. He would have performed better against LL if he had been a bit lighter (quicker). He is underrated on ESB because the site is well populated by morons. Considering how many cherry pickers (guys who never had the balls to face great fighters in their prime or waited the greats were in their 40s before they could gather the courage) or fairly timid extra-large heavyweights are so well considered on ESB it is less than surprising that a tough guy like Tua isn't more respected.
Maskaev got STARCHED by McCall long before Tua ever faced him. How high you rate Tua is almost entirely dependent on how highly you rate Ibeabuchi, who he fought pretty even with. He beat a green Maskaev. He beat Ruiz before Ruiz adopted his winning stlye. The only really good wins of his career were against Rahman, and he lost numerous times when he stepped up. He had a good resume, but not a great one. The claims that he's the best ever not to win a title are ridiculous though.