I think Joe would easily out box him but may surprise us with the pinpoint power punching and put Dave down along the way. JJ would have to be wary of the hook of Tua but should dominate in a UD over the slow Tua
Tua may jolt Walcott out of his boxing every once in a while but other than that Joe's funky pivots and lovely hook off the turn would keep Tua guessing and missing. Walcott keeps this simple and he wins in farily one-sided fashion.
Just compare their carreers, Walcott is in top class, Tua was exiting contender for abrief period. Walcott won title, was invilved in classic title fights, Tua had shot against Lewis, came in fat, and dogged it.
Walcott catches Tua repeatedly with counters and wins by KO in the middle rounds. Tua does have a punchers chance *if* he can catch Walcott, but that's all.
I like Jersey Joe but Tua was a very good puncher at his best, maybe great. Tua against Ibeabuchi and prior had a good workrate, an ATG left hook, an ATG chin, and a very under rated shoulder roll defense. Another huge plus was the fact he had tremendous staying power, as in he could hit hard from start to finish. Walcott's weaknessness was his chin, but he was so hard to land on cleanly. He is easily the greater fighter and I rank him in my top 20, but Tua is a bad matchup for him. Walcott would have to avoid Tuaman for the entire duration, which is a hard task against prime Tua. This is 50/50 for me. I can see Tua landing a monster hook and taking him out sometime in the fight, and I can see Walcott winning a wide decison. I'll lean towards Walcott, but he would have to fight for the entire duration and not let his guard down, even for an instant.
MuchMoore how do you like chagaevs chances vs Walcott? About as much as Brian Mintos chances vs Wladimir Klitschko? HA!
Prime Mighty Minto utterly dismantles Wlad, can't say the same for old Ruslan against Walcott. Chagaev is an ok puncher but nothing great.
Unfortunately, I think Chagaev's power is unproven. He hasn't recorded a knockout in years, and the last man he did manage to stop was the journeyman Sprott via 8th round stoppage.
All true. His power is hard to gauge because his best wins (Valuev, Ruiz, Virchis, heck even Skelton) are all over guys who are very, very hard to take out.
I think Tua may of benefitted in some ways from fighting 15 rounders. Of course that would be a MASSIVE disadvantage if he came in fat but look at what he managed when he was in shape. A final round stoppage (When overweight) against Talmadge Griffis with 30 seconds to go. In decent shape, but chubby, a late stoppage against Fres Oquendo after trailing on the cards. 11 and 12th round stoppages against Maskaev and Izon when in great shape. Tua had a very, very low workrate when he was stalking and being outboxed. I feel he'd carry his power into the late rounds of a 15 round fight if he came in in shape and maintained that decent workrate. In close, infighting, he smashed heavyweight punch stats with Ike.