David Tua - Where'd It All Go Wrong?

Lewis said "bad" haircut, but he should have developed more overall.

 

He had about 8 million reasons not to delay the fight.

 

Was there really no way to get a several week extention? Ali & numerous fighters did this for legitimate reasons.

 

It is also arguable that had a wider screen than the dimension that Tua chose to occupy, and also that they were better at their dimension than was Tua. Or, at the very least, generally more prepared to do what they do.

 

Tua said the injury didn’t matter.

He fought a very disciplined fight for about three or four rounds and then packed it in. I don’t think that was the injury.

 

They were all far more skilled than Tua.

 

He didn’t develop the same defensive and counter punching tools that his short brothers Frazier Marciano and Tyson developed. He was similar in some regards but let himself get out of shape and didn’t have the killer mentality of the other two. He had the power and chin but his mentality was just not up there w the greats.

 

There isn’t an argument I can see that would say any of those men were one dimensional. All could change tempo, aggressiveness, counter punching. They all had different tricks that Tua lacked.

 

Tua had a pretty good career. There's definitely been lesser fighters that have picked up a belt but I don't see him as someone with untapped potential or anything.

 

The only guy in the top 5 today that he’d have a good chance of beating is Whyte.

 

I'll admit to having bought into the romantic notion of him being among the best to not get a belt right up through his inital retirement just under a decade ago:
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/the-david-tuaman-tua-champ-by-40-express.170174/page-25

...but in hindsight I honestly think he milked everything he could from himself. Not a whole lot more could be asked of him in terms of tweaking his style or training regimen. The version of Tua we saw was roughly as good as he was ever going to be. The missing element was basically just dumb luck. Getting the right pins set up in front of him to knock down and then finding yourself in the opposite corner from a knockoutable reigning titlist more than just the once versus an on-form and meticulously careful Lewis. If you're tweaking anything with Tua, it'd be his management.

 

Also, coming up on a year and a half now since @Russell took his ball and went home. Anybody been in touch with him, know how he's doing or why he left? Forum users do come and go but that was quite a long time he spent here, nearly as long as myself.

 

Sometimes a fighter doesn't have that extra gear. Tua didn't have that. As dangerous a puncher as he could be, and as great of potential and heart he showed during the Ibeabuchi fight, he just didn't have the mindset to train to his maximum potential.
He became one dimensional and predictable, his waistline a obvious indication of his lack of dedication to his craft.

 

I'm just not sure that at his most dangerous, in his prime, a few pantsizes lower, he wasn't already somewhat predictable and one-dimensional. And this is coming from a big Tua fan. You're right about "that extra gear". I call it Rocky Juárez Syndrome - and it usually isn't something that can be trained away. Maybe if you get a brilliant coach that finds the right synergy or chemistry or whatever and can form a once in a lifetime bond with a fighter and get through, but..

 

His former trainer Ronnie Shields sums up why Tua always fell short when it counted.

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