George Chuvalo vs David Tua

Both fighters in their physical primes enter this H2H matchup to bang it out in the middle of the ring blasting each other with bombs. The question is, which fighter can take the other fighter's punches better? Who will be the first man to show weakness and take a backwards step? Both of them are renowned for their iron chins but Tua has never been stopped whereas Chuvalo has been stopped twice, the first of which was a courtesy of Joe Frazier who's power is not in the same league as Tua's. With all due respect to the old guys here, Frazier was a small boned heavyweight who succeeded on the strength of his aggression and workrate but in no way did he possess the caliber of brain battering concussive power that the much larger Tua possessed.

I don't think it's very realistic that Chuvalo could or would even try to outbox Tua and stay on the outside. Chuvalo will be standing right in front of Tua the entire fight and he will get bombed on with a hundreds of left hooks, right hooks and overhand rights all courtesy of the murderous punching David Tua. A lot of the old guys and Marciano nuthairhangers here will look at this thread as blasphemy and say "How dare you challenge my childhood hero iron chinned Chuvalo with David Tua?!" But make no mistake about it, Chuvalo was no Superman and Tua has a VERY good chance of knocking out your hero in this H2H matchup due to the fact that he hits MUCH harder, he possesses significantly faster handspeed AND Chuvalo will be going into this match-up without his biggest advantage, his chin, Tua was never stopped in his career whereas Chuvalo was stopped twice. My intention is not to disrespect Chuvalo, I've seen plenty of his fights and he did possess an iron chin and the man was one of the toughest sons of bitches to ever step foot in the ring no doubt and I have great respect for him as a fighter but I don't see him surviving hundreds of bombs from one of the most dangerous punchers in history.

 

What about Johnny Ruiz who was knocked out a grand total of 2 times in 55 Professional Heavyweight Fights in which he fought against hard hitters and great champions whom include Evander Holyfield(3 times), Andrew Golota, Hasim Rahman, Roy Jones and James Toney. If that's not durable then I don't know what is. The first time he was ever knocked out was in his prime against the murderous punching David Tua. The second of which was the last fight of his career while pushing 40 against a much younger David Haye. Trust me, David Tua is one of the hardest hitters of all time and underestimating him is a fatal mistake, this is a lesson the iron chinned John Ruiz learned the hard way. That brutal 19 second destruction of John Ruiz by David Tua was no accident, you can read about it here:

"When New Zealand's David Tua saw Johnny Ruiz's corner treating him with contempt on the March 15 make-or-break night of his 23-fight professional career at the Atlantic City Convention Centre, Dr Jekyll became Mister Hyde. "I just looked at this guy and his handlers and thought that in their minds the fight was over before it started," says Tua. "They were too ****y and I didn't like their attitude, treating me as though I was nothing."

Standing there in his corner, nervous but totally focused, Tua knew he was in the best shape of his life. His eyes bored into the tall, arrogant Ruiz, the World Boxing Council's international champion and winner of 25 of his 27 fights, 17 by knockout. Tua saw not a fighter, or even a man, but an enemy who was "trying to steal my dream away from me and all the things I want to be able to give my family." It is the steadfast love of his family which feeds Tua's boxing ambition, fuels his killer instinct and brings out the beast in him when Jekyll becomes Hyde.

"You have to release that beast," he explains. "Boxing is not a game like rugby, league or soccer. It's for real, not something you play at. I'm a nice guy outside the ring but, in it, I'm the beast, because the bottom line is nice guys come last." Ruiz never had a hope from the moment he walked jauntily into Tua's first explosive left hook which rocked him onto the ropes and subjected him to a brutal barrage. Ruiz was out cold as a frog and on his way down when Tua's last thunderous hook slammed him to the canvas before the referee counted him out.

This time the crowd applauded Tua as they never had before. Ruiz is no patsy, but the real McCoy, a fighter who was seen by many experienced American judges as a genuine future world heavyweight contender, not as highly regarded as Briggs, but a fighter of genuine ability. This wasn't a fight. It was an execution, Mike Tyson style, by a nuggety, 23-year-old New Zealand-domiciled Samoan whose physique bore a remarkable resemblance to the man rated the most feared fighter on the planet. They cheered mightily as they clipped Ruiz's belt around Tua's waist minutes before an ambulance drove the badly-concussed former international champion to hospital, his neck in a brace, his dream shattered.

Hailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, but campaigning out of Chelsea, Massachusetts, Ruiz had been ranked the No. 1 heavyweight amateur in America and No. 6 in the world. He represented the United States against Sweden and Ireland and won on both occasions, picking up the outstanding boxer award each time. Ruiz was also New England and New York Golden Gloves champion and was the Olympic Festival champion, and had a win over Torsten May, a former two-time world amateur champion who won an 1992 Olympic gold medal at Barcelona in a lighter division. Ruiz turned pro in 1992 and started 1995 with an impressive 10-round win over world -ranked Boris Powell, who had won all 23 of his previous fights. Ruiz won three more in England, the third a second-round KO against Derrick Roddy for the WBC International title. Immediately prior to Tua, he returned to the States to notch impressive wins over Willie Jackson and Steve Pannel. Having burst Ruiz's bubble, Tua is at last being taken seriously as a genuine world contender on the night the best young heavyweights paraded their wares. There were some class acts among them. None, however, demonstrated the ferocious, unbridled power of Tua The Terminator."

 

How would you rate Chuvalo's power in comparison to Ibeabuchi's?

 

He was stopped by Foreman in Round 3.