Thoughts on Chris Byrd vs David Tua

Monte Barrett is right, Tua has too many excuses for his own shortcomings.

 

If Tua only looked and performed like a weight drained fighter against Byrd, instead of a quick well conditioned brawler who just couldn't figure out a southpaw with head movement.

 

Good thing Tua fired Goosen so he could swell back up to 245 and have a sumo match with a 260 lb Rahman. Better fat than " trained"

 

dealdealdeal

 

Nope. At times I don't know who used more excuses...David Tua or Evander Holyfield.

 

1,200 rounds, what the ****

 

I just watched this one within the past few months and I'm a little surprised by your ruling, there. I thought Byrd was almost always in control of the fight and clearly outpointed Tua. Tua did score some hard shots against Chris's decidedly, uh, not-hard shots and landed good to the body but I didn't think it was enough to take enough rounds for a draw or win. It wasn't quite the high level of a clinic I remembered from Byrd (good reason for the refresher there, I guess) but still had it clear to Byrd.

 

Look Im not trying to make excuses for Tua, he was lazy and really was only effective when he put the right type of work in as he did when he was younger. He was a one dimensional guy with a stellar lefthook, but thats where it ended. The rest of his game was fairly ordinary but in his younger days, his high workrate and somewhat decent speed was able to get him through a lot of fights.
Its typical what you see in lazy fighters, their bodies breakdown from the lack of fitness on their off time with them trying to shed weight during training camps. Tua didnt do anything different on his off time only this time he hired people to make him work extra hard pull more weight off which flat out isnt good for a fighter. Fighters who are active and stay in shape and then add strength and conditioning coaches benefit the most. Fighters like Tua and Bowe for example are only hindered because their bodies are not in the proper shape to maintain that type of fitness for a short period of time.
You saw both Tua and Bowe, (to keep using these examples), get hurt or go down when they hadnt in the past. Tua was hurt by the lightest puncher he ever faced. Golota was no big puncher and he had Bowe falling all over the place.
The fight with Byrd was close, I think a younger quicker more active Tua beats him.

 

Don't bring Holy into this, he had confirmed injuries & heart problems.

Tua on the other hand, was usually a lazy slob after his lucky break in Rahman I.

 

Byrd landed the far cleaner, sharper punches & actually hurt Tua with some to the body, more than Tua ever hurt him. My card I believe was similar to yours though, but with the 12th round awarded to Byrd.

 

Again, no source. Your just a fan making excuses and pretty bold assumptions. By all accounts Tua was taking better care of himself and lost the weight the right way over an extended period of time. Tua's amazing "turnaround" and lifestyle change after Lewis was being covered and documented by every boxing media at the time. Not just Goosen talking **** as you are again claiming with no source.


Just stop with the awful analogies.

We know for a fact Riddick Bowe lost 50 lbs in 8 weeks, and took short cuts in his trianing. He was over 20 lbs lighter than his last fighting weight. And we saw a very lethargic and drained fighter in the ring.

All reports indicited Tua worked hard and ate right in training and didn't take short cuts. We don't know how much he lost but Tua came in just 10 lbs lighter than his usual, and looked fine. He got hurt( well really had a little discomfort) because Byrd was the only fighter that went to his body with some consistency. You are also selling one of Tua's last good performances against a contender very short. Its the best he looked since the Ike fight.

 

Not to mention Holyfield actually exceeded expectations and became a Multi-World Champion and sure Hall of Famer.

Tua on the other hand was a bust who blew mutliple opportunties at snagging or fighting for the World Title and alphabet belts.