Who Was Better - Ron Lyle Or David Tua?

Neither...they both failed when they were tested!!!

 

Tua by quite a margin.

 

I wouldn't call either a failure, their most notable defeats were against highly skilled opponents who they were at least game for and competitive with to some degree respectively.

 

Lyle for both head to head and pound for pound

 

Both lost to underrated defensive fighters of their era Byrd, Young.

Both lost to ATGs in Ali, Lewis.

Both lost in memorable slugfests to Foreman, Ibeabuchi.

Just a few random comparisons off the top of my head.

Overall I would say prime for prime ? I would give the edge to Tua for his granite chin, and his power being dangerous from round 1 to 12. But really there isn't much that separates them for me.

 

I would say that Lyle has the best win between them, and that he was more competitive in his losing efforts.

 

Why? As previous posts have stated, they're quite close in terms of resume. You mean h2h?

 

Both. Lyle beat ONE rated contender. His entire career. And had to get off the canvas to do so. I've always felt he was extremely overrated and quite lucky to face the version of Foreman he did.

 

Lyle's best win is Earnie Shavers.

He was shut out in two fights by Jimmy Young, who was unrated for at least one of their fights.

Tua had three losses before his ill-advised return. He was very competitive in two of them, and made it the distance in all three.

 

I thought Tua deserved the decision over Ike though.

 

For me it's Lyle. Lyle showed up in shape ready to fight. Tua constantly disappointed me except for a few fights.

 

David Tua. Quite clearly.

Tua was an Olympian, Lyle wasn't.

Tua beat Moorer (world champion), Rahman (world champion), Ruiz (WBA champion), Maskaev (WBC champion) ... all by KO.

Lyle beat Ellis (WBA champ) by decision.

Tua fought 20 years and was never stopped. Lyle fought half as long. Tua never got knocked out in two rounds by a nobody like Lynn Ball. Tua was never flattened by anyone like Scott Ledoux.

 

Tua by a significant degree.

Lyle is more known for his losses, and his prison to ring story, than wins.

 

Tua for me and I believe he KOs Lyle if they fought. Having said that I think Tua would also have lost to Quarry, Young, Ali and Foreman.