BoxRec

Ike Quartey and David Tua return soon,
Quartey fights this Friday as a middleweight against a low level opponent in Clint McNeil, apparently Quartey has had to get rid of alot of excess weight. how strong he is as a middleweight we will have to weight and see. I can see him being a contender in a weak division.

David Tua returns in March, his opponent is a mid rate Talmadge Griffis , not to bad an opponent after a long lay off, I would say he would also had to shed some weight, he wasn't the hardest trainer when he was at his peak. I don't think it would be long till Tua is put in contention for a major title, He already holds a 16 second win over Ruiz, so that is an obvious match. Again in a weak division at the moment i think Tua stands a real chance of being a title holder.

I think Quartey has left his comeback too late, and I doubt he'll be strong enough to be a force at middleweight.

Tua, sorry, but fat chance. Unless his motivation has changed I can't see him being much of a force, he is too lardy these days and is slower than shit through a funnell, he seemed to lose his desire to train properly a long long time ago.

yeah somewhere around 1997 Tua decided to stop training like a boxer and train like a powerlifter or rugby player...

when he looked sensational bashing Ruiz, Izon, Maskaev and drawing with Ibeabuchi he weighed around 225, after he lucked out against Rahman (again at 225) he had a few fights and 18 months later fought Obed Sullivan weighing a whopping 253 and since then hasnt been below 240....

terrible really..... the guy hits hard but the weight has made him so immobile he just cannot land anymore....

I know people may think Tua aint got a chance in hell of doing anything in the heavyweight division mainly cos he's been out of the ring for 2 years and is a lard arse but that boy Tua has got power and that one punch can change everything, he'll always have a punchers chance and if that chance comes i'm sure he'll take it. I'd actually like Tua to do well (COME ON BOY)

Yes, but you need more than one punch, christ, he got his head jabbed off by a fat version of Rahman.

from what i've read, Tua is getting low on Money, so that may make him train a bit harder. I can see him beating Brewster and Ruiz, i would get him to avoid Byrd who would just make him look bad. Against Klitschko it would be interesting to see how the Ukranian would react when his punches don't have much of an effect, and he gets dragged into the later rounds.

Just one thing Tua is being promoted by Cedric Kushner, i'm not sure if he's signed a multi-fight deal or this is a one fight deal.
I'm not sure how much clout Kushner has on the Heavyweight scene

Would Ruiz ever call out Tua for a rematch to avenge that 19 second loss?

topper123 wrote:from what i've read, Tua is getting low on Money, so that may make him train a bit harder. I can see him beating Brewster and Ruiz, i would get him to avoid Byrd who would just make him look bad. Against Klitschko it would be interesting to see how the Ukranian would react when his punches don't have much of an effect, and he gets dragged into the later rounds.

Just one thing Tua is being promoted by Cedric Kushner, i'm not sure if he's signed a multi-fight deal or this is a one fight deal.
I'm not sure how much clout Kushner has on the Heavyweight scene

If Tua could get into shape, then his chin would make a fight with Vitali interesting, but Vitali is the smarter fighter, and how on earth would Tua make contact with his chin, Tua is only 5'9.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:

topper123 wrote:from what i've read, Tua is getting low on Money, so that may make him train a bit harder. I can see him beating Brewster and Ruiz, i would get him to avoid Byrd who would just make him look bad. Against Klitschko it would be interesting to see how the Ukranian would react when his punches don't have much of an effect, and he gets dragged into the later rounds.

Just one thing Tua is being promoted by Cedric Kushner, i'm not sure if he's signed a multi-fight deal or this is a one fight deal.
I'm not sure how much clout Kushner has on the Heavyweight scene

If Tua could get into shape, then his chin would make a fight with Vitali interesting, but Vitali is the smarter fighter, and how on earth would Tua make contact with his chin, Tua is only 5'9.

By getting into the very best shape that he can, and keep pressure on Vitali for the full 12 rounds, a big ask i know, but i for one would like to see this fight if it happened

Yes, but how is he going to reach his head? Even Lewis had trouble pinpoining him with the jab, and Lewis' reach is longer than Vitalis! Vitali's style of pulling back with the head makes him hard to reach, and sadly for Tua, his body punching isn't his best area.

I really cant see Tua beating Vitali. He is way too slow to close the distance, Vitali could just pepper him with shots the whole night.

Yeah, if a 265 lb Rahman can dance rings round him and jab him all night, I'm pretty sure that Vitali

Who knows, maybe he can motivate himself again, it appears that his troubles legally outside the ring took away his motivation, but he has to get rid of those bitch tits if he's going to have a chance, he needs to come in around 235-240 and be really fit if he's going to have a hope in hell.

He'll be a sucker for the uppercut, and his defence is shit too. Only see it ending one way, with Tua getting stopped on cuts and swellings late in the fight.

I´m looking froward to new Tua-fights but i doubt his fitness.

I don´t give a fornicate on Quartey.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Yes, but how is he going to reach his head? Even Lewis had trouble pinpoining him with the jab, and Lewis' reach is longer than Vitalis! Vitali's style of pulling back with the head makes him hard to reach, and sadly for Tua, his body punching isn't his best area.

i don't think that Vitali has good head movement, and as you say he pulls his head back to avoid punches, this is a flaw in my opinion. Tua would have to develop is right hand , to make Vitali pull his head back then Tua comes through after throwing the right with a left hook.

we all know that Tua has a great chin, so i can see him getting to Vitali in the later rounds. obviously i would say that Vitali trains hard and i would pick Vitali to win on points at the moment. Just have to wait and see what type of shape Tua can get himself into

Geezer, it might be a flaw, but when you're 6'8" you can get away with it. Tua is 5'9" at most, despite what the records say. He's punching at a target which is almost a foot above his own head, almost 2 feet above his shoulders, even a slight movement backward of the head will easily take Vitali out of range.

Vitali might look awkward, but his style is well suited to his physical advantages. The only time it will come unstuck is against a tall fighter with reach who can punch. People are touting Rahman, but I don't see it myself, he's going to ship too many punches, though he does have the power to trouble Vitali, I dont think he has the power to finish him off.

jamesmcdonnell wrote:Geezer, it might be a flaw, but when you're 6'8" you can get away with it. Tua is 5'9" at most, despite what the records say. He's punching at a target which is almost a foot above his own head, almost 2 feet above his shoulders, even a slight movement backward of the head will easily take Vitali out of range.

Vitali might look awkward, but his style is well suited to his physical advantages. The only time it will come unstuck is against a tall fighter with reach who can punch. People are touting Rahman, but I don't see it myself, he's going to ship too many punches, though he does have the power to trouble Vitali, I dont think he has the power to finish him off.

I'd say Rahman would get bashed up like Williams did, he seems to mark up alot,

Yes, he has post injury scarring from a bad car crash years ago, which always seems to open up when he takes big shots.

With Tua's height he can duck under Vitali's punches alot lower than any of the other taller heavyweights though and would more likely hit his body since hes smaller and would have a problem reaching hs head.

I think Quartey can be competitive in a post Hopkins' middleweight (who knows when that will be) even now. Besides Taylor and Trinidad there isn't much in the devision. The fact the Joppy, Yori Boy Campas, Raul Marquez and Sam Soliman are in the upper echoleons of the devision speaks volumes.

I would still like to see Quartey vs Trinidad just to complete the circle of Super Fights. Although it might be in a similar way to me not minding a Lewis vs Moorer fight still occuring.

Is it too late for Tua Tyson, I always thought that had the makings of a hugely exciting match up if not only because of both of their power and unpredictability furthermore nether of them would have been hampered by the useuall difficulties of the other opponents hight.

Max Molyneux wrote:With Tua's height he can duck under Vitali's punches alot lower than any of the other taller heavyweights though and would more likely hit his body since hes smaller and would have a problem reaching hs head.

Yes in theory, except that Tua is hardly the second coming of Joe frazier, his defence was never that good, he always relied on work rate and his chin.

Max Molyneux wrote:With Tua's height he can duck under Vitali's punches alot lower than any of the other taller heavyweights though and would more likely hit his body since hes smaller and would have a problem reaching hs head.

Yes in theory, except that Tua is hardly the second coming of Joe frazier, his defence was never that good, he always relied on work rate and his chin.

The more I think about it the more I think Tua has very little chance against Vitali. Even to land to the body he has to close the distance. I daresay Klitschko at 6'8 is faster on his feet than the fat barrel Tua. Vitali on a late stoppage or points, Tua had a great chin but 2 years out will not have helped him in that department.

No matter how good your chin is, getting cloberred repeatedly by a 250 lb man has a way of neutralising that, vitali throws a LOT of shots, more than Lewis did, even in his prime, and he's pretty accurate against a static target like Tua.

Tua's got up near 350 in his lay-off, from what the guys I know in NZ have said. Not entirely muscle.