Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams (1959) vs Ike "The President" Ibeabuchi (1997)

I agree, Williams wasn't that special. He could be outboxed or KTFO by a lot of HWs.

 

I've never read that Williams sparred with Foreman it isnt mentioned in Foremans autobiography.Williams never fought Folley.
Williams was arrested on suscpicion of drink driving during questioning he struck the arresting officer.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...FUaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iycEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5058,6536612

 

Satterfield was a middleweight when Lamotta beat him, he was 3 lbs the lighter man. Wiliams was barely 200lbs when he fought Satterfield and he was 20 years old and a late sub.Nothing remarkable about that.

 

I think at 31-1 with a win over the one guy who beat him, age, reach, height and weight advantage WIlliams was proberbly matched to win in that fight.

 

George Chuvalo was more than four years younger than Williams. He was in no way "around the same age".

Sylvester Jones made a great start but was being chased around the ring by the fourth round when the bout was bizarrely cut short because the promoters wanted to get on with the main event. In the rematch a few months later the same thing happened but without the premature end - Jones took an early lead, only to be flattened in the seventh.

The twenty year old Williams stepped in at two days' notice to face the vastly more experienced, notoriously dangerous Satterfield, who was a clear betting favourite. Williams' own manager admitted they were taking a big risk with this step up in class, particularly since Williams had done no sparring since beating Jones two weeks earlier.

Of course, one of the marks of a really good fighter is people have to scratch around in his very early or very late career for signs of weakness.

 

Good inside info that hopefully will put to rest the idea that Williams was "matched to win," in this fight.

 

I have no info on this matchup but fun fact: my barber is Big Cat's son lol. Had the fight poster from the ali bout in the shop.

 

You said it! Ike to KO the Big Cat inside 4 rounds.

 

I did not know the Jones v Williams fight was cut short but you neglect to mention the two knockdowns inexperienced 7-3 Jones inflicted on 29-0 Big Cat. I think that is more relevent than the fight being cut short but thanks for the info.

I imagine the Satterfeild fight was a big risk but when you have a 31-1 prospect you cant protect them forever. That's more fights than ingo Johannson had before he challenged for a title. It is an awful lot of learning fights.

I am not so much scraping around the early and late career of Williams to find fault, I already mentioned his draw with Machen, the win over Miteff and the stoppage of young Terrell in the middle of his prime. I could (if I wanted to find fault) mention that during his prime Williams could not stop average guys others knocked out, ran out on a Dick Richardson rematch because he could not find his lucky shorts, that miteff was losing a lot of fights when he beat him and that poor Eddie Machen was going through a nervous breakdown around the time of his impressive draw with an elite fighter ingo and Frazier knocked out.

Williams in all fairness was a good fighter at a level. Big, game and powerfully up to a level. A good win was over Curley Lee who was a decent prospect. Williams ruined him. Sadly Lee became a deranged killer who drowned his children in a tub after battering his wife with a lead pipe.

 

Ibeabuchi wins on K.O. - No problem.

 

I like the little write-ups you do for each of these matchups. Good stuff. :good

 

both were big and strong,williams was a bit taller and longer.plus he was faster.
ike was roided,he would probably win,but it would be more interesting if you gave some ike's juice to williams

 

Dude is Nigerian, no juice required to have the physique he had.

 

Can we suspect there might at least be link between Ike's physique and his unstable raging behavioural problems?

 

Machen wasn't going through a nervous breakdown. He was on a solid winning streak, ranked #2 contender behind Liston, and had high hopes of finally getting a title shot. His failure to beat Williams ruined that and he suffered a breakdown some months later, found sitting in his car with a revolver and a suicide note. Why you bring up a stoppage loss to Joe Frazier at the tail-end of his career I don't know.

As for Williams failing to knock out guys who others had knocked out - yes, a handful of men went the distance with him in his late 50s/early 60s prime. Nobody knocks out everyone they face. Curley Lee stopped Howard King, a feat Archie Moore had previously failed to achieve in FIVE attempts.