You realize these are all just mere men with opinions right? There isn't any complex science going on that you need years of experience or any sort of qualifications to understand. But you keep hanging onto your newspaper articles for dear life. I honestly couldn't give a damn about what some sports writer has to say about a fight that we have high quality color footage of. They can take their opinions and shove it up their asses. Seriously, it's like trying to tell me that Golovkin is light years ahead of any active boxer just because Dan Rafael said it (not claiming he did). Byrd hardly has anything negative to say about any past fight he was involved in or any other fighters for that matter. The only ones that come to mind are him saying he could have stopped Vitali and him telling Bowe he fought Holyfield wrong and he's very kind when he addresses these topics too. A very humble individual. Says a lot about you when you try to exploit that for your own argument.
Here is another intresting article. http://www.boxingmonthly.com/stories/ibeabuchi-recalls-tua-showdown/ Interestingly Ike backs up what I have always said about the Tua fight. The quantity of punches took away from the quality of the blows landed. He says he wish he threw less punches “and sat down on his punches more”. With the pace they fought at it applies to Tua as well. They were not hitting each other with full leverage.
Another treating point is that the decision could very easily have gone to Tua .. I haven't watched it in a while but I do remember feeling Tua won a great fight .. that being said Tua was never again the same fighter .. the same physical shape , determination or focus , like he didn't want to go through that again ..
What?? Maybe you check that again. This content is protected That tank war probably unleashed the highest amount of impact energy ever in boxing (12 rounds). But yeah, below the bottom line, they were just pitty patting...
Great find. "His left hook would have been the most forceful, impressive punch of his, if he had landed it, but he did not. So we took that away and that was why we succeeded in defeating him."
Are you calling Ike a liar? He says himself he wish he threw less punches so that he could sit down on them more. It was a good fight with some really great exchanges but if you know what you are looking at, for as exciting as it was, to deliver that many blows together, they really were not sitting down on their blows. Tua especially. In an effort to match Ike and get through, he would double up on his hook without a proper follow- through. There may have been very little holding but inside they were not hurting each other. Because they were either too close or too square. At times they really were swinging properly but they were not getting those kinds of connections because it was a step up in class for both of them. Sometimes you can get two huge hittters together (that are used to fighting stiffs) and they realise it’s much harder to set up a real money shot against another man who matches them for anticipation and reactions. So they settle for workrate rather than quality. And to be fair, it’s always a much better fight that way. The comparison with Ali v Frazier was always crazy. Those guys were trying to take each other’s head off. And they were further into their careers at a higher level. The fight Ike and Tua produced is the kind of fight Ali and Frazier would have produced if they were younger and earlier on in the development stage like Ike and Tua were. Still entertaining to watch but not enough experience or quality to be as damaging as the fights Frazier and Ali did have. This nonsense that just because both Tua and Ike were huge Punchers against other fighters it therefore proved they each had “the best chins on the planet” in their fight together is pure mumbo Jumbo. Ali and Frazier landed better punches. Look at their faces after the first fight!
I think Ike had a shedload of potential (a shedload more than Tua) and, had he continued to rise, his imminent contendership would have emerged at around the same time as Vitali and Wladimir were beginning to establish themselves. It could have been a fascinating time, with quite possibly, a somewhat different heavyweight landscape. So, I understand this particular hankering some might have for the imagination of what might have been. And, as it stands, it’s just that - imagination...
They are men with opinions and I guess Jim Lampley and Larry Merchant have covered enough fights from ringside to have valid and informed opinions I would further venture that Roy Jones Jnr might know something about the game too? These men were sitting a few feet away from the action as it happened .I watched it a couple of days later and made my mind up from the visual evidence . I don't think you give a damn for anyone's opinions you are just here to propagate and expound your own. Don't presume to lecture me on boxing ,I had more fights in the ring than you've had your Mommy's hot dinners. How many fights have you seen? How many fights have you been ringside for? I wouldn't try and tell you anything, you are far too arrogant and full of yourself to make that a rewarding exercise. You're just another snotty green kid living off his folks who thinks he knows everything and believes its okay to talk condescendingly to posters .GTF!
To make a fights it takes two, and Tua did have Ibeabuchi exactly where he wanted him. Ibeabuchi accepted that kind of fight and brawled it out with him at times. "He says himself he wish he threw less punches so that he could sit down on them more" just makes no sense in the way we are discussing the fight, because if Ibeabuchi wanted to do so, he had to fight different to what we saw in a "tank war": Keep the distance, make use of more raech and throw a jab, throw some heavy leather and sit down on it, start too keep the distance again. The way he accepted Tuas fight, i think he naturally fought the best way he could, often crouching. Now that is nonsense. Replace Frazier with any of them in the fight, and he would be flat on his ass, to never see the distance. Thats what is all about what they dished out, landed and took.