How would Ike Ibeabuchi fared with today's heavyweight division?

lol@Byrd beating him,Ike took his head off

 

I don't know how you can say this given the way he went toe to toe with Tua. Tua was a monster puncher and he landed some good shots on Ike's chin but he just kept throwing. Also, Ike could throw monstrous shots. I think he is being very UNDERrated by some people on this thread. I think he stops Wilder for sure. Tougher call on Joshua because we really don't know how good he is yet. But I can tell you one thing, Ike's stamina was better than Joshua's.

 

Not sure what you are referring to regarding Grant. As to the strength of the HW division back then as compared to today? Are you kidding me? There is no question it was stronger back then.

• Vitali Klitschko (37-2, 36 KOs) ...
• Michael Moorer (52-4-1, 40 KOs) ...
• George Foreman (76-5, 68 KOs) ...
• Riddick Bowe (43-1, 33 KOs) ...
• Wladimir Klitschko (52-3, 46 KOs) ...
• Mike Tyson (50-6, 44 KOs) ...
• Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) ...
• Evander Holyfield (42-10-2, 27 KOs)

 

faced 2 decent top 10 fighters that i remember
tua v ibeabuchi was a legendary fight
2 in the pocket fighters letting there hands go non stop in a well known fight that i loved .

and then he ko`d byrd a fighter i could not stand with an uppercut from memory and did a favour to the whole division with that

then his fall from grace

how would he fare
he would be a tough fight
he was only 6.2 but he proved v tua he had great whiskers
he proved he had untold stamina

but outside the pocket he was decent but nothing out of the ordinary
i would love top have seen an ibeabuchi v holyfield that would have been brilliant

its hard to judge ibeabuchi v fighters he would be given away 4/5/7 inches to
he would have been in 3 good fights but he needs to get inside to do his best work and no matter how good you are it is hard to give away lots of height v good fighters.

 

Jesus! I just watched a bit of his bout v Byrd, he`s was slow as ****!

 

Ike was a plodder that telegraphed his punches because he stepped forward before throwing a shot, you just had to look at his slow feet to know when he would unload.

 

Those records are helping all those fighters because for a few it meant too much mileage, Tyson after 56 fights was a spent force, Holy after 54 fights ws a spent force, Foreman was completely gone by then, Moorer was out of shape, Bowe was finished, all you really hasd here was Lewis and the Klitch bros.

 

well byrd was a tricky fighter definatley in the who needs him club at the time in 1998 ike fought him, and ike managed to time him and ko him for which i was happy about .

also heavyweight fighters who load up all telegraph there punch`s
maybe foreman did not / the older foreman anyway/ he punhed slow but relaxed and i think it s the relaxation that hides the power

wilder loading up on ike could get a byrd type counter
ike going forward was a very orthodox/box by textbook type fighter but he had decent power/good whiskers/good stamina and is definatley top 5 in todays list

i see him beating whyte/miller/brezeale/parker/outworking ortiz
hard fight v povetkin
and live underdog v wilder/fury/joshua.

and ike was only a 20-0 fighter with 2 top 10 wins.

ike is definatley not a proven champ but he was proven as a good heavyweight prospect

 

cmon man Tua was 17 yrs old fighting the finest amateur heavyweight of all time

 

Ruslan Chagaev in 1997 at age 17 beat Savon (who went on to win Gold three years later in the 2000 Olympics).

And Chagaev managed to win a world title in the pros, something Tua never accomplished.

 

Ike Ibeabuchi was supposed to fight Michael Grant in 1999 in an eliminator to get a shot at Lennox Lewis. Instead, he went crazy and went to prison for 16 years.

Regarding your list, in 1999 when Ike dropped out of the Grant fight and then went to jail, Foreman was retired. Bowe was retired. Wlad was about to be knocked out by Ross Puritty. Tyson was coming off a two-year banning and was nearly DQed trying to break Botha's arm in his first fight back. Michael Moorer had just started a three-year retirement after getting knocked down five times by Holyfield and losing his belt. And Vitali was heading toward his quit job against Byrd.

So, I don't think it was the Murderer's Row of a division you quite remember it being in 1999. Three of the eight you mentioned - Foreman, Bowe and Moorer - weren't even boxing then and Tyson hadn't fought in two years and nearly lost it against Botha. Wlad couldn't hold it together against Puritty.

Like I said, Ike couldn't even hold it together when all he had to do to get a title shot was beat Michael Grant, who was relatively harmless compared to the Ring top five today.

 

At the time Ike koed Chris Byrd there isn’t a guy in the top 10 today that could lay a glove on that Chris byrd. At that time I woulda taken Ike to ko Lewis.

 

Byrd was slow.

 

Jesus christs.... Gotta love how posters just know EXACTLY what a fighter would do....

 

You clearly never saw more than a fight or two of Ike's. And now you know that Chris Byrd, a pure boxer, was actually trying to slug w/ Ike? WTF?!?! Zero cred from you....