I lean towards an Ike win myself but both had some very good wins. I don’t know about getting crushed.
Mesi was a bit of a hype job/fraud. Ibeabuchi would have beat the hell out of him. Consider that Jirov gave him brain damage and Jirov wasnt a huge puncher, at least not to the head, even at 190. Mesi would have never gone anywhere near anyone of the caliber of Ibeabuchi, Tua, etc.
Calling him a hype job is a bit of stretch. Fought some good people and beat them Barrett being the best who is a quality fighter in the Tua Ike realm (not power but quality). Really all you can judge by. In the end I don’t think his defense would have been good enough to fend off Ike.
I expected this to be a weird topic about Ibeabuchi up against some mythical converted boxing version of Lionel Messi. I have Ike winning the actual matchup here. And for that matter, in the other one, too.
Ibeabuchi would show no respect for Mesi. He would walk him straight down into a neutral corner and launch an all out North Korean Nuclear Missle assault on Mesis head and face, leaving him crumpled in the corner.
Its not a stretch at all. He was very carefully maneuvered and the hype around compared to his accomplishments was ridiculous. Barrett was a very average fighter and his win over Tua came years later when Tua was totally shot and gadnt had a serious fight in years. Regardless Mesi’s win over Barrett was razor thin and I felt he lost it.
If Mr President was still fighting long enough to (realistically) get Mesi in the ring, he would have had his demons under control. That would have been great for him personally, but as a fighter, I think a reasonable chin and decent power only gets you so far, without the fire. Mesi is only taking this if his team reckons he wins, thus Baby Joe for me.
Ibeabuchi stops Mesi. Like others have said Mesi was moved carefully and Ike was thrown to the wolves and ended up eating the wolves. Mesi could fight some and waa game, but theres a reason people still talk about the what ifs with Ike and not Mesi.
heres the deal Mesi could fight .. how good and under what type of pressure could he i don't know .. Ike wasn't really a seek and destroy type ..he would beat your ass then stop you .. with mesi's big ass head and his herky jerky clusmy style i see ike beating on him .. mesi will land .. ike wasn't exactly pernel in there ... so Mesi is gonna land .. it's not gonna matter .. ike has had tua .. mesi aint doing squat .. might stop him in his tracks for a second if he catches him with his absolute best but he's not hurting ike ... ike will walk him down by the 2nd maybe the 3rd ..where he catches him cold .. it's over .. Mesi takes the 10 .. he just has nothing at all to offer Ike .. nothing ..even being completely diplomatic and giving him his full credit on his record and his style.. i just don't see where he has anything to offer ike in this ... ike just mauls him