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

Curley Lee was big cat Williams's best knockout win over a potentially good class fighter. In the scheme of things it was his Carmine vingo fight. There wasn't much more impressive wins than that. Miteff was losing, Terrell beat him back. That's about it.

Exciting fighter though.

 

williams probably also has roots in west africa.
ike had great genetics,but cmon,you really think ike was 240 pounds of muscle with great cardio natural?don't be naive
sonny liston and cleveland williams were both as big as ike if not bigger,and without roids and weight training they were around 210-220 lbs...same weight ike would have been without juice and pumping iron

 

Big Cat failed to show power as he moved up in class, I am sure he had power like many but he did not show it at top 10 level. He did have one of the best physiques but how much does that mean in boxing. Ike was tested vs Tua and Byrd and seemed to have durability and power but with 20 or so fights we have to judge by these 2 fights, with that said I would go with IKE for the stop because Big Cat was stopped much

 

big cat was taller 1 inch,longer 4 inches,and faster.
ike was bigger cause of steroids,took a better puncher cause of that probably.
give williams ike's juice and you have a competitive fight

 

perhaps, I wonder how many modern type guys are on one juice or the other and what are the positive effects

 

I think he was just suffering from a neurological disorder. May have been caused by brain trauma. Incidentally after he fought Tua is when all the crazy behavior started happening.

 

Possibly, but to my knowledge he did not suffer a concussion in that fight. It was fiercely fought, competative but neither fighter was shaken badly in that fight, thrilling as it was.

 

Ike may have used, but I cannot tell without evidence-there are a small % of men who can get that size naturally. He could have been crazy & bipolar with or without 'roids I would like to see his tale of the tape to see his bone structure, ankle/wrist measurements. Tua was 220-225 pretty lean at likely 5' 9" & natural. He had the bone structure for it.

Even with no concussion, absorbing all those power blows from Tua, in a record setting punch stat fight, certainly might mess with one's brain. That was a brutal fight, Tua could hit harder than Frazier & often went to the head.

 

Tua was a much much more natural looking heavyweight for his pro debut weighing 201lb. With exactly the same bone structure.

We have to accept there was a lot of changes going on with sports training in the 1990s.

Tua did hit some fighters harder than Joe Frazier did but not Ike Ibeabuchi. That fight was competative, I would not say it was brutal. Both youngsters concentrated on workrate rather than power, it was so evenly matched both were able to anticipate the other the whole time so neither guy got blasted full force. Nobody was shaken.

When you go up the ranks the better fighters are harder to time cleanly. As big cat Williams found out. Tua and ibeabuchi did knockout good fighters too but punching power has a lot to do with who you are hitting.

 

Ike by KO mid rounds

 

lol

 

I agree. Williams gets in some good shots but Ike's chin holds up.

 

Ike Ibeabuchi took 1000 flush haymakers to the chin from the same guy who folded Ruiz in 10 seconds.

Goat

 

Ike.