Was Ike Ibeabuchi the biggest threat at HW went they locked him up?

I think Ibeabuchi was the second or third best heavyweight at the time, behind Lewis and Holyfield. Imagine a fight between him and Holyfield!

 

It was a perfect time for him to step up as you said Holyfield & Tyson were faded, Wladimir wasn't with Steward at this point.

The only real stumbling blocks i see is obviously Lewis & Vitali, but against every other Heavyweight he should be favoured over.

 

I think he was definitely raising a lot of eye brows.

 

In 1999 vs Ike:

I'd have heavily favoured Lewis & even a relatively green Vitali.

Holyfield went down hill quickly from 2000 onwards, but if we're literally talking 1999, I'd strongly favour him over Ike too.

More than 50% of people scored Ike's fight vs the limited, but huge punching Tua, for Tua, so he'd be at least 50/50 in a rematch with Ike, imo.

Gun to my head I'd probably make Ike favourite vs anyone else in 99, but he was so unproven, it would not be with much confidence over most of the other world rated HWs.

As you'd expect with a physically big, strong, iron chinned, heavy handed pressure fighter, we know Ike was likely to be dangerous against very skilled, but much smaller & lighter hitting HWs.

We can reasonably surmise that he had an iron chin & could stand up to huge punching HWs, but that he couldn't outbox short HWs whose feet were stuck in cement & that others outboxed comprehensively.

Beyond that, we know nothing about how he'd fare against world class, or even borderline world class, boxers.

 

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/if-ike-ibeabuchi-had-continued-his-career.699777/

There was this thread not long ago with a few different opinions on him. But no I do not think so as he was already going completely off the rails and would not have been stable enough to maintain the necessary run to get there. He was refusing fights and essentially severely mentally ill and damaged.

 

At the time he got incarcerated I would say yes.

 

I wouldn't favor anyone over him except Lennox and maybe Holyfield...and possibly Tyson who had the advantage of championship experience over Ibeabuchi that Tua and Byrd lacked.

Those wins propelled Ike to the top but could he succeed in a rites of passage scenario against the likes of Lewis, Holyfield and Tyson?

What about Corrie Sanders? That would've been a nice test for Ike on the way up as well...

EDIT: I remember when Ike got put away, America immediately replaced him with Michael Grant as the next big thing. Ibeabuchi-Grant would've been something special. Similar to the Tyson-Ruddock rivalry with the top 2 contenders vying for that shot at the championship!!

 

Ike had all the necessaries to be a champion if he could have held it together. Calling that Vegas hooker destroyed his career. Only Lennox could have maybe stopped it

 

More media BS from you I see

 

Around the 1999 mark Lewis was starting to prove himself a ATG. Could he have beaten Lewis? I say no. But I can’t prove it. Nobody can. But Lewis is one of the ATG’s. Ike was a good fighter with POTENTIAL. That’s a huge difference.

 

In theory yes, but of course the other candidate for that honor at the time, would have been David Tua.

Look what happened there.

What would have happened if Tua had fallen under a bus, after his fight with Ike?

What would our expectations of him have been, and would they have translated into reality?

 

I wonder which fighters Ike was supposed to have refused to fight? I was in Dallas Texas at the time was almost a lodger in Curtis's Home of Champions gym. You live in the UK & just read the media BS I think

 

Tua being the only common opponent between Ike and Lennox. Now both guys fought Tua differently: Ike went to war while Lennox boxed the hell out of him.

Ike could've been another Ruddock even though he had more than "The Smash" (but what a punch that was). Tua tested that chin making Ike a durable fighter so his potential was limitless.

Still, too many unanswered questions with The President.

 

I have n't been on here that long but look I get it - your persona on this site seems to be to portray yourself as someone who knew him, a member of Cokes' gym or perhaps circle, etc. If that makes you feel important then good for you, enjoy it. But don't expect me to believe you or take anything you say seriously - especially when things are so easily provable.

Ibeabuchi turned down Jeremy Williams on the Grant -Savarese undercard. If you disagree take it up with Luke G Williams who wrote about it in his President of Pandemonium book explains why and what happened and cites those involved and quotes them. He also mentions those journalists and interviewers who questioned him about it at the time, on TV too apparently. It's a good, informative though quite short book, about a very sad episode. I won't respond to you further on this as there does not seem to be much to gain from it.