Probably right. People ascribe qualites to Ike that are just not proven by wins over Tua and Byrd, both of whom were terrific and accomplished, but also small and beatable heavies. He will reamain one of the biggest what-ifs in boxing.
If people say that Ibeabuchi would have been dominant champ and destroyed Lewis and the Klitschkos, they do way overrate them. He had one great battle against the small, technically limited Tua. He proved chin and heart there, but I doubt he would have looked good against the 6'5+ HW's with skills or even the slicker fighters like Byrd. Ike was not really fast for his size, we know nothing about his ability to adapt. Besides, with an insane mentality,there simply isn'tmuch potential. It's like saying Bowe could have been great if he had more discipline...but that wouldn't be Bowe, that would make him a totally different person. Ike only had some parts of a boxing champ, never the package.
People tend to make those "what-ifs" into megastars-would-be-if they-hadn't-had-bad-luck... just like Joe Messi :deal
yes exactly some people turn a whatif guy into a "he couldve been champ for a long time that if he hadnt got in trouble etc"
Essentially Ike Ibeabuchi is like what Andrew Golota would have been had he just stopped fighting right after the Riddick Bowe matches. Every Internet forum junkie would have been screaming, Lewis is lucky Golota wasn't around, he would have ****ed him up. But since Lewis blew apart Golota that point died. Well that is the case with Ibeabuchi, his career ended on a high note and these idiots assume that means he would have ripped apart Lewis, hell some believe he could get out of jail today, fight the Klitschko's tomorrow and would be the new Heavyweight champion.
It genuinely annoys me when I watch him fight that we never got to see more out of him. He showed some excellent physical qualities in the fights we did see him in, I could list them but we all know what they are. We never saw him against a legit SHW but I feel confident he'd do OK at the very least. He looked like he was shaping up to be an excellent HW. I'd be interested in looking at the rankings and stuff for that time period and seeing if I could plot out an imaginary career for him (taking into account his opponents facets, losses etc); see how far he might have gone and which match-ups would be intriguing. How hard of a puncher do we rate him around here? he kept Tua at bay and he flattened Byrd with that left - is that enough to being to rate his power?
I missed his career but from what I've seen of him and what I've read about him all signs pointed to him being up there with the best. Again without actually seeing him fight as the fight happened only seeing his matches that can be found on the net I'd say it is hard to rate him against Lewis and K2 from the looks of things I'd say he would have been POTENTIALLY somewhere in between.......not as good as Lewis and probably slightly better than Vitali.........I'll call him even with Wlad again potentially.
Yeah he's JUST like Andrew Golota... Except he doesn't headbutt randomly in the fight and throw low blow combinations
Look at Tyson, people only talk about his 'Prime', hardly anyone says anything good about his post-prison years. Tyson is the biggest "what-if" story in Boxing, Ibeabuchi only has enough for a Preface...