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

He certainly had the potential

 

Me? He kidnapped a kid. Drove into a wall trying to kill them both. Where's your sympathy or empathy for that child? You didn't even mention him.

I'm not wasting any more time on Ike Ibeabuchi. Everyone in boxing has a sob story of their own. EVERYONE.

He was a failed heavyweight. Ibeabuchi couldn't hold it together long enough to even get in the ring with Jeremy Williams or Michael Grant. He may have had the physical skills, but he didn't have the mental strength to go any farther than he did.

 

Did you ever meet him? NO Did you ever know him? NO You only know what the media tell you Ike would have taken Williams & Grant the same night.
The "kidnapped a kid" story is a little embellished actually The boy was the son of Ike's G/F at the time He idolized Ike went everywhere with him. I do not believe Ike would ever intentionally hurt that boy. He went off the freeway & hit the over pass. They initially thought he may have been trying to commit suicide which Ike denied. It was officially declared a road accident I believe
Ike apparently suffered with suspected Bi Polar but no one but Curtis tried to get him the treatment he needed all Kushner & co saw were the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ signs. Keep pushing him into fights lets make $$$$$$$$$ seemed to be their objective
Ike wasnt the only fighter who was bi polar & with the right treatment who knows what he could have achieved I can tell you one thing there were a few Heavyweights & their managers weren't unhappy to see him jailed & out of the way so they didn't have to fight him.

 

You’ve brought this up from time to time.

I’d like to know more about what Curtis did to try to help him. And why that help didn’t work.

It’s easy to blame the promoter but in the final analysis, a person is responsible for their own recovery. If he was prescribed meds, did he actually take them as prescribed? Did he keep all his appointments with therapists? Why didn’t he take a timeout from boxing and tell his promoter he’d be back in the ring when he got better? Kushner didn’t handcuff him and force him to the ring at gunpoint — whether he tried to get him help or not, he couldn’t force him to fight if Ike had checked himself into a rehab center or mental ward … or even if he just ‘retired’ until he ‘got right’ mentally.

But Kushner aside, I’d like to know more about what Cokes did to try to help him and why that didn’t work out better. I suspect it’s because Ike wasn’t receptive to the help that he needed.

 

Ike didn't believe he was sick he'd say " Do I look sick" Curtis tried to persuade him but Kushner & co wouldn't listen It was all one big tragedy

 

Again, easy to blame the promoter but if he wouldn’t listen to the trainer whom he (presumably) trusted above all others he wasn’t going to listen to his promoter either.

I think we can all agree that mental problems aside, Ike was a very headstrong, willful and ungovernable guy. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink kind of thing.

In the final analysis, he wasn’t going to accept help unless it was (a) ordered and enforced by a court (yes that includes sedating a mastodon-strong incarcerated man capable of killing with his bare hands, so I have no problem with that) or (b) he decided for himself that he needed help.

You’re probably aware, but his promoter couldn’t have him confined to a mental facility. Doesn’t work like that in the U.S. Anymore than Cokes could have or you could have. The only way to get that done is through a court order, which involves hearings to prove he’s a danger to himself and others. When he proved himself a danger, a court ordered his help.

It is a tragedy. Mental illness often is. But a person has to want help. This is absolute medical fact: no one could manage Ike’s mental problems unless Ike was on board with the program that could help him get better. This is also fact, as you yourself affirm: he wasn’t at that point and wasn’t willing to accept help (even from Cokes). So it was going to end badly one way or another. And it did.

 

True it ended up in a tragedy, not only for Ike himself but for Curtis Cokes too. Every trainer wants to train the World Heavyweight Champ. At that time Curtis had two guys capable of it Ike & Kirk Johnson & for very different reasons, neither of them made it. Kirk was robbed of the WBA belt by John Ruiz academy award worthy acting & Joe Cortez bias. He just gave up after that . Curtis was a great trainer & a heck of a nice guy
I'm glad he made the HOF

 

Curtis definitely deserves his HoF status.

As for Kirk, I like a thing Roy Jones Jr used to say: God puts obstacles in our way to make sure we really want what we say we want.

Roy could have given up the ghost when he got robbed in the Olympics (he didn’t lose any 10-second stretch of that fight, much less the whole thing) or been disheartened when he was DQ’d vs. Montell Griffin, but he wasn’t going to let anything make him lose sight of the prize.

 

Definitely on his way

 

Grant fought Golota because Ike wouldn’t sign the contract.

 

They should have let him fight and take him back to prison after each fight.

 

James Scott treatment?

 

Yes

 

I don't remember this. So HBO pitted Grant against Golota as Golota was Ike's replacement? I'll have to scour my Ring mags from 1999...

 

The Klitshkos were certainly on their way up at that point as well, probably more of a threat to Lewis than 99 Tyson was.