“The President” Ike Ibeabuchi - The One That Got (Put) Away

Ike had d potential 2b great , but even if he continued his career as it was after d Tua fight , that fight took a lot from both , and i believe that it took more from Ike than it took from Tua . After that fight , Ike didn't have many more great wars / much more greatness potential left in him . Without d Tua fight , it is possible that he could've stopped Lewis , Ibeabuchi had more natural bruteness in him than Holyfield and especially Mercer ever had . If a man who got beat by Ferguson and couldn't avenge it in a rematch with n old Ferguson gave Lewis n even fight , what would a slightly bigger , considerably stronger man who slugged with Tua 4 almost 12 rds (Ibeabuchi did buy himself a few jabbing restreats in that fight) do 2 Lewis ? we know what Rahman & McCall did . I think that if McCall would have slugged it that way with Tua , maybe it could ruin him also ? although McCall his brain proved 2b almost indestructible with all d crack abuse , d Tyson gym wars (but Tyson never hit as hard as Tua did) and his great career (of course it wasn't a perfect career , but whose was ?) and McCall still speaks clear and even slighlty quick .
How did Ali , Holyfield , Whitaker and even Holmes speak at that age ? how will Toney and Bowe speak at that age ?
back 2d topic , if d Tua fight didn't happen i guess Ibeabuchi could either handle Rahman better than Maskaev did twice , or get beat by him if 2 judge by what salty trunks believes according 2d Kirk Johnson sparing sessions , he could stop Maskaev which Rahman could not , maybe b d 2nd man 2 stop Holyfield if Holyfield agreed 2 fight him , beat or stop Lewis , outwork McCall if McCall doesn't quake him with n angry right hand (depends on his mood) , destroy Wladimir and maybe even beat Vitali , and who knows what else ? but d Tua fight did happened d way it did and 2 great potentials were reduced .

 

Where do you make the determination he had little left ? He was the only man to KO a prime Byrd after this fight and was very fresh with a small handful of fights .. Ike is one of the big disappointments to me as he was a physical wonder but an absolute nutcase.

 

....Ike Ibeabuchi


Here is an intresting article.



http://www.boxingmonthly.com/stories/ibeabuchi-recalls-tua-showdown/



Interestingly Ike backs up what I have always said about the Tua fight. The quantity of punches took away from the quality of the blows landed. He says he wish he threw less punches “and sat down on his punches more”. With the pace they fought at it applies to Tua as well. They were not hitting each other with full leverage.

He says himself he wish he threw less punches so that he could sit down on them more.

It was a good fight with some really great exchanges but if you know what you are looking at, for as exciting as it was, to deliver that many blows together, they really were not sitting down on their blows. Tua especially.

In an effort to match Ikes workrate and get through, tua would double up on his hook without a proper follow- through. There may have been very little holding but inside they were not hurting each other. Because they were either too close or too square.

At times they really were swinging properly but they were not getting those kinds of connections because it was a step up in class for both of them.

Sometimes you can get two huge hittters together (that are used to fighting stiffs) and they realise it’s much harder to set up a real money shot against another man who matches them for anticipation and reactions. So they settle for workrate rather than quality. And to be fair, it’s always a much better fight that way.

The comparison with Ali v Frazier was always crazy. Those guys were trying to take each other’s head off. And they were further into their careers at a higher level.

The fight Ike and Tua produced is the kind of fight Ali and Frazier would have produced if they were younger and earlier on in the development stage like Ike and Tua were. Still entertaining to watch but not enough experience or quality to be as damaging as the fights Frazier and Ali did have.

This nonsense that just because both Tua and Ike were huge Punchers against other fighters it therefore proved they each had “the best chins on the planet” in their fight together is pure mumbo Jumbo.

Ali and Frazier landed better punches. And here is the difference, Look at their faces after the first fight!

 

Ike was better than McCall ( who was also mentally unstable ) and Rhaman. Two fighters who stopped Lennox Lewis in the 1990's.

Ike could have beaten anyone, including Lewis, and I think would have beaten Bowe or Holyfield in the mid 1990's. Moorer would not last long vs Ike either. Ike would stop Rhaman and I think outbox McCall.

What we have here is a big puncher, with plenty of stamina to go the distance or take a punch. Ike had good skills, but being young he could have improved a bit.

An all time could have been...

 

A lot of fighters were better than McCall and Rahman. That didn’t mean anything. Lewis lost to two inferior fighters. He avenged both.

coulda woulda shoulda...didn’t.

He didn’t though. Maybe he topped out. Maybe he topped out because he was full of drugs then went mad? Maybe the head shots he took off tua sent him mad and always would have done. There are a thousand factors more probable than the one point that he could have been an ATG so you are going out on a massive limb for him saying that.

nah. Two good wins during a diluted era? It don’t make an all time great. Eddie machen knocked out Valdez and tommy Jackson then later ran into ingo johansson. You never can tell.

 

Loved his style, unusual cumulative attributes especially for a heavyweight.

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What was he in jail for anyway. I know he did some screwed up stuff with prostitutes and nearly killed a kid but what was he actually doing time for.

 

The 1990's was anything but a diluted era.

Tyson
Foreman
Holmes
Holyfield
The Klitschko's
Bowe
Lewis

That is 8 active hall of fame heavyweights from 1990-1999!

McCall, Rhaman, Mercer, Morrison, Ike, Tua, Byrd, Ruddock, and many others. That is a deep pool

Ike proved he could go toe to toe with the best puncher ( Tua, who was in shape ) and track down and take out the slickest boxer in Byrd. He's dangerous for anyone on the list and when you consider he was peaking at the time ( 1999 ) When many of the top names were fading, most are not likely to beat him. Ike was only 26 years old when he flattened Byrd. That was his last fight. Ring Magazine had him #4 overall, behind Grant and Holyfield, whom he would have demolished. Lewis vs Ike, pick em'.

Ingo didn't hit harder than Tua, and would last less than 5 rounds against Ibeabuchi. Yes-- I can tell Ike took an excellent punch. Tua who threw and landed a lot never hurt Ike.

 

I think he would have destroyed Rahman. He would have had a puncher's chance against Lennox. He could have beaten the 2000 version of Tyson, for sure.

 

Your post is rather nonsensical.

He didn't "top out." He got putaway and stopped fighting while still improving. It is logical to lament what might have been.

Look what Byrd did later after Ike iced him.

Tua was a solid contender for years.

With a mediocrity like Ruiz holding a version of the title, a badly faded Holyfield contending, and Lewis proving vulnerable, Ike had a good shot at least winning a version of the title, if not the whole enchilada.

The division actually got weaker after Ike was gone.

 

Definitely beats that version of Tyson.

 

The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: 1999
Heavyweights:
1.Lennox Lewis
2.Evander Holyfield
3.Michael Grant
4.Ike Ibeabuchi
5.David Tua
6.Mike Tyson
7.Vitali Klitschko
8.Andrew Golota
9.Derrick Jefferson
10.Oleg Maskaev

Ike Ibeabuchi was knocked out by Chris Byrd in 1999; the man who defeated Vitaly the following year. In 1997 he beat David Tua, in an epic fight. So on this list I see only Lennox and Vitaly as a real threat to Ike Ibeabuchi. "The President" would get chances to fight for the title in the coming years, and IMO he would succeed.

 

The guy went nuts. Unstable. It’s like having the best race horse that runs the wrong way.