I saw the Tua and Byrd fights for sure; can't remember if I saw any others. IMO, Tua beat him narrowly, and while he scored an impressive KO over Byrd, let's remember that Byrd started as a supermiddle. To me, these victories hardly justify the absurdly inflated ability people attribute to this guy. He was a decent prospect, but surely never proved that he could beat Lewis, Holyfield or the Klits, or anyone else remotely on that level.
Ike would have KO'd Vander & beaten both Klits. A Lennox -Ike fight would have been a barn burner. Remember he was just getting started. I was ridiculed [m a boxing forum for telling them Ike would beat Tua. Their opinions changed after the fight
Ibeabuchi was indeed a stud in the ring but my money would be on Joshua. Shame they were an era apart, this fight has the ingredients to be a heavyweight classic. Joshua TKO (late and aided by an overeager referee, of course.)
probably wlad but thats a bit far a claim for vitali. he might have, but we'll never know since he went off the radar att the time he was proving himself world level.
To say that Tua beat Ike just goes to show that you can't score a fight and that nobody should ever rely on your scorecard. Ever!
Based on what? Getting a narrow nod over Tua and knocking out light-hitting supermiddle Byrd? It's frankly bizarre - based on what he actuallly DID in the ring - that anyone would suggest Ibeabuchi would even be competitive with Holyfield or the Klits, let alone beat them!
This is a view that many hold - it was a close fight. You must not remember it, otherwise you wouldn't have written this comment.
Which is why I'm not saying Joshua would be a big favourite and gave a slight edge to Ike. But it's not out of the realm of possibility that Joshua beats Ike, Ike never had to deal with a guy that big and that good who could manhandle him. All we've seen of Ike is he could deal with smaller heavies well, being too big and too powerful, well how does he cope being the smaller weaker fighter, does he have the skills to beat the bigger heavies?
I see what youre saying and actually i agree but and forgive me for nitpicking but you saying hes overrated by people your still playing the other side of the same coin. He might have blasted all these superheavies out of the water or he might have gotten smoked. Maybe the truth falls somewhere in the middle. We just dont and never will know but its fun to speculate thats why i dont get too crazy over ppl making him a god or a bum. I just think he was super talented and wouldve made a lot of noise in the division and none of those guys around at the time would particularly scare me into thinking theyd blow Ike out of the water. I saw some of those "great" heavies get kod by lesser talents.
