Although he was dominated, I felt the Vargas fight was fun. The way he dismantled Vince Phillips was entertaining. Oba Carr fought well against him but Ike was fairly dominant. The Jose Luis López fight is a good watch too. The knockdowns scored by López tightened the scores but I always felt Ike got a raw deal there like he did against Oscar.
Besides the fights mentioned I thought his fight with Vernon Forrest was interesting although I thought Quartey got straight up robbed in that fight.
Espana was maybe his best performance. Vargas might have been the best action fight. Ike was competitive but Vargas was always a step ahead.
One of the most underrated welterweight title fights and certainly one of the most slept-on fights of the 90s.
I always liked his dominant win over Vince Phillips the best. I will go to my grave thinking he won against Oscar, Lopez and Forrest. Ike really was a hall of fame quality fighter but he simply had to long of layoffs and got jobbed in the fights I mentioned. Had he got the decision over Oscar he likely would be in the hall of fame. One thing is for sure, Oscar never went near him again. He knew he was damn lucky to win that fight.
Like mentioned above, the Espana fight. Trouble is, he never improved from that fight. Regressed some is what he did.
I always thought so as well. He was always in tip-top shape, I remember Roy Jones saying while calling one of his fights - Quartey was training in his gym for a while during his come-back - that Ike was very knowledgable when it came to dieting and physical preparation. I don't think He was giving the same attention to his technique though, He was always a bit sloppy and yes, argument could be made that He even regressed in terms of his technique after moving his career to United States. Ike is one of my favorites, so I think all of his fights from the time He won the title are worth a watch. Verno Phillips fight was not mentioned on here, I rewatched it not long ago and I enjoyed it a lot.
One that hasn't been mentioned is Quartey vs Park, whilst Quartey had better action fights vs Lopez, ODLH, Vargas, Espana etc. The performance against Park is one of the best jabbing exhibitions you'll ever see. Park's face blew up like a blowfish after only a few rounds of ram rod jabs by Quartey.
