How good was Ike Ibeabuchi?

Indeed.

Favorite quote was when he was asked about the various birth dates he's claimed.

" I was born 2 years old."

 

Based on what? Not having a beer belly? How does said beer belly improve boxing ability, please enlighten us :hey And no I don't pick 220lb Tua to win, but 'lose be beat far worse' STFU

 

Personally I was in his gym for a few years when he came out of the olympics. He was my friend, he gave me his sparring gloves. Im very familiar with what went down in Tua's career and how he ruined his chances at becoming a more decorated heavyweight..

 

The bottom line is that we will never know how good Ibeabuchi would have been had he not gone to jail.

Based on what little we saw, he could have gone on to be the next all time great, or he could have just gone into the tank and fallen off the map.

It is possible to imagine scenarios for either sequence of events but I suspect that his inner demons would always have limited his career.

Now Tua is another case in point. He also had the talent to be something special, but given his style he would always have needed a superior trainer and superior training habits to relise his potential.

 

Yes janitor your last paragraph is correct about Tua. He was one dimensional and short but he was successful because of his speed, conditioning and power. He had showed his shortcomings as a fighter against some very limited boxers as well as good ones but the intangibles I listed above often bailed him out.

The story of Tua unraveled with the fall of Main Events. When Dan Duva passed away Kathy Duva took control of the company. That didn't sit well with Dino and Lou so they went their separate ways. Kathy retained certain fighters like Vernon Forrest and Fernando Vargas but parted ways with fighters like Tua,Golota and zab Judah. It was a bit suprising they let Tua get away with his high ranking at the time but I suppose lou and Dino didn't have the funds to sign him and Kathy didn't want to invest in a heavyweight.
In stepped the newly formed America Presents run by Dan Goosen, and he signed Tua and Hector Camacho Jr as his flagship fighters giving Tua a large signing bonus. Tua was highly ranked by the IBF and Camacho Jr by the WBA. So what Goosen did was protect those rankings by fighting them less and against softer opposition. If you look at Tuas record he went from fighting all the top up and coming youngsters from his amatuer class to a bunch of no hopers. He was heavier less active and fighting more infrequently. These factors took away alot of what made Tua successful in the first place. So it wasn't just the weight per say it was his conditioning and down time which obviously showed up in his weight and future performances.
Not saying Tua would have ever beaten Lewis but the Tua that fought Ibeabuchi certainly would have had a better shot.
Tua was close to signing with Kevin Rooney to train him but they couldn't come to an agreement on a few things. Would have been interesting to see what Rooney could have done with him.

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl
That's some ****ing bull**** right there, you actually think that being about 20lbs overweight at 245lb made Tua perform better? That excess fat meant he was too slow to even dream of getting on the inside where he belongs, past the Lewis jab. Knowing you Jazzo, you probably also believe that the decent shape 222lb Tyson from the Golota fight would have been beaten up worse than the shot 234lbs overweight shell that turned up...becuase heavier is better!1!!11! For your information I would still very much favour Lennox even if Tua had turned up in superb shape, but it could have been a competitive fight.

 

Tua's problem in the Lewis fight was mental, not physical.

 

Being 20lbs overweight can't have helped matters either.

 

It certainly would.

 

Ah yeah I watched that interview last week!

 

I agree,

Lot's of potential, but also a lot of question marks... Boxing is full of men like that.

 

That would have been very interesting indeed, just imagine what Tua could have done if he handled the D'Amato head movement and number system well, plus Rooney would have kept him in great shape.

 

Yes a tick tocking double fisted punching Tua would have been interesting.

 

Very True and a big part of boxing