Ibar Arington discussion

I remember that he used to let other fighters punch him in the face! He could take a punch, that's for sure, but he was foolish to let other heavyweights punch him. He suffered brain damage as a result.

 

Ibar had quick hands, above average power and durability. But for a heavyweight he was smallish, lacked defense and had poor upper-body movement control. I'd rate him as a top-of-the-line '70's clubfighter who was just a tad too clumsy to qualify as any kind of world class or semi-world class contender.

I saw Ibar fight on TV twice. In the first bout, he barely beat Pat Duncan. I thought the decision could have gone either way. The other match was a fourth round TKO over Randy Neuman, who was pulled out of the match due to a severely cut eye. Until the TKO ending, Neuman had won all three rounds and seemed en route to an easy decision win. It's possible that Neuman's cut was caused by a headbutt or elbow, as I recall.

Still, I don't knock Ibar because he was a pretty fair fighter. He went the distance with hard hitting Gerrie Coetzee and held up well for ten rounds against a near-prime Larry Holmes.

 

He surprisingly suffered few ill health effects from his professional boxing career. After retiring Arrington moved from Everett, WA to South Dakota and ending up becoming a born again Christian and is now retired from a decent-paying government job (although decent paying with government job can be considered an oxy-moron).

 

Could potentially have been a fixture in the cruiserweight ratings had that division been established a couple of years earlier. As it stands, he was a tough, awkward, aggressive fringe contender at heavyweight who made the most out of his ability. Could say a lot worse about a fighter, I suppose.

 

he was a durable guy but more than a club fighter I doubt it, How far would he go today in the Heavyweight or counterweight division? IMO he would have some success but struggle to break a top 15-20

 

The interesting thing with him was Angie Dundee worked with him for a little bit. But the thing to remember about all of those prospects that came up in that 74 to 76 timeframe was that they were regional fighters. they'd fight in a pocket somewhere in the country. But they weren't travellers and they weren't part of a more successful stable type of thing.

It was a strange time for the development of heavies back then. They were certainly better nurtured along in the 80's. but not too many of those later day 70's heavies have really stood the test of time well.

 

Ibar weighed about 195 lbs. Today he'd only be a cruiserweight. I couldn't picture him getting anywhere in today's super heavyweight division. He was just too small.

 

I also dont think he would be talented enough to make it in the cruiser weight division which has some talent at the top