If Ike Ibeabuchi never went to Jail??

And he'd been hearing demons and basically went bat**** crazy ever since.. plus, the Tua fight was very close and most (myself included) had Tua winning. He credentials look pretty good, but because of his early "retirement", there would probably have been several weaknesses that we never saw. For instance, if Tyson retired in '89, Frazier in '71, or Foreman in '74, we would've considered them unbeatable but when they continued their career, weaknesses were shown.

 

Agreed.

Plus facing top 10 competition for a number of years just never seems to work out very well for the headcase fighters.

 

Word!! :good

 

Lewis would have had to assertec himself very early in a bout with Ibeabuchi. Ike could fight at a frentic pace which was shown in his very competent win over Tua. That was a brilliant fight to watch!

Ibeabuchi will always be a case of what might have been. He would have improved as a boxer if he had stayed out, but at that time (1997) I'm not so sure he would have beaten Tyson, Lewis or Holyfield. Maybe not enoigh experience.

 

I'm not so sure he beats any of those fighters but he would have been competitive with them I dare say. Too bad we only have two fights of his against world class opposition.

 

Yes, he was.

 

Very true. Ike was a case of 'what might have been' at best.

 

I would go so far as to say that Ike probably had the best chance of beating Lewis of any contender at that time.

 

Good wins over Tua and Byrd...who knows?

Seems to have become a mythical superman on message forums. Supposively invincible, faster than lightening, with skills on par with Holyfield though I haven't seen any evidence of this myself. Struck me as a tough workman Mercer type fighter with great stamina and a good left hand.

Claims of him "outslugging" Tua make me laugh. He basically executed Oleg's fight plan against Tua; occupy him with a busy jab while guarding the left hook with a high right hand. Unlike the mentally frail Oleg, Ike was able to survive the 11th round onslaught as the bell sounded. The Byrd knockout was impressive though Chris was being cute when he got caught.

 

He probbly would have won a tittle/championship, but I don't think he was going to be thenext great heavyweight.

 

That was pretty top notch at the time. He was also doing a lot of sparring with Kirk Johnson, so he had good experience with movers as well. He was supposed to get Holyfield, and that was the start of him going nuts. Don King was in the process of stealing him away from Cedric Kushner and was responsible for putting him in a Las Vegas hotel room which ultimately led to Ike going down. King was probably the worst promoter for Ike as he needed to be kept on lockdown. Apparently Ike was mentally in very bad shape before getting arrested, so who knows what would have happened with him, but for a while he was looking like a bigger stronger version of Evander Holyfield. He was a big man with very fast hands, a good chin and good power. He beat very good versions of Tua and Byrd and was being handled very well under Curtis Cokes.

 

Sticking my toe into the subject of this nutcase, and his "legendary" campaign that to me is the stuff of a Marvel comic, Ike only defeated two smallish heavies. I think Tua beat him. I know that Teddy Atlas holds - to this day - that Kirk Johnson used to toy with Ike in sparring.

We needed to see this guy face big, talented heavyweights. Could he have handled a Klitschko or Lennox?

I'm simply NOT prepared to give this guy the benefit of the doubt off of his accomplishments while acknowledging that it would have been fun to have seen more.

 

Ike had the run that all contenders should have before fighting for the title. He beat two top dangerous fighters at their best. Byrd had an elusive frustrating style and Tua was a dangerous active puncher. He was young and relatively inexperienced. I thought he barely beat Tua, but in the process he showed he could take and give some serious shots. Your right he should have faced more classy boxers, because this was what was at the top at that time, but there was little besides Lewis and Holyfield. Beating Tua in his 16th pro fight and Byrd in his 20th showed he had a lot of potential.
As far as Atlas its hard to believe anything he says. Why was Curtis Cokes willing to put Ike in with Byrd and Tua within 20 fights, while Johnson faced no serious threat, all the while struggling with the likes of Al Cole.

 

Chris, solid points but what we do know is that he was exceptionally well conditioned, took a great punch, had some terrific over all boxing skills and was big puncher. He proved to be very smart and patient in crunching Byrd. I believe Ike was for real and his career was a huge loss for the heavyweight division. He could have changed the division's history.

 

I didn't say Ike hadn't accomplished anything. He beat two rated...smallish...heavy's. Off of that, I have NEVER understood where fans get all excited about the guy to the point they have him decimating Lewis, Holy and every other heavy of that period.

As for Atlas, I tend to believe him. We saw Ike do well with Tua and Byrd, but we didn't see him in with a very good boxer that had size and power...and when right Johnson had both.

In any case, he had two good fights and that's it. It'll be interesting to see what happens when this guy gets out...and hopefully what happens is limited to the ring only.