Ike Ibeabuchi v.s Rocky Marciano

obviously he did not have to be an all time great Just to challenge lewis! I am saying ike needs to have at least beat one fighter considered the best in the world before he can be talked about as being such a worthy lock to beat marciano. who is saying ike needs to be an all time great to challenge lennox? lewis fought mavrovic didn't he? Obviously lewis could have fought ike but maybe if he did Lewis might have kayoed him, nobody will ever know. its just a shame ike never was a great fighter.... or beat a great fighter in his life time.

 

The problem with this logic is that greatness in the heavyweight division is relative over the course of generations; it is not a static equivalency. It is the one division where the mean size has increased so greatly. They are simply a different class of fighter today than they were 60 years ago. Some of yesteryear's cream of the crop would be woefully out of their depth against b raters from the 1990's.

 

Noone is saying he's a lock. Some people are picking him to win as some people would have done during rocky's time were he scheduled to defend against him.

The worst thing on this forum is when people put greats on this kind of pedestal.

Rock is only human. I guarantee there is not a fighter in written history that would find Ike a walkover. Let alone a fighter giving away 50 pounds in weight.

How anyone How an **** upon this matchup is fukin beyond me. Grow the **** up man.

 

I am not putting marciano on a pedestal i think others are putting ibeabuchi on a pedestal. Tua kept finding him with sweeping over hand rights and most people believe he beat ike anyway. knocking out bryd before he became a top 3 heavyweight is kind of like Tua knocking out Ruiz before he became a top 3 heavyweight ...it dont make no all time great.

All ibeabuchi proved was he was a big versatile heavyweight with a good workrate and fair chin at contender level. World class yes. All time great class no. sure ike would and should give even the greatest in history a test since he was proven at world class.

Based on his Tua fight performance it showed ike was as good as most champions had been for their coming out show case fight but he would need to build on it surely? He was about where Tyson was against Mitch green, promising. Against a one handed strong short heavyweight ibeabuchi showed for four rounds he could beat the slower man to the punch without hurting him. Then as Tua got into the fight ike showed he wasnt hard to hit. Although he would carry on trading It was no dominating performance - just a tough fight.

As for the workrate it was good but the highest number of punches were recorded in rounds where less force was used. Ike was outworking Tua more in a defensive way to prevent david from getting set - he wasn't kicking ass or trying to. working his hands like that wasnt hurting anyone. Now people can get carried away and say that kind of work against a 30lb lighter fighter would be lethal but the smaller man would have more room to react when ike was leaning across tua's cumbersome body to let his hands go.

 

All good posts

 

intrestingly in the commentary for ike's fight against 210 unbeaten Greg pikrom the commentator says "greg looks the same size, these are both big guys" at that point greg is considered the better prospect -( especially after he knocks ibeabuchi onto one knee) the commentary discuss the merits of cruiserweights, something is said about because Pickrom had started out at 174 would he make a great cruiserweight? the other guy says who would want a cruiserweight unless he had to? which kind of explains the whole 1990s heavyweight ethos. Here we have two muscular heavyweights comparable in size and frame only one once weighed 174 pounds. Nobody wanted to be a cruiserweight. It begs the question that if cruiser did not exist would fighters need to build themselves up beyond its limit? Now i am not suggesting there is proof if ibeabuchi was ever smaller than 220 but the guy was not naturaly proportioned. On checking the record of pickrom (comparable frame to ibeabuchi remember) his bodymass grew by 35lb within his first year as a pro. hmmmm....

 

[delete ]

 

rocky takes him out late as ikes discipline fades.

 

He wasn't the greatest ever but his style made him a nightmare for other fighters much in the way that Frazier gave fits to Ali. Too much is made of Marciano's size and not enough of his relentlessnes and will to win. You would have to pin him to the floor to beat him and unless you had the punch to acheive that you would be in for a hell of a fight. You should also not underestimate the calibre of opponent that he beat with Walcott, Charles Moore and Louis being Hall of Fame fighters. Few of today's fighters have anything near these guys skill levels.

 

:deal Sounds right to me.

 

Was Tua slower than Marciano?

 

Tua was quicker than Marciano both of hand and foot, and he was NOT ONE HANDED, he scored ko's with his right cross and had an excellent right uppercut! He was also no easier to hit than Marciano! Tua is 5'10" Marciano just1/2taller,Tua has more reach and a better chin plus he had a jab!.

 

Marciano was not human that is the whole point, he was a god who defied the laws of physics and refuted the eye- test.

 

I'm not sure Marciano's style is suited to beating much bigger guys. Let's say he had modern "help" and he went up to 200lbs: would he be effective at that weight?

It's hard to say, when you consider how Holyfield added considerable weight yet kept his key strengths of durability and high work rate. But Holyfield also had good mobility, reach and height going for him.

It's all guesswork with Rocky because he didn't fight big heavyweights. I just have the feeling that Marciano was ideally suited to the smaller heavyweights, in the same way that Hagler was a perfect middleweight, but might have looked an average light heavy.

 

He was a pretty special athlete. But yeah, people tend to stretch what he could accomplish.

But let's not let that diminish how special he was.