Good lord what a fight that was! One of the best that I've seen from that era. Both were like 24 years old... Scary as f*ck for that kind of age when you think about it! Ike was a specimen with an unbelievable work-rate, as he looked like a Body-Builder but had the lungs of a Cheetah! Tua surprised me with his work-rate, too. An Excellent HW fight that has so much replay value. Anyone watched it recently? That fight HAD to have played a huge part in Ike falling apart. He had so much potential. Imagine Ike/Lewis!?!?! Damn...
Great fight and both had good potential. I know it doesn't work like that, but you can gauge how Ike would have done against Lewis when Tua fought him. I know there different fighters, but i would have picked Lewis to do a number on Ike. Lewis gave Tua a boxing lesson and i think he was a level above Ike as well.
Lennox would be the heardest fight for him to take. Far easier route would have been Commander Vander who was giving some up and down performances. but a guy looking to be taken. But that isn't exactly an easy fight either. Who was WBO champ then, Hide? That's the path to take, no matter whom---WBO.
It is a great fight but the two of them were nit bouncing their best shots off each other quite the way people think. The pace those two set meant neither were putting full force into their hooks in that vastly over rated fight of youngsters yet to make the grade. exchanging blows at that pace mid combination looks entertaining but to really make an impression with power shots you need to set traps, step in and counter and catch some one blind with a well timed shot. At close range there was not room for either to really step in with power, They hit each other enough times but it was not monster shots. They were reading each other and rolling with punches. Think about it.
Agreed. The Cooper-Mercer slugfest was the toughly contested bout where both guys were digging deep in there.
Lewis had an easier time with Tua, than Ike did, I think Lewis would have beaten Ike too.. Tua, Ike was a good scrap, but I liked Bowe Holyfield, 1 better, and Lewis Klitchko better as well.
When Ike "The President" beat David Tua it was for the WBC intercontinental title so it looked like he was going down the WBC route. The champions were at that point. IBF - Michael Moorer WBA - Evander Holyfield WBC - Lennox Lewis WBO - Herbie Hide No doubt about it the easiest route would have been Herbie Hide for the WBO title. As Moorer and Holyfield just signed up for a unification fight and i think Lewis was fighting Henri Akinwande at the time. Herbie Hide - Ike Ibeabuchi would have been a ******* whilst it lasted.
Literally, the closest thing to this match I've seen in the past five heavyweight years involved Odlanier Solis trying to put on a pair of jeans. He lost that match.
Great fight should have been a draw no loser in that one and it was razor close. Tua had to work really hard to stay in that kind of condition and Ike was nuts but little did we know how quickly both those great prospects would fizzle out. Ikes destruction of Chris Byrd was great too. He had the good to be an ATG heavy, he just didnt have the mind. Tua was always limited but made up for a lot of that with his relentless attack. Once his conditioning was compromised he was reduced quite a bit.
