James Toney vs. Ike Ibeabuchi

its true lol, outside of the 2nd round name me a round where toney didnt block shoulder roll all his punches and smash peter in the face with counter right hands? Toney clearly won the fight, one of the worst decisions of the new millenium

 

Ike wins this. He was relentless, fast, and too damn strong.

 

Ike easily.

 

Because we're talking about the heavyweight Toney here, who always had a horrible workrate and his feet stuck in the mud. If you want to put the SMW Toney in there, fine, but i don't think he makes it out of the 5th round, after literally being thrown around the ring like nothing.

 

I think Ike gets overrated off of what could've been. Well here's a newsflash: It wasn't. This "he coulda been something" crap means nothing.

Strong guy, yes, but crude. Byrd was outboxing him off the ropes until he got caught. The Tua and Byrd wins were nice, but Ike was a swarmer with not much other skill. Toney feasts on guys that don't have any other weapons, say, a jab, or any lateral movement. The version of Toney at heavy that beat Holy would most likely counter the raw Ike inside all night and take a decision.

 

He had a high output in a cruiserweight fight with Jirov. His numbers were on the high side for a heavyweight against Ruiz and Holyfield as well.

In an out of shape performance against Rahman in their first bout, Toney still averaged over 50 punches per round.

 

Toney would present a different type of tricky fighter for IKE but I think Ike was possibly the next real solid opponent for Lennox Lewis with a solid chance, he blew it like Tony Ayala....could it have been Roids?... but I pick IKE

 

Are you sure about the 50 a round against Rahman? I don't have my fights at the moment so i can't check, but i highly doubt that number.

 

I think you should re-watch the Byrd fight. It was about even on the scorecards, but Ibeabuchi won the 3rd and 4th rather convincingly and it's not like he landed a lucky punch in the 5th; he was landing big shots several times the two rounds before that.

I think he would've matched up bad with a fast, long jabber that works on the outside, but his defence on the inside was excellent. He was very consistent at block Tua's left hook, which barely landed during the first five rounds.

If you want to talk about overrated, then Toney comes up sooner. "Yes the Toney that beat Holyfield would've easily beaten him! Didn't you see how he managed to beat up a near shot 42 year old Holyfield!?"

 

No, thats Thats Vitali. You see Ike Ibeubuchi actually beat young in shape top contenders. Ike was a very talented versatile fighter on film, he would have been champion at some point. Him and Lennox might have had a great trilogy in 2000. What a waste. I have a ring magazine article interviewing curtis cokes about ike personality and views on life, ike was a maniac!

 

That is nearly 53 punches per round.

 

Well i'd have to re-watch the fight later (starting a caffeine diet now to survive) because i'd guess they counted pitter patter tabs during a clinch as punches. Maybe my memory is wrong, but i cannot remember Toney throwing 10 punches more than the heavyweight average; more like the other way around.

 

Well, it is still not much comparing to Ike who was able to average more than 80 punches per round against Tua.

Ike is overrated? Well, maybe. But IMHO Toney at HW is a lot more overrated. He won with ancient Holyfield, overrated Guinn... and who else - besides shot version of Rahman? One may argue he should've won close UD in the first fight with Peter - but Peter is worse than Ike in every aspect one can think of (chin, stamina, workrate,...).

I think Ike simply outworks him. Toney can make him look crude at times, but you don't get rounds for that. And if he tries to trade with Ike there is a chance he gets badly KO'd (I don't believe Toney at HW was really more durable than prime Byrd).