I'm actually vaguely interested in this fight. At least he's fighting someone else that's old and washed up.
He was not released in 2015. I know someone who worked as a correctional officer in Arizona and he was in the same detention center where Ike Ibeabuchi was being held at shortly before COVID hit. Ibeabuchi ended up being transferred elsewhere. There's more info on his recent activity here:
Ike was THE heavyweight prospect back in the day, it was a complete shock to the boxing world when he got sentenced Forget about him, its too late
It's never too late. As for a fighter being sentenced and causing trauma for the boxing world—give me a break. Plenty of fighters have faced similar challenges. Let’s focus on what's inside the ring. I believe he's the cleanest heavyweight ever—no low blows, no clinching, no dirty tactics. His muscles are natural, no steroids. He's training daily, as shown on his YouTube. He refused medication during his sentence to protect his motor skills. He hasn’t killed anyone—he might’ve done less harm than, say, a Sean Diddy or Epstein’s associates. Let’s keep it about boxing. The guy’s back. Just let him fight.
Another name that comes to mind is Shannon Briggs. On BoxRec, it shows he is scheduled to fight on July 1st. It's crazy how the world of boxing misses so many opportunities to create the fights we want to see. https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/4629 Ibeabuchi vs. Briggs any day, man!
If he wants to fight Briggs, or a Tua rematch, someone else of the era like Rahmen, all well and good. He doesn't need to be mixing it up with any lions.
The article says different. In 2025 once he was relesed he was in talks to fight Andy Ruiz on Pac s undercard hooking up woth Koncz aswell. That fell of aswell as his freedom in april 2016. Since then details are sketchy as he was in ICE and so forth and they kept him in limbo an inadequate period of time(ironic considering what is happening in Cali now re ICE). Last year he was supposed to fight some egyptian journeyman but fell through on a nigerian card. Lets hope this stays intact if we can say that about a contract between 2 fighters with no backing.