Thoughts about Tua-Ibeabuchi

was a great fight that will be remembered for so many reasons. The sheer size difference and the punch stats for one thing.

 

I scored it even at 6 rounds a piece. Ask me to pick a winner and I'd say Tua because he landed the heavier, more damaging blows throughout the fight.

 

I had Tua winning a close fight. Rare thing these days to see 2 undefeated heavyweight contenders actually looking for tough fights and risking it all.

 

i think that is extremely inaccurate.

 

The fight was close, and if someone sees it as 115:113 for any fighter is is OK with me.

It is also true Ike was still quite crude fighter at this time. It makes his achievement against prime Tua only more impressive - there were a lot of fighters who were able to outjab Tua for a couple of rounds, but no one went toe to toe with him and survived the distance, let alone made the fight close (as I said, I do not want to discuss if it was 115:113 for Ike or for Tua, I think it is irrevelant in this aspect).

What is impressing it that Ike, despite his shortcomings and lack of experience was still able to win with prime Byrd and Tua, having himself below 20 fights (I guess that also means he was only part-time boxer for a good part of his short career, although it is only my guess). This is also why I'm usually giving Ike some benefit of the doubt when discussing hypothetical matches - if Wlad and Lewis, who both had impressive amateurs career and started pro boxing as real professionals, were still able to improve their style a lot, I am almost sure Ike would do even more. By the way Tua, who generally went downhill after this fight, was nevertheless considered the best boxer of 90's without a belt by many.

 

I had Ibeabuchi winning 115-113. I thought he outlanded Tua with accurate, clean punches. As the fight went into the later rounds, Tua started landing good, heavy shots but they were too few and far between to get him out of the hole he was in, with Ibeabuchi dominant over the first half.

Great fight though - I watched it a couple of weeks ago and it was a reminder of what Heavyweight boxing can be.

 

I had Ike by a round, but it was very close.
115-113 either way is ok with me.

 

i have never seen so many brutal shots by such powerful heavies that didn't ko one or the other.

plenty of good heavies have copped big punishment and stayed on their feet and some even ended up winning, but there were dozens of big shots that would have ko'd virtually every other heavyweight.

i watched a fight between alex leapai vs pieter cronje a couple of years ago and they litterally bashed each other every round and the ref could have stopped the fight for either fighter at almost every round and u would have thought, 'oh good he just saved the poor guy from permanent brain damage'.

the difference with the tua vs ibeabuchi fight was that it was a much tidier fight.

 

I saw it pretty much the same way. Ike early rounds, but he was clearly outboxed by Tua in the later rounds.

The fight was excellent, because two evenly matched young guys were tearing non-stop into each other.

But to say Ike was a second coming of anything as many believe is way way optimistic. He may have become better, no question, but he was basically a couple of levels below Lewis at the time (there's no shame in that though).

 

i loved this fight. Ike got mystique because of his prison sentence but thought he squeaked by tua in this one.think lewis would have owned ike by keeping him at distance.

 

i remember watching this fight thinking tua was just going to knock him out because i had never heard of ibeabuchi. little did i know i would watching a top 10 1990's heavyweight fight. two fighters, in shape heavyweights with iron chins and punching power banging away at each other 12 rounds taking each other's shots with smiles on their faces. i thought ibeabuchi won it by a round but for all his flaws ike was a special fighter and a legit threat

 

I had Tua winning by a round. I was suprised Ike got the decision considering he was relatively unknown and Tua was really hyped at the time. Im still wondering why they took on Ike, but maybe they thought he was another Duncan Dokiwari?