Who did Ike Ibeabuchi knockout?

Apart from my own vision and common sense telling me so? Maybe an 87% KO ratio, achieved against (if you can believe it) a significantly better level of opposition, overall, in more than double the fights than Ibeabuchi.

In addition, I think Vitali's stoppages were, in the main, a more impressive demonstration of raw power. Ibeabuchi tended to deliver stoppage wins from a swarming cluster of hard punches to finish his man off, once he had them going. Vitali, in general, took a measured few shots (and maybe one for luck) against a similar level of opposition, to get the job done - more efficiently.


I'd even go as far as to say that Vitali's KO of Hide is better than Ibeabuchi's over Byrd. Either way, as far as I am concerned, there is more than enough evidence in favor of Vitali K. being the bigger puncher.



By the way, I forgot to add Wlad to my list of bigger punchers.

 

1. No it isn't Byrd's winning streak includes gift decisions and he was past prime. Ike's win is better

2. So what? Vitali couldn't stop Byrd and quit, Ike beat him and left him drooling

3. Who cares, Ike beat Byrd, Holyfield did not

4. Some technical boxers who are strong enough may give him problems

5. I think a Holyfield fight is close IMO With no KO

 

Add McCall, Jimmy Thunder and Sanders.

 

I see my mistake. I misread your post. You were referring to Tua as being "arguably the biggest puncher in the division". My bad.

To be fair, however, the upshot of my error was probably a well-due perspective on Ibeabuchi's own punching power.


As far as Tua is concerned, sure, he could pull out big punches, but he could also get drawn in to mauling affair's which resulted in reducing his opportunities to do so; smothering his own work. The Ibeabuchi bout is one such example.

I actually don't think Tua was particularly heavy handed; he had just perfected the timing of his left hook, with varying results. Often he'd just lose rounds, waiting for an opening. And, it bailed him out of some close-run affairs and the odd not so close-run affairs, in which a stoppage was the only way for him to win.



By the way, I don't think Tua was the biggest punching heavyweight in the division at that time, either.

 

He’s arm punching shitty jabs. It’s the only motion that partially spares the rotator cuff.

 

Yes

shitty jab—>little shoulder rotation

 

All of the punches he’s throwing are with his arm low and they aren’t good punches. When he lifts the arm, it’s only a measuring stick because he’s restricted from throwing a proper jab.

 

Ok, let me back up. I agree that he didn't throw many hard lefts late in the fight, and I wouldn't be surprised if he had some kind of partial rotator cuff tear, seeing how it's such a broad class of injuries and all. But I'm skeptical that he had the kind of severe-pain-causing tear that would take him out of the fight such that it was necessary for him to quit. But all that's a tangent. In any event, it's not clear to me that a fully-healthy Vitali hit harder than Ike either.

 

What exactly do you want me to see? I watched the Lewis footage and I'm not sure VItali threw a single notable left in the entire segment. The way Vitali dangles his left when he's not punching with it and mostly throws pawing, pushing or range-finding punches with it is reminiscent of...the Byrd fight.

Vitali was more tentative against Byrd than he was against the likes of Danny Williams in part because of whatever was wrong with his shoulder and in part because he was befuddled by Byrd's defensive acumen.

 

As has already been pointed out to you, their respective records support Vitali being the bigger puncher. But, even without the ledgers and the stats therein, it doesn't take a lot of working out, if you've watched more than just the Ibeabuchi/Byrd and Vitali/Byrd bouts.

 

Yeah, these guys just stood around smothering their work. No hard punches, punch resistance, or skills shown, really:
https://streamable.com/