Your opinion of Ike Quartey

He took that limited style a lot farther than Tackie and Clottey. He should’ve been with Steward.

 

Good enough to beat Forrest and De La Hoya. No shame in either losing to him, you lose to good fighters even if you’re great it’s part of the game the upsetting part is when the great fighter is great off the back of robbing the very good, I wouldn’t call Forrest or De La Hoya that before anyone says so, anyways… I’d call Ike Oscars and Forrest’s best “win” which says a lot for the man truly.

 

He was one of my favorites. Had a great career and achieved a lot, but I believe He had a potential to achieve even more.

He was apparently very dedicated and disciplined when it came to physical side of preparations, I remember Roy Jones saying, while calling one of Ike's fights, that Ike spent some times in his camp and He was very knowledgable and disciplined when it came to diet and physical preparation.

I don't believe that Ike had the same kind of dedication when it came to technical side of the game though. When You watch his early fights, He actually looks more solid and "tighter" with his technique. At that time He was fighting out of France and training with some French coaches there. I think They were putting more emphasis on technique.

My impression was that once He moved to U.S, He began to rely more on his natural talents and more often You'd see his hands drop. Even if it's exaggeration to say that He was declining, He certainly stopped developing imo. I think a little bit more discipline could've gotten him over the edge against Oscar and then that could set him up to be the best welterweight of his generation - possibly.

Even when I look at Joshua Clottey, who was his sparring partner in Ghana - I think He developed into better defensive fighter because He wasn't quite as imposing and athlethic as Quartey, who could win fights with his strength and power. Clottey had to master his defence to be effective.

Another thing that make Quartey underachiver is once He made money, He quickly shifted his focus to business ventures in Ghana. Wasn't very active even coming into Oscar fight, then after that fought Vargas after another lay-off... and then retired for 5 years I think (Not going to look up on boxrec).

He came back eventually, had some decent results - close win over Verno Phillips that He probably should've lost and close loss to Vernon that He should've won. Decent fight with his old friend from France Winky too... but He was not elite fighter at that point anymore.

I still enjoy going back to watch his fight. Like his style and arrogance in the ring.

 

One hell of a jab is always the first thing that comes to mind when I hear Quartey’s name. I loved watching his fights.

 

Absolutely loved him! He is a hall of fame caliber fighter that arguably beat a prime Oscar and damn sure deserved the win against Vernon Forrest. Had he not taken five years off after losing to Vargas he likely would have won more titles. Aside from having an incredible jab and that high guard, he was tough as nails. Never stopped in his 20 year career. I still think he would have beat Tito the same way Winky did.

A lot of folks don't know this but he was very good friends with Winky Wright when Wright was an up and coming fighter. Wright used to be more of a mover early in his career and then starting using the high guard after working with Ike im the gym. Winky took that style and ran with it.

 

He had a hard jab because of the way that he threw it; he rocked his weight forward onto his left foot.
That will give you a hard jab but it will wreck your right hand- you will throw it like a jab, with no weight turning on it, unless you rock your weight back after the jab, then turn it back onto the left foot.
Rocking your weight onto the left foot when you jab will also ruin your ability to move when you punch. This was apparent in the DLH fight when Ike hurt Oscar but couldn't close distance behind his jab.

 

I think it's to great credit of Winky's - that while He adopted that style later in his career, He still developed into clearly superior defensive fighter than Ike. Wish Ike was able to "steal" some things from Winky as well, could've made him a true force.

I think one more thing worth mentioning is I felt He clearly beat Jose Luis Lopez. He got dropped couple times, but other than that - He outjabbed him round by round. He dropped CompuBox record for jabs landed in a fight on that night - and Ike's jab was harder than most fighter's power punches.

 

Very good fighter with top 10 jab of all time, I always remember when he fought Jung Oh Park, and his face after looked like a blow fish. One of the best jabbing masterclasses I've ever seen.

Most of his losses outside of the razor thin one to ODLH, were above his natural weight class Jr Middleweight to Vargas, Jr Middleweight to Forrest, Middleweight to Wright. And i thought he beat Forrest quite clearly and was very hard done by.

In his prime at his best weight he's a handful for pretty much most of the top Welterweights past/present, it's a shame we never see him fight Mosley or Trinidad.

On a side note i think Jose Luis Lopez the fighter he drew with in a entertaining fight, is even more underrated and didn't fulfill his potential.

 

Quartey was too small vs Vargas even though he put up a competitive fight, that fight is one example of size making a difference.

 

Very good fighter who went inactive at the wrong time. He could have stayed in the picture but like 3 fights in four years held him back. Had him beating López, De La Hoya, and Forrest. If he gets those verdicts, his career would look a lot rosier.

 

Since nobody has said it yet, yes he performed well against Forrest but that was a Forrest who was bouncing back from a bad shoulder injury and was never quite the same.

 

That's certainly true. It was a match-up of two veterans, both still solid - Vernon came on to win a belt and Ike was definitely good enough to do so also in rather weak 154 division back then - but also both clearly past their prime.

 

His fight with Oscar De La Hoya is a classic and round 12 is one of the most exciting I've seen.