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Who would win this fight and why? I think Joshua would dwarf Ibeabuchi in stature and would have the edge in power.
However I think David Tua hit much harder then Klitschko did and we saw the way Joshua crumpled from the straight right hand. I think one or two left hooks on Joshua's chin by David and it would be lights out. However Ibeabuche took everything that Tua had to offer.
So Ibeabuchi has the advantage in the chin Department.
It's a tough call. I would like to say Ibeabuchi edges it out
AJ is a tough fighter and could use his height and reach to keep Ike off . If. It went into a war he could take that too. Remember we have not seen the best of AJ yet so he could win it.
Still weird to me how lasting the legend/myth of Ibeabuchi as some dominate monster is off 1-2 fights. Ike screwed himself and totally lost his marbles at the first sign of big league success. Physically and mentally. As long as Joshua gets his head out of the clouds and keeps focus in the ring I think he had the composure, skillset and pop to see himself to a win.
Now that you guys have mentioned some of those points I tend to agree. I think Masters right that Joshua could handle himself in a dog fight. ike could only hope to turn this into a street fight. There's no way he have boxes Joshua with the reach that AJ has as master has said.
Now as far as what 'spiccoli said it's true that the myth or the legend based off of one or two fights is a bit overblown to say the leastperiod yet those one or two fights were against really top Prime heavyweights and so it's the same situation maybe with Riddick Bowe where is best three fights were against one of the greatest of all time Evander Holyfield. But what else did Bo really do? He never fought Lennox Lewis and he look like crap against Andrew golota
Prime Ike beats current AJ soundly. Parker would have been a victim of assault and battery against Ike. Remember the Tua fight when Ike showed what he was all about. He could have had it all had he not decided to rape a prostitute. And who in the f--k does that?
Rape a whore? Is that what he did? so how many years did he have to serve for that?Quote:
Originally Posted by holmcall
Well there was that PLUS kidnapping a child who was critically injured in a car accident (Ike was driving) and I believe that the rape of the prostitute also had another kidnapping charge with it. Ike is not a mentally well person and could have been that way all the time OR it could have been CTE or maybe both.Quote:
Originally Posted by brocktonblockbustRape a whore? Is that what he did? so how many years did he have to serve for that?Quote:
Originally Posted by holmcall
I think Ike Ibeabuchi is tremendously overrated, he had some good fights and with Tua a great fight, but again other fighters from Nigeria with a similar style have shown glimpses of greatness only for them to wind up being fodder for classier heavyweights.
Imagine if you will Samuel Peter a good quality fighter in his own right getting arrested and having his career end after knocking out Taurus Sykes and he was 24(21 KO)-0-0....people would have been saying the exact same things about Sam Peter as they did about Ike... "He could beat anyone" "He's invincible" "He'd demolish the current heavyweights" etc.
Maybe Ike Ibeabuchi was as good as advertised maybe not....I think the guy paid little to no attention to stopping punches with anything other than his face and eventually that would catch up with him. He was bigger than Tua, he was bigger than Byrd, he beat both of those guys, but he NEVER fought a guy like Holyfield or Lewis who were more complete fighters than Tua or Byrd.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brocktonblockbustRape a whore? Is that what he did? so how many years did he have to serve for that?Quote:
Originally Posted by holmcall
Plenty. When you commit a crime in Las Vegas like that, they throw away the key. It's all about setting an example so the tourist can feel safe and continue to lose their money. Or get shot to death by a mass killer. Ike picked the wrong city for his "inappropriate behavior." The "Me Too" movement would have made hash out of ham! :o:o:o:o:o:o:o
Ike really had paranoid schizophrenia
Yeah either that or DavidTuaRepeatedlyPunchedHimInTheHeadFor12Rounds-itusQuote:
Originally Posted by brocktonblockbust
I say Ike too. But it would be a war.Quote:
Originally Posted by brocktonblockbust
I think Ike was railroaded. 16 years!!!!!
By Matt Richardson
Boxing history is littered with hypotheticals.
Anyone who follows the sport already knows the questions.
What if Muhammad Ali hadn’t spent his prime years in exile? How great could Salvador Sanchez have been if he hadn’t died prematurely? Was Tony Ayala Jr. destined to be the next junior middleweight champion?
The theories are endless.
In modern times, the proverbial speculation takes place in the heavyweight division, specifically in the championship potential of Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi.
***
It was March 20th, 1999, approximately 170 hours after Lennox Lewis was robbed of the undisputed heavyweight championship in a dubious draw with Evander Holyfield. There was already talk of a rematch but on this Saturday night the attention of the boxing world was firmly on the future of the division.
Unbeaten Chris Byrd and undefeated Ike Ibeabuchi were set to fight to determine who would position himself for a shot at Lewis. The slick Byrd was 26-0, Ibeabuchi 19-0. Byrd was the quicker and more elusive of the two but it was Ibeabuchi, who had turned back David Tua in a grueling battle 21 months earlier, that had the power and mystique. In an HBO-televised main event they got it on at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington.
The fight demonstrated both men’s abilities. Byrd got in and out quickly with his punches and his defense was tight. Ibeabuchi remained undeterred, however, and continued to come forward and cut off the ring. After four completed rounds, Ibeabuchi led on the scorecard of HBO’s Harold Lederman, 39-37. Official judge’s scores going into the fifth were even: 39-37 for Ibeabuchi and 39-37 for Byrd with one tally at 38-38.
Then, with less than a minute left to the halfway point of the fight, Ibeabuchi connected with a wide left hook. Byrd fell forward and on to the canvas. He rose unsteadily; drool dripping from his mouth, but the end was near. He went down again almost immediately once the action resumed and after taking additional punishment following the second count, the fight was called off.
And just like that, Byrd had his first loss, Ibeabuchi had his most impressive win to date and a shot for the title was inevitably his.
“I’m ready,” Ibeabuchi told HBO’s Larry Merchant in the ring after the fight concluded. “I’m ready for the best,” he said. “I’m now ready for the heavyweight championship of the world.”
But Ibeabuchi never fought again.
***
It’s difficult to estimate what could’ve been with Ike Ibeabuchi. Certainly at that point in 1999 he had a legitimate claim as the top heavyweight contender. In less than two years he had beaten two undefeated heavyweights. He was exciting and powerful. There was even talk about him fighting Michael Grant (the other heavyweight trying to angle for a title shot) that summer.
“Well, I think back then when he fought Tua and he fought Chris Byrd, he could’ve been the next superstar. Not just a world champion,” said Michael Koncz, advisor to Manny Pacquiao and a friend of Ibeabuchi.
“I think he had the qualities, had he stayed on track, to become a superstar in the heavyweight division. Because his style of boxing is crowd friendly. They liked to see all those punches and he had power,” Koncz continued.
But it was all for naught that July when Ibeabuchi was accused of sexually assaulting a dancer he’d hired to come to his Las Vegas hotel room.
His career was essentially over before it began. In 2001, Ibeabuchi submitted an Alford plea on charges of battery with intent to commit a crime and attempted sexual assault and he received sentences of two to 10 years for convicted battery and three to 20 on an attempted sexual assault charge. The convictions would be served consecutively, a judge ordered.
Forget superstardom or even a title shot. The boxer would wind up being incarcerated until February 2014, just a few weeks shy of the 15th anniversary of the Byrd stoppage. By the time he was released from prison, he was 41 years old…but close to his fighting weight and still looking for that title shot.
***
Ibeabuchi hoped to fight immediately but there was an additional delay. The Nigerian was held by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) in Arizona until being released last November. Then, toward the end of 2015, word came that he was looking to box again and possibly even return on the under card of Pacquiao’s fight this Saturday against Tim Bradley.
That’s not happening but he is currently training in Arizona and hopeful to become licensed there or Nevada sometime shortly.
“I’m feeling very well,” he told FightNews in an exclusive interview. “I feel very good. I’ve been training very well. I’m in very good shape to fight now in any fight, in any scheduled bout, in any scheduled round of any fight. I have been training in Arizona, mainly on my physical condition and I feel very good about my condition at this time. Since November, since my release, we found a place to train and I have been training there since. I weigh 250.”
There was talk of Ibeabuchi fighting undefeated Andy Ruiz Jr. in his first fight back but guys who’ve been off for 17 years don’t come right out and fight a contender. Even Ibeabuchi. Still, “The President” says he doesn’t see any candidates in the current version of the weight class.
“I feel that the crops of heavyweights now are very miniature,” he said. “They are not good. I can beat all of them in one night, I swear to God. They are not good. What the world has now is heavyweights that are mediocre as compared to the likes of Lewis and Tyson or Holyfield. These guys can’t fight! You can see that. I could go in there and beat all of them up, I swear to God.”
“The only opponent, the only person that I believe could fight, or would be determined to fight, would be Wladimir Klitschko,” Ibeabuchi stated. “But all the other guys are fake. They can’t stand 12 rounds with me, I swear to God. So, this is a chance I have and I want to prove it by being in the ring and that’s the truth.”
Ibeabuchi said he understood that there could be potential opposition in his effort to fight again however he refused to get into specifics about his past.
“I don’t want to discuss that rape charge if you don’t recognize the meaning to the accusation,” he said. “Anyone who intends to bring up a conviction, a charge against me, without the notion of that ruling of the Supreme Court is at misconduct already, where they’re insulting my intelligence. I don’t want to answer anything about that.”
As for rumors about a potential deportation out of the U.S., Ibeabuchi denied any action.
“Immigration had me for over 18 months and released me upon the merit of a free person so there were no other jurisdictions to charge me on the same issue,” he said. “Before this year runs out I shall have my passport and my green card. The ruling in this matter by immigration has been to maintain the legal order which were in prior pursuit of receiving my documents, including the citizenship.”
While in prison, the fighter said he obtained a trio of associate-level college degrees—in general studies, business and management. Despite the lengthy incarceration, however, he said he remained focused on boxing.
“When I watched boxing (from jail), I believed that my time would come,” he said. “If I waited, the waiting shall only make me greater than I was before. I never doubted my return as to the benefit of waiting, if you know what I mean. I watched the boxing from jail but I never doubted that my time would come. I knew that, even as I speak today, that I’m ready to beat all these young guys…all this young crop of heavyweights, as we have them now, to show them that I have been waiting for the benefit of doing that. Like I said, I have to be in the ring to prove it and that’s the truth.”
Still, the fighter had to be upset that he missed out on that likely title shot, right?
“No,” he said, “they missed their chance of being in the ring with me. That’s how we say that because I was undisturbed as to the level of my competition. In 1997 it would have been a tougher fight between me and Lennox Lewis. But that fight was refused by Lennox Lewis’ camp.”
What happens from here is unclear. Ibeabuchi wants to fight again soon. The attached photo demonstrates his physical readiness but being ready in the gym and being ready to fight in the ring, especially after such a long layoff, are two different things.
“I believe that time has not evaded me,” Ibeabuchi concluded. “I believe that I have not been denied of my rights to becoming a world champion. Because the last person I beat became a world champion and my thinking still exists as one who should be a world champion. In this country, we are here as a free and civilized people. The opportunity for Ibeabuchi to fight for the heavyweight championship should be given and not be concluded prematurely. That he ‘could have been’ or ‘could not be’ or even some had me retired. That’s preposterous! I never announced my retirement. Everyone knew that I was incarcerated. How could I have been a retiree? I never retired in boxing. It’s a calamity to read about yourself being retired by other’s notions. I was never retired. I never openly announced my retirement, which is the proper way it’s done.”
“They cannot count me as one who could’ve been a world champion,” he stated. “The interest to becoming a world champion still exists in me. I want to be a world champion because I had the right in the world of boxing to be a world champion. That’s why I came to this country and that’s what I shall be in this country – the heavyweight boxing champion, Ike Ibeabuchi. That’s final.”
From Wikipedia:
A couple of months after the Tua fight, Ibeabuchi abducted the 15-year-old son of his former girlfriend and slammed his car into a concrete pillar on Interstate 35 north of Austin, Texas. According to the criminal complaint, the boy suffered 'numerous injuries' from the accident 'and will never walk normally again'. The courts concluded Ibeabuchi was trying to commit suicide, and he was sentenced to 120 days in jail after pleading guilty to false imprisonment. Ibeabuchi also paid a $500,000 civil settlement.
Ibeabuchi developed a new persona based on his nickname, 'The President'. At times when he was being churlish or refusing to complete a simple requirement such as attending a weigh-in, his handlers would appeal to The President's regal nature by convincing him it was the noble thing to do. "There were times when he thought he was really a president", boxing promoter and former HBO Sports executive Lou DiBella said. "He would get into these mental states where he insisted on people calling him 'The President'. It was his alter ago, where 'I am The President,' not of the United States, but maybe president of the world."
Once, Ibeabuchi wielded a knife during a dinner meeting in New York to discuss a possible three fight HBO deal. "We were having a fine meal at a nice restaurant", Promoter Cedric Kushner said, "and mid-course Ike picked up a big carving knife, slammed it into the table and screamed 'They knew it! They knew it! The belts belong to me! Why don't they just give them back?'" "That was a peculiar experience", Kushner said. "That wasn't the type of conduct I expected to romance the guy from HBO. He (Ibeabuchi) was like a Viking."
******
Following the win over Byrd, Ibeabuchi turned down $700,000 to fight fringe contender Jeremy Williams, and also turned down $1 million for a showdown with the undefeated Michael Grant.
*****
In July 1999, Ibeabuchi was staying at The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas when he phoned a local escort service and had a woman sent to his room. The 21-year-old woman said later she was there to strip and nothing else. She claimed Ibeabuchi attacked her in the walk-in closet after she demanded to be paid up front. Ibeabuchi barricaded himself in the bathroom and police discharged pepper spray under the door until he surrendered.
Ibeabuchi's legal defense faced the further difficulty of the Clark County DA's reopening of a similar sexual assault allegation against him from eight months earlier which took place at Treasure Island Hotel and Casino. Ibeabuchi was released on bail and placed under house arrest, able to train and fight again until his trial. He was remanded after two more similar allegations surfaced from Arizona.
Ibeabuchi was deemed incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a state facility. Medical experts concluded he exhibited bipolar disorder and a judge granted permission to force-medicate him. Eight months later, two and a half years after his arrest, he was ruled cogent enough to plea.
*****
Ibabuchi, who remains on lifetime probation in the State of Arizona, failed to begin a required treatment program. Ibeabuchi is being held until September 25, 2019, by Arizona, and will complete supervision on March 25, 2020, at which time he will be 47 years old, at which time he will face a detainer issued on February 16, 2018, by the United States Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE).
I think Ike could have absolutely held a title, but I'm not certain how much more than that he'd achieve not because of any lack of talent but because A: Up to that point in his career he had just conquered guys who were very good at 1 thing, not well rounded fighters and B: His mental state varied from batshit crazy to extremely batshit crazy.
I believe well rounded fighters like Lennox and Holyfield would have ruined Ike...Ike allowed David Tua to hit him, yeah he took the punches, but that's not the picture of long term success because those punches add up. I would have loved for him to continue his career and not been in all that trouble outside the ring, but he fucked up and followed each fuck up with a newer more impressive fuck up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by brocktonblockbust
Yes and No