Ike “Bazooka” Quartey: The Business of Boxing.

This Saturday night, the televised under-card of the “Gentleman” Glen Johnson vs. Antonio “Magic Man” Tarver fight features a 160-pound tilt between former WBA welterweight champion Ike “Bazooka” Quartey (35-2-1 with 30 KOs) taking on former IBF light middleweight titlist Verno Philips (39-9-1 with 20 KOs). This will mark the second fight in Quartey’s comeback since his retirement from boxing five years ago. Although Ike held the WBA welterweight title for five years (1994-1999), he only defended it eight times during his reign, and the inactivity definitely caught up to him. After losing the belt to Oscar de la Hoya in 1999, which was a hell of a battle, Quartey sat around on the heels of his great performance against the “Golden Boy” and waited to cash in. In 2000, after a fourteen-month layoff from his fight with Oscar, “Bazooka” stepped into the ring against “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas, at the 154-pound weight limit. The move up in weight, and lack of activity would show, as the younger, stronger, naturally bigger Vargas would easily out box Quartey over twelve rounds to retain his IBF light middleweight title. Just like that, Ike would disappear from boxing.

In his native Ghana, Quartey would settle into his life as a businessperson. Unlike your Mike Tysons, or Pernell “Sweet pea” Whitakers, Ike invests his money wisely, and owns many properties in his native home, including rental buildings, and business complexes. For approximately five years, Ike would live a quiet comfortable lifestyle, which was drastically removed from the rigors of training, making weight, sparring, and, ultimately stepping into a ring and feeling pain from someone that was trying to take your head off. Of course, most of us must believe that being able to eat, and rest as one pleases, and not have to take punches, while comfortably being able to provide for your family would be enough to keep anyone away from boxing. That is exactly why most of us cannot be professional fighters. A case in point is Oscar de la Hoya. He has amassed a massive amount of wealth and could comfortably retire at the age of thirty-two and never have to worry about working again. He has several very successful businesses and has a boxing promotional company that is on the brink of taking over the entire pugilistic landscape, yet he is going to fight sometime late this year.

The same must be true for “Bazooka.” Although not as wealthy as the “Golden Boy,” Quartey, by all accounts, never had to box again. Yet, that competitive desire that burns deep in a boxer’s blood tends to be overwhelming and becomes too much of an itch that just cannot be left without scratching. That is the only way to explain why a thirty-five- year-old businessman would decide to try and attempt to comeback into a “young man’s” sport, being completely aware that he is years removed from his prime, and pounds above his best weight. Add to those facts that Verno Phillips is a very capable, strong, busy fighter, and the logic sinks even further, almost to the point of madness. Still, Ike has skills, and was a heavy-handed fighter in his time, that could take a punch as good as anyone could in the sport. Only time will tell if he can actually be any kind of force in the sport today.

So fight fans, tonight we will get the first glimpse of the 2005 version of Ike “Bazooka” Quartey, and if he has anything to offer to boxing. Will he be a mere resemblance of a fighter we once knew? As Billy Joel once sang in his famous piece entitled the “Piano Man;” “I knew it so sweet and I knew it complete, when I wore a younger man’s clothes.” We will see if Quartey really should be wearing those boxing trunks, or whether should he return to wearing a three-piece suit.

Sergio Martinez can be reached at srg_mrtnz@yahoo.com