This week marks 20 years since the Ibeabuchi/Tua fight. In honour of that magnificent punch up, here are some comments on the fight from President Ike, pilfered from a little piece by Luke G Williams in Boxing Monthly last year.
Journey with Tuan Jim, deep into the mind of Ike Ibeabuchi!
“My trainer [former World Welterweight Champion] Curtis Cokes and I knew we could beat him when the fight was made. We took the fight on such a premise. We trained to go the distance and we also prepared to throw many punches. Energy and work level were needed to defeat him. We knew we could out-work and out-punch him and that was our plan - to wear him out.”
“We had our right hand placed so he couldn’t launch his left hook. So we trained to go the distance, to throw many punches but also we trained for defence against his left hook. Except in round nine, he never really landed any left hooks. He continued throwing right crosses, but they were ineffective because I blocked many before they landed. If they did land they were forceful, they had an impact. His left hook would have been the most forceful, impressive punch of his, if he had landed it, but he did not. So we took that away and that was why we succeeded in defeating him.”
“I wasn’t surprised how intense the fight was. We knew we would be in a real fight! We also knew that any mistakes we would pay for dearly, but we were confident in our plan and execution. We [carried out the plan] fairly well and the result was unanimous.”
"Although Mr. Tua was a durable fighter, there’s no doubt in my mind, if I had reduced the number of punches thrown and had sat on them maybe I would have been able to knock him out. He started bleeding sometime in the fight and I would have preferred to stop him than go 12 rounds! I guess a Tua rematch would have ended in a knockout victory for myself. I developed more punching power after our first encounter.”
The only way that fight is dull and repetitive, is if you had it on DVD on "replay" for a month.
In real time...it was a barn burner to watch. Not as much for what actually happened, but for what it appeared was ABOUT TO HAPPEN on any given minute of that fight.
I was impressed with both fighters... Tua had beaten some names guys like John Ruiz, Oleg Maskaev, David Izon, and Darroll Wilson...
Ibeabuchi fought NOBODY prior to fighting Tua.. The fight was a massive jump for him because he was only 16-0 versus 27-0 for Tua.. Ike won on sheer talent. After that I thought Ike could beat anybody, including Lennox Lewis.. I was very surprised Chris Byrd agreed to fight Ibeabuchi.. I thought "WTF Byrd NO." Ike's hand speed and combination punching were unreal by the time he fought Byrd.. Ike was like a much bigger George Foreman with super fast hands.
The only punch Ibeabuchi didn't master by the Byrd fight was the jab.. I remember watching Curtis Cokes fight the much shorter and less rangy Jose Napoles and getting jabbed to death.. I thought "Fk man!! Napoles is fukkin' brilliant.. Cokes can't jab worth a damn." It wasn't like watching Jimmy Young outjabbing George Foreman. It was more like Wille Pep ripping Chalky Wright a new A-hole.. Only even better.
Ibeabuchi jabbed like Cokes but he didn't get hit with jabs by Byrd.. If you can't jab you can't teach the jab.. I always wondered how Jose Napoles would have done as a Boxing Coach.. Napoles wasn't a disciplined man but if he could teach his jabbing and hooking technique he'd be gold.
