BoxRec

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 04:30**

have to give lewis credit for having the discipline and mental strength to have a long and successful career.

ibeabuchi was not in control of his life enough to be a successful boxer. many had ibeabuchi losing to tua, including the ring mag. whereas, you'd struggle to give tua a round vs lewis.

ibeabuchi was a great specimen and maybe he had the tools to beat lewis. but then again maybe he didn't. and he was too much of a maniac for anyone to find out.

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 05:00**

I have to say this....im excited lol. I think even an Ike after prison would demolish the heavyweight division. LET HIM FIGHT!!

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 05:15**

verballistic wrote:
dizneyfist wrote:
punchoutsb wrote: Ike is still VERY overrated. He squeaked past Tua in a VERY entertaining fight, and then stopped Byrd. That's it really. IMO he couldn't have beat an aging Lewis or either Klitschko.
Are you serious!? A prime Ike would've decapitated an aged unmotivated Lewis.
agreed...ibeabuchi went in the trenches with a prime, unbeaten tua & beat tua at his own game (something lennox was not willing to do, since he stayed at LONG distance all night vs tua.

as for the beatdown of an unbeaten chris byrd, that came less than a year before byrd extended wlad the full 12 rounds & even when wlad rematched a totally SHOT version of byrd, he STILL didnt beat him as easily or as quickly as ike did.

that being said ike is now 37 & will probably be on similar meds to what tyson was taking at the time he got his humiliating loss to kevin mcbride!!

it's OVER for ibeabuchi...his time has passed, so give up the ghost already!!

Do you understand the whole point of Boxing? WHy would a fighter who can easily beat his opponent choose to fight that said opponent at his best range?

Surely Lewis deserves more props for toying with Tua from distance, negating any chance the Samoan had than rather engaging and getting a razor thin, hotly disputed decision trading with him in what was a superb fight?

Ike was talented but nothing special.
Both Klits and Lewis would have beaten him. lewis would have done it with ease. No doubt he would have prepared for Ike like a spartan seeing as Ike was being lauded as the man to take his place at the top of the pile. Think Golota, Grant, the Rahman rematch and the 1st Holyfield fight, what exactly would have Ike done against those versions of Lewis?
Thats right, he would have lost. Convincingly too.

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 10:32**

Geez, doesn't time just fly. It seems like only yesterday that there was an Ike thread.......

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 14:20**

kevo wrote:Who?

Mike Jones.

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 14:40**

The warrior wrote:This article is from fightnews.com:Ibeabuchi legal team making progress!

July 23, 2002

By Jamie Aquino

Lawyers for Ike "The President" Ibeabuchi confirm the former heavyweight contender has been paroled on the first of two sentences. In addition to filing an appeal, they are also working on getting him eligible for parole on the second sentence.

Ibeabuchi was accused of sexually assaulting a dancer for a Las Vegas outcall service at the Mirage Casino in July 1999. He has been sentenced to 5-30 years.

At the time of his arrest, Ibeabuchi was ranked No. 2 by the IBF and was one of the world's most promising heavyweights. He is undefeated at 20-0 with 15 knockouts. He was impressive in wins over contenders David Tua and Chris Byrd, who he kayoed in five rounds.

"It is conceivable that Ike could be out of prison in six months to a year, or perhaps sooner" said lawyer Michael Koncz of the Law Offices of Jack H. Anthony located in Orange County, California. "We are all working very hard on his case."

After communicating with Ibeabuchi for countless hours on a regular basis, often 3-4 times a week since the latter part of December 2001, Koncz has become what Ibeabuchi was without in the past, a true friend.

"It is solely for this reason that I am committed to helping Ike and at my personal expense, have undertaken the task of compiling and retaining a new legal team to assist in achieving final resolution of Ike's legal problems."

The legal team includes David Chesnoff of Las Vegas, his associate Richard Schonfeld, Brian Russo of Arizona, Rajan Maline of Orange County and David Raft of Orange County.

"Our goal and effort is to see Ike free so he can fight again,"said lead attorney Chesnoff.

According to Chesnoff, Ibeabuchi is withdrawing his plea that was entered on his behalf by the public defenders office on January 24, 2002 because he was medicated at the time and it may have inhibited his judgement.

Ibeabuchi, for the past six months, has been using his time in prison to train and is excited about the possibility of getting back in the ring.

Sources indicate he is in the best mental and emotional state he has been at in years.

"His dream, and more than ever, Ike's desire is still there," Koncz said. "To be the next dominant heavyweight champion of the world."

lol i know its been 8 years but it still makes me laugh that the writer Aquino is naive or stupid in the extreme if he thinks a lawyer could ever be a "true friend" to a boxer with the potential to make millions in the ring.
We are led to beleive Konckz is helping Ike out of the goodness of his schyster heart! It was the same when Ayala was about to be released he had some jewish lawyer telling us how great a human being Ayala was and how he was a true friend. The moment Ayalas career ended and his legal troubles started again, this "true friend" was no where to be seen.

The same goes for shelly finkel who said his biggest mistake was "falling in love with my fighters"......

This story epitomises the dirty business of boxing in America and the morons who write stories like this. 8 years on pal!

Posted: **29 Aug 2010, 16:18**

punchoutsb wrote:Ike is still VERY overrated. He squeaked past Tua in a VERY entertaining fight, and then stopped Byrd. That's it really. IMO he couldn't have beat an aging Lewis or either Klitschko.

No way, definitely not overrated. He beat IMO 2 of the top 10 fighters of the decade in their primes by age 26. What if Sam Sexton or Denis Boytsov beat David Haye and Alexander Povetkin by their 26th birthday? No one has accomplished so much since Tyson and Bowe. By age 26 years and 1 month, even fighters like Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko, and Vitali Klitschko had not as impressive of professional accomplishments.

Posted: **30 Aug 2010, 04:18**

punchoutsb wrote: Ike is still VERY overrated. He squeaked past Tua in a VERY entertaining fight, and then stopped Byrd.

Yeah, what a fraud, beating two top 3 guys like that.

Posted: **30 Aug 2010, 08:38**

With the right training camp Rahman would've successfully repeated his upset win over Lewis. Rahman needed to be aggressive like he did in the first fight but instead was instructed to relax and keep his arms raised to keep Lewis at bay. This was by far the worst instructions you could give to a guy who has a HOF trainer by his side. All this did was bide time for Lewis to gain confidence. IMHO Ibeabuchi would've stopped Lewis by way of vicious KO and had a great chance against both Klitschkos all in their primes.

Posted: **30 Aug 2010, 08:42**

I think Lennox would have schooled Ike.

Posted: **30 Aug 2010, 13:45**

verballistic wrote:
yiddo14 wrote:
verballistic wrote: agreed...ibeabuchi went in the trenches with a prime, unbeaten tua & beat tua at his own game (something lennox was not willing to do, since he stayed at LONG distance all night vs tua.

as for the beatdown of an unbeaten chris byrd, that came less than a year before byrd extended wlad the full 12 rounds & even when wlad rematched a totally SHOT version of byrd, he STILL didnt beat him as easily or as quickly as ike did.

that being said ike is now 37 & will probably be on similar meds to what tyson was taking at the time he got his humiliating loss to kevin mcbride!!

it's OVER for ibeabuchi...his time has passed, so give up the ghost already!!

Do you understand the whole point of Boxing? WHy would a fighter who can easily beat his opponent choose to fight that said opponent at his best range?

Surely Lewis deserves more props for toying with Tua from distance, negating any chance the Samoan had than rather engaging and getting a razor thin, hotly disputed decision trading with him in what was a superb fight?

Ike was talented but nothing special.
Both Klits and Lewis would have beaten him. lewis would have done it with ease. No doubt he would have prepared for Ike like a spartan seeing as Ike was being lauded as the man to take his place at the top of the pile. Think Golota, Grant, the Rahman rematch and the 1st Holyfield fight, what exactly would have Ike done against those versions of Lewis?
Thats right, he would have lost. Convincingly too.
sorry dude...ike would have made the mccall & rahman KOs of lewis look like child's play!! first off he would have set him up with body shots the way he did byrd...lennox keeping his distance in a clearcut decision over tua sounds good on paper, but ike going into the trenches with tua when NOBODY else would have even thought about it showed what his chin was made of.

and the panic attack that wlad succumbed to in the 5th round in the 1st brewster fight would have been cut in half...wladdy would have melted down FAR quicker once he tasted ike's shots. IMO the one with the best chance to have beaten ike was a PRIME vitali, who had a better chin than lennox & especially wlad & may have been able to outbox him from a distance

i'll never forget the response lennox made on ESPN/FNF when kellerman asked him if he would fight ibeabuchi & lennox replied, "i have no need to fight him, i've beaten all the top fighters from "MY" era", that only showed ike was ALREADY in lennox's head...

And if that was true(which I doubt it was, Lewis never feared any fighter, he shit up Bowe and Tyson yet apparently you are claiming Ike got to him mentally? Can't see it myself)then it means Lewis prepares better than ever before and when he prepares properly and takes fighters seriously he wins.

Your basis of Ike beating Lewis is on his performances against McCall and Rahman 1. Are you saying that Ike needs Lewis to show up on his worst night for him to have a chance? Put it this way, do you honestly think a prime Lennox lewis, on his best night loses to Ike Ibeabuchi?
If so, you are claiming that Ibeabuchi can beat almost ANY Heavyweight from history which is ridiculous mate!

Incidently, Lewis' win over Tua didn't just look good on paper it looked good in real life too. The blueprint on how to beat a powerful yet limited(limited....the same limited fighter that Ike barely beat, many had it a draw at beast)fighter.

Ike may have beat Lewis but it would have been similar to McCall and Rahman, and 9 times out of 10, Lewis gets the job done.

Posted: **30 Aug 2010, 22:59**

Lewis probably would've survived some scares from Ike to beat him on cuts or points like he survived Vitali giving him hell.

I disagree with anyone saying the Klitschkos would beat him though. We wouldn't even be talking about Wladimir nowadays had he fought Ike, who would've annihilated him, but Ike-Vitali would've been a helluva war and likely could've been a nice rivalry.

Posted: **31 Aug 2010, 00:32**

verballistic wrote:
oliverfennell wrote:
punchoutsb wrote: Ike is still VERY overrated. He squeaked past Tua in a VERY entertaining fight, and then stopped Byrd.
Yeah, what a fraud, beating two top 3 guys like that.

Anybody say he was a fraud, fool? Nope. But like I said, he's overrated. Every time there's a thread on Ike (one or twice a week), its about how he would've kill so and so, annihilated so and so. Well the fact is the man is crazy, and you cannot base a career off of TWO fights. I know that might be kind of hard to understand, but TWO fights do not make a career.

Posted: **31 Aug 2010, 03:40**

punchoutsb wrote:
verballistic wrote:
oliverfennell wrote: Yeah, what a fraud, beating two top 3 guys like that.

Anybody say he was a fraud, fool? Nope. But like I said, he's overrated. Every time there's a thread on Ike (one or twice a week), its about how he would've kill so and so, annihilated so and so. Well the fact is the man is crazy, and you cannot base a career off of TWO fights. I know that might be kind of hard to understand, but TWO fights do not make a career.

I agree the talk of Ike's non-existant comeback is tiresome, and also talk of how he'd destroy so-and-so is also irrelevant (they used to say that about Tua until he met Lewis), but I don't see how impressively beating two top-3 guys at the time makes him overrated. He was a very valid contender as a result. Who else had two wins like that around that time?

Posted: **31 Aug 2010, 10:08**

oliverfennell wrote:
punchoutsb wrote:
verballistic wrote:
Anybody say he was a fraud, fool? Nope. But like I said, he's overrated. Every time there's a thread on Ike (one or twice a week), its about how he would've kill so and so, annihilated so and so. Well the fact is the man is crazy, and you cannot base a career off of TWO fights. I know that might be kind of hard to understand, but TWO fights do not make a career.
I agree the talk of Ike's non-existant comeback is tiresome, and also talk of how he'd destroy so-and-so is also irrelevant (they used to say that about Tua until he met Lewis), but I don't see how impressively beating two top-3 guys at the time makes him overrated. He was a very valid contender as a result. Who else had two wins like that around that time?

That's probably the only good, unbiased post I've ever read on Ike on a message board.

Ike was indeed a very valid contender. Still overrated by the people around him though, be it fans and media. A person can be the Champion and still be overrated. Ike showed in those two fights that he could be brilliant! In those two fights. He slugged with a prime David Tua, which was downright impressive. Ike won that fight, but it was VERY close, IMO. It showed Ike was at a slightly higher level than Tua, who never won the title.

It's just bothersome to read how Ike would decapitate an aging Lewis just like he did Chris Byrd

Yeah, cuz Lewis and Byrd had such similar styles, power, height, weight, and reach

Posted: **01 Sep 2010, 04:48**

True. For the record, I think Lewis would have handled him fairly comfortably. The thing is, Lewis was his own worst enemy. He lost to two guys he had no business losing to, due to his own complacency, but when he had a top challenger, he approached the task appropriately.

So people who said "If Rahman could KO him, what would Tyson/Tua/Ibeabuchi/etc do?" were missing the point. He didn't prepare for, and fight, Tyson and Tua the same way he did Rahman and McCall, and I'm sure he would have treated Ibeabuchi with similar respect - and thus achieved a similar result.

Posted: **01 Sep 2010, 09:22**

punchoutsb wrote:
verballistic wrote:
oliverfennell wrote: Yeah, what a fraud, beating two top 3 guys like that.

Anybody say he was a fraud, fool? Nope. But like I said, he's overrated. Every time there's a thread on Ike (one or twice a week), its about how he would've kill so and so, annihilated so and so. Well the fact is the man is crazy, and you cannot base a career off of TWO fights. I know that might be kind of hard to understand, but TWO fights do not make a career.

Good point, I usually go with Lewis by near shut out decision or early KO. But a DQ might be more probable.

Posted: **02 Sep 2010, 15:48**

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:I think Lennox would have schooled Ike.

Correct!

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