BoxRec

Because of his entertaining but in boxing terms rather dreadful slugfest with David Tua?

Or because he got a stoppage against Chris "the midget" Byrd -- a guy who could never mix with a good real heavyweight anyway?

Had Ike stayed out of prison he wouldn't have gone very far/

Tua was a decent enough HW.
Maybe limited technique wise but has an excellent chin and raw power.

Byrd however... yawn i just get bored even thinking about him

Rated so highly... hmmm
maybe because he was a nutter and people saw him as a successor for Tyson.
Had ne not gone to jail i'm sure he'd have been biting ears in the ring

I've never really rated him that highly.

He's tough & aggressive, but he's a bit too slow & not technical enough for my liking.

Lennox Lewis would have schooled him with ease IMO.

He could probably make an impact on the current HW division, but that is not saying much really.

Out of Hope that someone would come along talented and skilled enough to unify the titles. Nothing more than that. And now we will never know.

Heartbreak_Kid79 wrote:Tua was a decent enough HW.
Maybe limited technique wise but has an excellent chin and raw power.

Yes, a decent enough heavyweight is a good characterizaiton. And with this decent enough heavyweight Ibeabuchi fought a gruelling, close battle that plentiful observers thought Tua had won.

I guess this makes Ike at best a decent enough heavyweight himself.

Because he wears all black, talks crazy and punches hard so all the simpletons get excited. His own manager Steve Munisteri didn't really rate his chances in a recent interview, citing a close fight with Marion Wilson and seeing him decked by body shots in sparring by Kirk Johnson.

Ibeabuchi was a hell of an entertaining character but the idea of him beating Lewis or Holyfield was about as realistic as Tony Ayala bumping off Sugar Ray Leonard or Marvin Hagler, i.e. not f#ckin likely.

Decagon wrote:He's better and more proven than Vitali Klitschko.

You have a serious clinical condition. Advanced manic Antiklitschkotiitis. Has severe side effects on the ability to think clearly. Fortunately it's not infectionary.

pundit wrote:

Decagon wrote:He's better and more proven than Vitali Klitschko.

You have a serious clinical condition. Advanced manic Antiklitschkotiitis. Has severe side effects on the ability to think clearly. Fortunately it's not infectionary.

Again, Dec is probably correct as Ike beat Byrd and Tua, both of whom are more notable than anyone Vitali beat.

The Great John L wrote:

pundit wrote:

Decagon wrote:He's better and more proven than Vitali Klitschko.

You have a serious clinical condition. Advanced manic Antiklitschkotiitis. Has severe side effects on the ability to think clearly. Fortunately it's not infectionary.

Again, Dec is probably correct as Ike beat Byrd and Tua, both of whom are more notable than anyone Vitali beat.

... while the word "Vitali" appeared nowhere in the title or elsewhere in the thread.

I could add a couple of words on the Ike Viali comparison but won't, otherwise this will move off topic.

pundit wrote:

The Great John L wrote:

pundit wrote: You have a serious clinical condition. Advanced manic Antiklitschkotiitis. Has severe side effects on the ability to think clearly. Fortunately it's not infectionary.

Again, Dec is probably correct as Ike beat Byrd and Tua, both of whom are more notable than anyone Vitali beat.

... while the word "Vitali" appeared nowhere in the title or elsewhere in the thread.

I could add a couple of words on the Ike Viali comparison but won't, otherwise this will move off topic.

Ike and Vitali are contemporaries, so comparisons aren’t really off topic. It probably would have made for a very interesting fight. I think I’d give a slight edge to Vitali in a direct match-up, as I think he was a bit more polished than Ike.

Decagon wrote:He's better and more proven than Vitali Klitschko.

Yeah just because Ike beat Byrd and Vitali quit from an injured shoulder that's enough to be more proven than Vitali. Yea you're good.

livingstone cole wrote:Unknown quantities always become the stuff of legend, a mystery never to be solved intrigues us all. The Mary Celeste, Jack the ripper, Atlantis, the Loch Ness monster and Ike Ibeaubuchi, things to which we give the highest or most extra ordinary merit too without any real explanation or evidence.
Giant Octopus, the Royal Family, a lost civilization, a remaining dinosaur and the greatest heavyweight in decades are far more interesting than a boating accident, a seriel killer, a legend, a lie and reasonable prospect.

I like this one.

Terence wrote:For the same reasons they say James Dean was a great actor despite never showing his range.

They just say "Well he could have had a range."

Tua fought a life and death fight with Ike. Lewis humiliated Tua. It is simplistic but I feel Lewis would have done a Grant on Ike (not a two-round win but an expose nonetheless).

.... and this one.

overhand_right wrote:Because he wears all black, talks crazy and punches hard so all the simpletons get excited. His own manager Steve Munisteri didn't really rate his chances in a recent interview, citing a close fight with Marion Wilson and seeing him decked by body shots in sparring by Kirk Johnson.

Ibeabuchi was a hell of an entertaining character but the idea of him beating Lewis or Holyfield was about as realistic as Tony Ayala bumping off Sugar Ray Leonard or Marvin Hagler, i.e. not f#ckin likely.

People like to beleive in what could have been.
If his own manager is saying things like that,then it puts it into perspective.
As does his fight against Tua.A fight IMO he lost.
Tua did'nt exactly set the world alight did he?
Ike might have picked up a version of the heavy title,but Lennox would have smoked him had they met.

I think due to the dismal condition of the division many hoped that Ibeabuchi was really a great that we never really got to see...mainly due to the slugfest, brawl with Tua...back when Tua actually threw combinations and the manner in which hw went through Byrd. I think Ibeabuchi would have been the class of the division had all his dogs been barking. He was a solid, thick heavyweight with good skill, a solid punch, solid endurance and stamina, very good strength and he could take it, but sadly that will always be a what if scenario!

barry wrote:I think due to the dismal condition of the division many hoped that Ibeabuchi was really a great that we never really got to see...mainly due to the slugfest, brawl with Tua...back when Tua actually threw combinations and the manner in which hw went through Byrd. I think Ibeabuchi would have been the class of the division had all his dogs been barking. He was a solid, thick heavyweight with good skill, a solid punch, solid endurance and stamina, very good strength and he could take it, but sadly that will always be a what if scenario!

Hmmm. Ike slugged it out with Tua and barely got by (I had Tua winning) -- and look what happened to Tua once he met a competent heavyweihgt who could also box. Ike easily dispatched of Byrd, but this doesn't count for much in my book. Overall Ike was strong and solid but not terribly fast, neither with his feet nor his hands, nor technically skilled.

I guess Ike is best put into the price class of David Tua, which means a deserving contender, perhaps top 5, but not much more. Maybe he would have gotten his hands on a belt had he teamed up with Don King. But it seems inconceivable to me that we would ever have lived in an "Ibeabuchi era".

Ike showed what kind of character he had outside the ring.
That same character or lack thereof would have emerged in the ring eventually as well.
Just like Tyson.

Other then the fact that he could punch, take a punch, was agile, had all the required tools, and would have taken out any of the current fighters holding heavyweight title belts, I can’t imagine why anyone would rate him so highly.
Just a tip to some who have posted on this subject;
One of the ways to tell when someone has no clue about boxing, beyond media fed kool aid and Internet / boxing forum myth, is when they downgrade a fighter based on his WINS.
When one of those wins was against a fighter who held a title belt for four years, (Byrd) it goes beyond simple ignorance and becomes pathetic.
Other clues to ignorance are found when one uses meaningless quasi terms like “lineal champion”, claims pre 1960 Champions would beat current ones, when one praises fighters for losses, when one judges a fighttes career byb a single win or a loss, and when Lennox Lewis or Max Schmeling appears anywhere in their all time top 25 lists.
Being that these things are seen so frequently in this forum, it is not surprising some have a low and inaccurate opinion of Ike.
Now yes, he was and is a thug and a lowlife, but I noticed those things have done little to hurt the popularity of James Toney, Max Bear, Sonny Liston, Bernard Hopkins and others on these pages. A bit inconsistent, but then I do know full well what forum I am posting in, so no surprise.
On the upside, one of the editors, who usually doesn’t dwell in the same galaxy as anything logical or factual relating to boxing, actually got this one right!
See? Nothing is impossible!

So you may ask, "If I think so little of some the opinions expressed in this sites forums, why read them "?
I guess it's the same reason i sometimes watch political commentary on Fox news.
Nothing reinforces fact better then it’s contrast with total nonsense

So of the two "couldabeens" from the era Vitali and Ike....who "would have been" king?

<<<<Because he wears all black, talks crazy and punches hard so all the simpletons get excited. His own manager Steve Munisteri didn't really rate his chances in a recent interview, citing a close fight with Marion Wilson and seeing him decked by body shots in sparring by Kirk Johnson.>>>>

So by those standards, Wlad should be totally disregarded for his losses to Pruiity and Sanders and being decked by TOS right ?

See what I mean ?????
Classic example of the nonsense I mentioned in my earlier post.

>>>>So of the two "couldabeens" from the era Vitali and Ike....who "would have been" king?>>>>

Ike would have handled Vitali and Lewis.
Ike is the exact type of fighter that always gave Lewis fits, namely punchers who he couldnt keep at bay with his "extended jab". The Ike over Lewis KO would have made the McCall KO over Lewis look like a love tap.
Vitali would have been shock and awed by Ike's firepower. If Vitali cant punch first, he cant punch at all. He would have spent the fight hedgging and looking for angles that he would never find. That is, the portion of the fight in which he would have been awake.

How do you account for his trainers more modest claims of his potential?

His fight with Tua was considered by many a fight that could have gone either way. Very competitive fight....a statement that really is realistic.

Was the Kirk Johnson event fabricated? Or simply irrelevant?

BoxBuzz wrote:How do you account for his trainers more modest claims of his potential?

His fight with Tua was considered by many a fight that could have gone either way. Very competitive fight....a statement that really is realistic.

Was the Kirk Johnson event fabricated? Or simply irrelevant?

Most thought that Tua had won this fight. And Tua was never much more than a limited short heayvweight with a big left hook as only weapon.

cosand wrote: Other clues to ignorance are found when Lennox Lewis or Max Schmeling appears anywhere in their all time top 25 lists.

I think, clues to ignorance are found when both don't appear in all time top 25 lists.