Surprisingly, these MM matchups have yet to be discussed. How would have Wilder and Joshua done against the Ike that KO'd Byrd?
Ike appeared to have a solid chin, excellent stamina and serious power. He was also pretty big. Stylewise he's more of a problem for Wilder IMO because Wilder is pretty much just a punch and IF Ike could take his punch then Ike would win. Joshua is more complete and his punch repertoire and combination punching could theoretically put Ike into a shell...and although Joshua appears to have a stamina deficiency we must remember that he survived a frenetic pace with Klitschko and still had enough late to bomb Wlad outta there. Problem with these matchups though is that there are currently too many unknowns.
Ike is nearly impossible to rate in mythical match-ups imo. He was obviously a level above the good contenders but we never saw him tested against the top dogs. There may have been some underlying flaw that was just waiting to be exposed, would be unfair to pit him against guys who are putting themselves in the line of fire, so to speak.
Lol, a frenetic pace???? You're serious????. thing turned into a tepid affair after AJ was floored (till the last round of course)
Exatly. while I think it was obvious Ike wasn't in the elite of the elite class, he seemed very good, it's hard to say how good he really was. Gun to my head, I'd pick both wilder and AJ, but it's far from a confident bet
Ike wasn't a big puncher really... people remember the Byrd KO but he wasn't genuinely a KO puncher I think he was always badly overrated... he was a strong guy with decent technique and what appeared to be a strong chin but he wasn't terribly difficult to hit, was pretty unimaginative in attack and wasn't particularly quick ... he had a more aesthetically pleasing approach than these guys but I'm not convinced he was any better
