[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Quartey plans return! Former world champion Ike "Bazooka" Quartey (37-4-1, 31 KOs) is ready to start fighting again and is prepared to take on all comers. While he is busy preparing for the opening of his new hospital in Accra, he has already begun intense training back at home in preparation for his next battle. The 37-year-old ex-WBA welterweight titlist who returned from nearly a five-year retirement in 2005, will be moving back down to the 147 pound weight class after losing a decision at middleweight against Winky Wright, who has actually gone up in weight to 170 for his next fight. "Fighting at welter will allow me to polish my defense and have a much more explosive offense in the ring," said Quartey. "I'm joining Mosley and Oscar in moving down and I will be a factor in the welterweight division." He is looking to be back in the ring in September or October. [/FONT]
I thought Quartey couldn't make 147 anymore? He moved up to 154 before he made his comeback. If he could make the welter limit he should have never moved up in the first place.
there's no way Ike will make 147. or ODH for that matter. the best ODH/Quartey can hope for is to be "thought of" as fighting in the 147 division so they can lure the guys there into fighting them.
De la Hoya rallegedly walks around in the 150s. I think he can make 147. As for Quartey, I'm not sure. I'd like to see what the both of them can do at welterweight if they still take boxing seriously.
Quartey's return has ZERO effect on the Welterweight mix. It doesn't need his old washed up 90s era ass....
Freel free to read our homepage http://www.fightbeat.com where we posted this sometime before them. Cupey
I don't think it's necessarily underestimating Quartey just because you doubt he'll make much impact in an absolutely loaded division..
Bro, Ike can still hang with anyone, and I mean anyone. No one is going to knock him out. That fight with Winky was a lot closer than the judges had it, and Winky is one of the pound for pound best now, and he beat Forrest hands down. It should be Ike vs. Baldomir as Vernon lost that fight from Atlanta to Ghana. Karl
Quartey could beat anyone @ 147...if he made weight comfortably, which is something he hasn't done for about 10 years now. I'll believe it when I see it, unfortunately.
I agree with every point you make, especially about Baldomir. If Ike was 50 and still had 30% of his jab he'd beat that guy. However he's always lost his biggest fights. Ike doesn't seem to have that "extra gear". He's always satisifed when a fight is over and convinces himself there is nothing more he could have done. He's not a guy that leaves it all in the ring. His career/legacy has suffered from it. Quartey's had many opportunities to "right" the wrongs on judges scorecards. Rather than doing it, he seems content to complain about it in the post fight interviews. His gravestone could read either "Robbed" or "What if", but not "I gave everything".
To be fair, he only had two "big fights" and the majority of people thought he won the most important one of those. Losing narrowly to Vargas isn't a good thing...but performing as well as he did vs Winky, at that stage in his career was tremendous acheivement.
I know he's not half the boxer he used to be, but it's interesting nonetheless, he's still solid and if he could hang with winky and beat forrest, he can make for pretty exciting and competitive fights at 147....
I agree that Quartey may be more hype than not, at least at this point. Beating a badly faded and rusty Forrest was a good statement but I don't put much into the win/loss. Quartey would beat guys like Baldomir, and Judah. I wouldn't give him much of a chance against Cotto or Williams. His chin is one of the shakiest in the division, even moreso than Cotto's and his power hasn't been a factor since his prime. He'd be a fringe contender, maybe a fight with Mosley would be a good matchup since their stamina levels would be on par with each other.
