Barely worth response, but Ibeabuchi gets decapitated. My exasperation with his image knows no bounds. The guy edged out David Tua & blasted Chris Byrd (who is ripped on as a fighter more on this forum than any other I've seen). That is his entire fucking career. I'm not impressed.
It was the manner in which he won those fights that is impressive. He went to war with David Tua, who could turn out pretty much anyone's lights at HW. He demonstrated in other fights that he had the ability to outbox someone like Tua easily, but chose to fight him in that fashion - probably not the most intelligent move, but it gives you an indication of what Ike's chin was made of. How many other HWs can you name that could stand toe-to-toe with Tua for 12 rounds? Against Byrd, he was finding a prime Byrd with increasing frequency toward the stoppage - that's not an easy thing to do. Then he nails him with that hookercut. Who else in the HW division was capable of doing that at the time? Say what you will about Tua and Byrd, but Tua is one of the heaviest punchers in HW history, and Byrd is one of the most elusive fighters in HW history. Neither attribute was enough for them against Ibeabuchi. A while back it became fashionable to shit on Ike because he got so overrated for a while.. but I'm still impressed. It's unfortunate that Ike went batshit insane and we never got to see him live up to his full potential. It's easy to say "Foreman kills Ike" because of Foreman's legendary reputation and Ike's short-lived career. We often make legendary fighters invincible in a sort of nostalgic hindsight, forgetting things like the fact that Foreman ate canvas hard against Lyle and got outboxed by Jimmy Young. It could be argued he wasn't the same after the Ali fight, but do you really think Ibeabuchi was incapable of hurting Foreman? Come on, the guy was as big or bigger than Foreman and strong as hell. Anyway, I think this is a good fight. I certainly don't see the guy who ate a million left hooks from David Tua & smiled getting "blasted" easily by George Foreman. Would I bet money on Ike? No. But I still think it's a decent fight.
I don't see anyway how Foreman wins a decision. Ike through around 100 punches per round and had amazing conditioning. Foreman faded in almost every long fight he had. If he didn't stop Ike, he'd have a ton of trouble, and with Ike's cast iron chin, he'd be one of Foreman's toughest foes.
I have to say, I'm not impressed --- with any of the three fighters you're talking about here. Can anyone identify another fighter in all of history who has done so little & received such lasting praise? It's a sad state of affairs. I promise you, had he made it as far as Lewis, he'd be talked about in the same circles as Michael Grant & Fres Oquendo. Just another would-be who proved absolutely zero.
The Michael Grant and Fres Oquendo comparisons don't fly. When did we see Michael Grant or Fres Oquendo stand toe to toe for 12 with the guy who was considered the biggest puncher in the division at the time? When did we see Michael Grant or Fres Oquendo knock out the most elusive guy in the division silly? We didn't. We saw them beat overmatched bums, that was it. Tua and Byrd may not impress you as fighters, but they each had one thing which they did better than anyone else in the division. Nobody was a better test than Byrd when it came to accuracy and timing, and nobody was going to check your chin better than Tua. And Ike beat both, on their terms. He didn't box and move from Tua, and he didn't tie up Byrd and try to maul him. He slugged with Tua and he outboxed Byrd. There are some HWs who might be capable of doing one or the other, but very few who could do both. Yes, I'd pick Lewis to beat Ibeabuchi.. but Lewis on his A game is one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. And I don't think he'd have had an easy night with Ike, either.
I think loadedgloves has already explained why he thinks there's more to it than that, pretty well.ray:
Beating Chris Byrd is easily equal to beating Jim Corbett, beating Tua equals beating Tom Sharkey and they did not fight but I am pretty sure Ike would have beaten Gerald McClellan, which would equal beating Bob Fitsimmons
It was far too easy to hit Ike being easy to hit is bad against Lennox Lewis, I don't care how good your chin is, you are going to get busted up whether you end up on the canvas or not and I absolutely LOVE Lennox's jab against Ike
