Anyone see this article:
Exclusive: Ike Ibeabuchi speaks | Boxing News
Boxing history is littered with hypotheticals.
Anyone who follows the sport already knows the questions.
What if Muhammad Ali hadn’t spent his prime years in exile? How great could Salvador Sanchez have been if he hadn’t died prematurely? Was Tony Ayala Jr. destined to be the next junior middleweight champion?
The theories are endless.
In modern times, the proverbial speculation takes place in the heavyweight division, specifically in the championship potential of Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi.
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It was March 20th, 1999, approximately 170 hours after Lennox Lewis was robbed of the undisputed heavyweight championship in a dubious draw with Evander Holyfield. There was already talk of a rematch but on this Saturday night the attention of the boxing world was firmly on the future of the division.
Unbeaten Chris Byrd and undefeated Ike Ibeabuchi were set to fight to determine who would position himself for a shot at Lewis. The slick Byrd was 26-0, Ibeabuchi 19-0. Byrd was the quicker and more elusive of the two but it was Ibeabuchi, who had turned back David Tua in a grueling battle 21 months earlier, that had the power and mystique. In an HBO-televised main event they got it on at the Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma, Washington.
The fight demonstrated both men’s abilities. Byrd got in and out quickly with his punches and his defense was tight. Ibeabuchi remained undeterred, however, and continued to come forward and cut off the ring. After four completed rounds, Ibeabuchi led on the scorecard of HBO’s Harold Lederman, 39-37. Official judge’s scores going into the fifth were even: 39-37 for Ibeabuchi and 39-37 for Byrd with one tally at 38-38.
Then, with less than a minute left to the halfway point of the fight, Ibeabuchi connected with a wide left hook. Byrd fell forward and on to the canvas. He rose unsteadily; drool dripping from his mouth, but the end was near. He went down again almost immediately once the action resumed and after taking additional punishment following the second count, the fight was called off.
And just like that, Byrd had his first loss, Ibeabuchi had his most impressive win to date and a shot for the title was inevitably his.
“I’m ready,” Ibeabuchi told HBO’s Larry Merchant in the ring after the fight concluded. “I’m ready for the best,” he said. “I’m now ready for the heavyweight championship of the world.”
But Ibeabuchi never fought again.
***
It’s difficult to estimate what could’ve been with Ike Ibeabuchi. Certainly at that point in 1999 he had a legitimate claim as the top heavyweight contender. In less than two years he had beaten two undefeated heavyweights. He was exciting and powerful. There was even talk about him fighting Michael Grant (the other heavyweight trying to angle for a title shot) that summer.
“Well, I think back then when he fought Tua and he fought Chris Byrd, he could’ve been the next superstar. Not just a world champion,” said Michael Koncz, advisor to Manny Pacquiao and a friend of Ibeabuchi.
“I think he had the qualities, had he stayed on track, to become a superstar in the heavyweight division. Because his style of boxing is crowd friendly. They liked to see all those punches and he had power,” Koncz continued.
But it was all for naught that July when Ibeabuchi was accused of sexually assaulting a dancer he’d hired to come to his Las Vegas hotel room.
His career was essentially over before it began. In 2001, Ibeabuchi submitted an Alford plea on charges of battery with intent to commit a crime and attempted sexual assault and he received sentences of two to 10 years for convicted battery and three to 20 on an attempted sexual assault charge. The convictions would be served consecutively, a judge ordered.
Forget superstardom or even a title shot. The boxer would wind up being incarcerated until February 2014, just a few weeks shy of the 15th anniversary of the Byrd stoppage. By the time he was released from prison, he was 41 years old…but close to his fighting weight and still looking for that title shot.
***
Ibeabuchi hoped to fight immediately but there was an additional delay. The Nigerian was held by U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) in Arizona until being released last November. Then, toward the end of 2015, word came that he was looking to box again and possibly even return on the under card of Pacquiao’s fight this Saturday against Tim Bradley.
That’s not happening but he is currently training in Arizona and hopeful to become licensed there or Nevada sometime shortly.
“I’m feeling very well,” he told FightNews in an exclusive interview. “I feel very good. I’ve been training very well. I’m in very good shape to fight now in any fight, in any scheduled bout, in any scheduled round of any fight. I have been training in Arizona, mainly on my physical condition and I feel very good about my condition at this time. Since November, since my release, we found a place to train and I have been training there since. I weigh 250.”
There was talk of Ibeabuchi fighting undefeated Andy Ruiz Jr. in his first fight back but guys who’ve been off for 17 years don’t come right out and fight a contender. Even Ibeabuchi. Still, “The President” says he doesn’t see any candidates in the current version of the weight class.
“I feel that the crops of heavyweights now are very miniature,” he said. “They are not good. I can beat all of them in one night, I swear to God. They are not good. What the world has now is heavyweights that are mediocre as compared to the likes of Lewis and Tyson or Holyfield. These guys can’t fight! You can see that. I could go in there and beat all of them up, I swear to God.”
“The only opponent, the only person that I believe could fight, or would be determined to fight, would be Wladimir Klitschko,” Ibeabuchi stated. “But all the other guys are fake. They can’t stand 12 rounds with me, I swear to God. So, this is a chance I have and I want to prove it by being in the ring and that’s the truth.”
Ibeabuchi said he understood that there could be potential opposition in his effort to fight again however he refused to get into specifics about his past.
“I don’t want to discuss that rape charge if you don’t recognize the meaning to the accusation,” he said. “Anyone who intends to bring up a conviction, a charge against me, without the notion of that ruling of the Supreme Court is at misconduct already, where they’re insulting my intelligence. I don’t want to answer anything about that.”
As for rumors about a potential deportation out of the U.S., Ibeabuchi denied any action.
“Immigration had me for over 18 months and released me upon the merit of a free person so there were no other jurisdictions to charge me on the same issue,” he said. “Before this year runs out I shall have my passport and my green card. The ruling in this matter by immigration has been to maintain the legal order which were in prior pursuit of receiving my documents, including the citizenship.”
While in prison, the fighter said he obtained a trio of associate-level college degrees—in general studies, business and management. Despite the lengthy incarceration, however, he said he remained focused on boxing.
“When I watched boxing (from jail), I believed that my time would come,” he said. “If I waited, the waiting shall only make me greater than I was before. I never doubted my return as to the benefit of waiting, if you know what I mean. I watched the boxing from jail but I never doubted that my time would come. I knew that, even as I speak today, that I’m ready to beat all these young guys…all this young crop of heavyweights, as we have them now, to show them that I have been waiting for the benefit of doing that. Like I said, I have to be in the ring to prove it and that’s the truth.”
Still, the fighter had to be upset that he missed out on that likely title shot, right?
“No,” he said, “they missed their chance of being in the ring with me. That’s how we say that because I was undisturbed as to the level of my competition. In 1997 it would have been a tougher fight between me and Lennox Lewis. But that fight was refused by Lennox Lewis’ camp.”
***
What happens from here is unclear. Ibeabuchi wants to fight again soon. The attached photo demonstrates his physical readiness but being ready in the gym and being ready to fight in the ring, especially after such a long layoff, are two different things.
Koncz, who is working with Ibeabuchi in an unofficial advisory/managerial role, said he still thinks Ibeabuchi can become a champion.
“I believe that the age he is now, because he has not abused his body physically, certainly even if he has 50% of the endurance and so forth that he had back then, I still think he can wreck havoc on the heavyweight division. Certainly become a world champion,” he said. “To become a superstar? I don’t know. We have to do marketing and other things like that to fix the tarnished image.”
“I believe that time has not evaded me,” Ibeabuchi concluded. “I believe that I have not been denied of my rights to becoming a world champion. Because the last person I beat became a world champion and my thinking still exists as one who should be a world champion. In this country, we are here as a free and civilized people. The opportunity for Ibeabuchi to fight for the heavyweight championship should be given and not be concluded prematurely. That he ‘could have been’ or ‘could not be’ or even some had me retired. That’s preposterous! I never announced my retirement. Everyone knew that I was incarcerated. How could I have been a retiree? I never retired in boxing. It’s a calamity to read about yourself being retired by other’s notions. I was never retired. I never openly announced my retirement, which is the proper way it’s done.”
“They cannot count me as one who could’ve been a world champion,” he stated. “The interest to becoming a world champion still exists in me. I want to be a world champion because I had the right in the world of boxing to be a world champion. That’s why I came to this country and that’s what I shall be in this country – the heavyweight boxing champion, Ike Ibeabuchi. That’s final.”
Fam has that fresh outta jail physique like Clifford Ettiene had when he fought Clay-Bey
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..first let me see if I dont got any shyt going on of importance that weekend before i start seeing whats good with the particulars.