Twenty-six years had come and gone since Ike Ibeabuchi last entered a boxing ring to compete as a professional, yet the time that passed somehow felt longer.
Ibeabuchi, a 6ft 2ins and thickly muscled 235-pounder from Isuochi, Nigeria, was a heavyweight threat in the 1990s for a whisper in time – just long enough to be considered a boogeyman in the division – and then he was gone. After toppling the 27-0 David Tua to prove his legitimacy and then knocking off future titleholder Chris Byrd, Ibeabuchi’s dark tendencies came home to roost. His behavior had turned from odd and erratic to illegal, and in 1999 he landed in prison for battery and attempted sexual assault. That was the purported end of his fighting career, and Ibeabuchi had either been locked up or marking time until heading back ever since.
