Ike Ibeabuchi was released from prison yesterday

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Beat prime undefeated tua and Byrd.... A great " what if" in boxing history

[The Hammer]

He stopped Byrd and outslugged Tua. His time is up in this sport. I just hope dude is ok.

Similar to Amir Mansour, who was a good up-and-comer before he went to prison.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Similar to Amir Mansour, who was a good up-and-comer before he went to prison.

Ike was a lot more established,,, his war with tua made him an overnight star in boxing, then backed up all the hype with a destruction of Byrd.. Mansour is a good regional fighter but he has never competed at the level that Ike did

[Left Hook Tua]

Ike has a lot of KOs, but how good was his opposition?

he fought only 2 decent fighters.

tua and byrd.

i thought tua beat him. he outlanded tua but tua kicked his ass.

byrd he koed. byrd is small and has no power but very skilled so a ko win was impressive.

the rest were nobodies. and i mean NOBODIES.

not ross puritty, sherman williams, david bostice nobodies. nobodies that make those guys look like prime sonny liston.

[Left Hook Tua]

He stopped Byrd and outslugged Tua. His time is up in this sport. I just hope dude is ok.

he didn't outslug tua.

he outworked him. he threw a lot of punches especially early, he seemed nervous. nervous fighters throw a lot sometimes.

[The Hammer]

Interestingly, Vitali stopped the first three opponents he had in common with Ibeabuchi (Mike Acklie, Herman Delgado, Calvin Jones) faster than Ike.

Byrd learned his lesson from the Ibeabuchi fight, and was less aggressive and more defense-minded against Vitali.

[Robbie Barrett]

Interestingly, Vitali stopped the first three opponents he had in common with Ibeabuchi (Mike Acklie, Herman Delgado, Calvin Jones) faster than Ike.

Byrd learned his lesson from the Ibeabuchi fight, and was less aggressive and more defense-minded against Vitali.

Tua and Byrd are better than any wins on Vitai's resume. Stay salty.

[SN!PER]

That fight with George Costanza is a very green Ike.

Nobody knew who he was until the Tua fight, and that was one of the greatest showings ever by a heavyweight rookie. Nobody at that time expected this unknown Nigerian to upset Olympic medalist Tua. 1,730 combined punches thrown, they beat the previous record set by Ali - Frazier.

The victory over undefeated Byrd was equally impressive. In his prime and undefeated, Byrd was one of the most frustrating fighters a heavyweight could face in the ring. Where Tua and Holyfield failed, Ibeabuchi succeeded by KTFO Byrd with a carefully planned and timed bolo punch in the 5th round.

He proved to have an incredible physical resilience in the Tua victory and a high ring intelligence in the destruction of Byrd.

I'll be honest, Lennox would probably have been too much for him. But he was a supremely gifted athlete and showed a remarkable learning curve in only 20 professional bouts. Under the tutelage of a trainer like Steward or Dundee, we could expect him to have fought competitively with the best of his era.

[Robbie Barrett]

That fight with George Costanza is a very green Ike.

Nobody knew who he was until the Tua fight, and that was one of the greatest showings ever by a heavyweight rookie. Nobody at that time expected this unknown Nigerian to upset Olympic medalist Tua. 1,730 combined punches thrown, they beat the previous record set by Ali - Frazier.

The victory over undefeated Byrd was equally impressive. In his prime and undefeated, Byrd was one of the most frustrating fighters a heavyweight could face in the ring. Where Tua and Holyfield failed, Ibeabuchi succeeded by KTFO Byrd with a carefully planned and timed bolo punch in the 5th round.

He proved to have an incredible physical resilience in the Tua victory and a high ring intelligence in the destruction of Byrd.

I'll be honest, Lennox would probably have been too much for him. But he was a supremely gifted athlete and showed a remarkable learning curve in only 20 professional bouts. Under the tutelage of a trainer like Steward or Dundee, we could expect him to have fought competitively with the best of his era.

He only started boxing at 20 years old. 4 years later he was one of the top HW's and still learning.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Tua and Byrd are better than any wins on Vitai's resume. Stay salty.

At first glance, that seems preposterous, but when you think about it, sadly it's true...