Ike ibeabuchi

I was an Ike Ibeabuchi fan the moment I watched his battle with David Tua on a pirated ike ibeabuchi I ordered from a classified ad in the back of Boxing Monthly magazine, ike ibeabuchi. The Nigerian powerhouse seemed to have everything needed to win the heavyweight title — except mental stability.

Instead, Ibeabuchi has spent most of the last 24 years in jail, consumed by his own demons and delusions. Ike still sports the 15 KOs record he built as a professional. By , he believed he genuinely was the president, that he was the victim of an international conspiracy and that his air conditioning was possessed by evil spirits. It all came to a head when Ibeabuchi trapped a Las Vegas call girl in a closet in his hotel room, barricaded himself in the bathroom and only surrendered to police when pepper spray was discharged under the door. After a short but successful amateur career, winning a Texas Golden Gloves title, Ibeabuchi turned pro and racked up a record. But it was his 17th fight that put Ike on the map. Both men displayed iron chins and remarkable engines as they engaged in a back-and-forth thriller which set a new CompuBox record for punches thrown in a heavyweight fight: a combined 1, blows.

Ike ibeabuchi

A young boy slugs his way out of a third world ghetto and into the pro boxing stratosphere, only to fall victim to mental illness, depravity, and what some have labeled "demonic possession. As a boy in Nigeria, Ike was exposed to boxing, but he was also exposed to poverty, crime, hopelessness, and a glaring lack of education. In he was able to immigrate with his mother to Dallas, Texas, where it did not take him long to hook up with the House of Champions Gym and former welterweight star Curtis Cokes. Cokes saw potential in the sizable young heavyweight, and was proven right when Ike became a Golden Gloves champion in the space of a year. Ike turned pro shortly thereafter, impressing everyone with his strength, hand speed, and out-and-out skill. This highly anticipated clash of undefeated heavies did not disappoint. In fact, it set a record for the number of punches thrown in a heavyweight fight. Against all odds, Ibeabuchi triumphed by majority decision. It should have been his finest hour, not the beginning of the end. Yet, clearly, Ike was never the same after this fight.

Now 50, boxing fans never got to see if Ike Ibeabuchi would have gone on to become heavyweight ike ibeabuchi champion.

He defeated the previously undefeated highly ranked contender David Tua in and another highly ranked contender and future world champion Chris Byrd in He was ranked by BoxRec as the world's No. After a series of run-ins with law enforcement, he was imprisoned in Las Vegas in July , after submitting an Alford plea for charges on sexual misconduct. This also marked the end of his professional boxing career. He announced his desire to return to the ring to resume his professional boxing career, but was rearrested before his comeback could take place. Ike planned on joining the Nigerian military before he witnessed Buster Douglas knock out Mike Tyson in Inspired by the fight, Ike started boxing as an amateur.

As his new book about the turbulent life and career of former heavyweight contender Ike Ibeabuchi is published, Luke G. Ibeabuchi barricaded himself in the bathroom, and surrendered only after pepper spray had been shot under the door. We believe this was forcible rape. For the next two-and-a-half years, Ibeabuchi was mired in labyrinthine legal proceedings. Lawyers came and went, his emotional state and mental competency were the subject of fierce debate and his mother — Patricia — claimed that while he had been in a psychiatric institution microchips had been implanted in his brain. Ultimately, Ibeabuchi was sentenced to five to thirty years for battery and sexual assault. It was a sentence that curtailed a boxing career that had looked destined for great heights. While assembling a perfect record of with 15 KOs Ibeabuchi had waged memorable war with Samoan destroyer David Tua in Sacramento in , removing his undefeated record via a unanimous points victory, and had nearly decapitated the then unbeaten Chris Byrd in five brutal rounds in Tacoma in In the decade and a half after he was convicted there were frequent rumours that Ibeabuchi was on the verge of being released.

Ike ibeabuchi

Mike Tyson bout in Tokyo. The fighters set a CompuStat heavyweight division record with 1, punches thrown at that time , with each fighter walking right through the punches. In only his seventeenth professional fight, Ibeabuchi outpointed Tua for the win and Ibeabuchi emerged as the top contender for the world heavyweight title. A southpaw, Byrd was also undefeated 26— and had never been knocked out. Ibeabuchi bided his time, pressuring Byrd to find a hole in his defense, and finally landed a fierce uppercut that lifted Byrd off the canvas, staggering and literally foaming around the mouth. Byrd himself recalled:.

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He holds a green card and his citizenship was pending only the formal swearing in. Just how good was Ike Ibeabuchi? Yet the warning signs of his inner turmoil were only getting more alarming. Ike twice defeated countryman and eventual Olympic Bronze medalist Duncan Dokiwari. He changed trainers at least once — some claimed it was twice — and got into a confrontation with a sparring partner which caused that training partner to leave his camp. A year-old Las Vegas dancer told police that he had tried to rape her in a closet in his hotel room when she asked for payment up front. A former fighter who was tipped to become the next Mike Tyson instead served 20 years in jail after a series of personal issues sent his troubled life spiralling out of control. In good health, Ibeabuchi hoped to fight his first comeback bout in the near future, but he was waiting to resolve his immigration and United States citizenship status with USCIS first. Ratings Update Recent moves in The Ring's divisional rankings. I want to be a world champion before day turns to dusk.

After 20 years in and out of the prison system, Ike Ibeabuchi who was one of the hottest prospects in heavyweight boxing before several run-ins with the law in the United States of America, has once again regained freedom.

In , he ensnared and summarily obliterated the slickest little stinker in heavyweight history. They knew it! A MRI scan, however, revealed nothing out of the ordinary. A few years after he was jailed for battery and sexual assault, I decided to go digging in search of the real Ike Ibeabuchi, aiming to discover what built and then broke the man who had the boxing world at his feet after he destroyed Chris Byrd in At the time he was being led from the Mirage in handcuffs, he was the number two heavyweight in the eyes of the IBF, and had just wrangled a three-fight deal with HBO for well over a million smackeroos. After winning 16 straight fights from the start of his career, Ike made a big jump in competition and fought undefeated prospect David Tua for the WBC International Heavyweight title on June 7, After being placed on a lifetime parole, the year-old's planned boxing return came off the rails when he was rearrested for breaking the terms of his probation and was sent back to prison in Arizona. Ikemefula Charles Ibeabuchi. HBO executive turned promoter Lou DiBella later explained that: "There were times when he thought he was really a president. The Perfect Storm. As a boxer, that is. In , when he was released after 16 years, there were rumours that the still-fit year-old could even fight on the undercard of a Manny Pacquiao bout.