When the great heavyweights of the 1990’s are mentioned, the likes of Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis understandably stick out. However, amongst those superstars there was a plethora of under-appreciated talent beneath, none more so than Ike Ibeabuchi. Now, at 51-years-old, ‘The President’ is set to make a shocking comeback to professional boxing.
Regarded as one of the strongest punchers amongst the star-studded crop of heavyweights at the time, Ike Ibeabuchi was honing in on a shot at the heavyweight world title after winning his first 16 professional contests and scoring numerous eye-catching knockout wins along the way.
Then, in 1997, the Nigerian jumped up in competition and stepped through the ropes for his toughest task to date, going toe-to-toe with fellow title hopeful David Tua in what turned out to be a heavyweight classic.
Ibeabuchi and Tua broke the record for punches thrown in a heavyweight bout covered by CompuStat, throwing 1,730 total punches between them, 975 being thrown by Ibeabuchi (avg. 81 per round) – that being an individual record for a heavyweight.
David Tua vs Ike Ibeabuchi. June 7, 1997. pic.twitter.com/2BUBhk7lj4
— b0xingfan (@b0xingfan) August 4, 2023
As a result, it was Ibeabuchi who claimed the unanimous-decision win and proved himself as a worthy contender for the WBC heavyweight world title, held by Lennox Lewis at the time.
Instead, Ibeabuchi attempted to gain further experience at the world level and scored a trifecta of increasingly difficult knockout wins against Tim Ray, Everton Davis and Chris Byrd to better prepare himself for a title shot – although it would never come.
In July 1999, Ibeabuchi was arrested and eventually sentenced to prison for battery with intent to commit a crime and attempted sexual assault, leaving him imprisoned until his release in November 2015.
Five months later, Ibeabuchi was arrested once again after violating the conditions of his probation, ending hopes of a comeback to boxing as he was forced to serve an additional four years behind bars until release in September 2020.
Four years on and it seems as though Ibeabuchi (20-0) will finally get the boxing comeback that he has been craving, officially scheduled to take on 47-year-old Ayman Farouk Abbas (4-10-1) in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on December 7th in a six-round affair.
Farouk’s most notable result is a split-draw against America’s Christopher Lovejoy (20-1) in Egypt last year, despite being knocked down and appearing to lose all six rounds.
In what can only be called a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender, Christopher Lovejoy knocks down Farouk in a thriller where he is robbed on the scorecards with a ‘draw’ 🙄 @TimBoxeo@LovejoyBoxingpic.twitter.com/du3tTv0mFV
— No Nonsense Boxing (@NNBoxing) March 19, 2023
Ibeabuchi will be hoping that he gets a fairer shake than Lovejoy received when he and Farouk meet next month. Although, if Ibeabuchi is half the fighter that he was the last time he fought professionally, the judges will not be required.
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