RSSIke Ibeabuchi
Monday, January 01, 2007
Dream Fight: Lewis vs Ibeabuchi
Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi scored his twentieth and last victory on March 20, 1999. It was an impressive knockout stoppage of unbeaten, future WBO and IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd. Twenty one months earlier he had handed David Tua his first defeat. Ike was a serious heavyweight contender but then he took a detour to prison. In March of 1999 Lennox Lewis drew with Evander Holyfield in a battle to unify the WBA, WBC and IBF titles. They met again eight months later with Lewis getting the decision. Lennox was now the undisputed champion.
Let’s just say that Ike does not go to jail. Let’s pretend that Lennox decides to meet Ike in the Spring of 2000 instead of Michael Grant. How would that fight had played out? Lewis was 6’5” tall and usually came in around 250 pounds with an 84” reach. He was an imposing figure in the ring. In Ibeabuchi he would not be meeting a small heavyweight. Ike was 6’2” who would tip the scales in the 235 pound range. Lennox would have an eight inch advantage in reach though. Going into the fight Lewis would have the edge in experience with a 35-1-1 record against better quality opposition. Although Ibeabuchi had to be considered a serious threat, Lennox would have probably been around a 3 to 1 favorite.
Here we go…Twelve rounds for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.
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