Ike Ibeabuchi Returns To Boxing After Huge 25 Year-Plus Hiatus
Ike Ibeabuchi is set to return to the ring this weekend and will put his undefeated professional boxing record on the line over a quarter of a century after his last bout. The prizefight goes down in Lagos, Nigeria with the 20-0 combatant last competing before the new millennium.
The over two decade hiatus for ‘The President’ is at least in part tied to an arrest which led to a conviction centred on battery with intent to commit a crime as well as attempted sexual assault. The jail term wrapped up in 2015 but the pugilist would violate his probation and then had to serve another four year prison term.
Idris Affini will stand across the ring from Ibeabuchi who steps into the ring against the 1990’s heavyweight star with an 18-8-2 record and with a prior history of normally fighting around the 200 pound mark. Danny Williams was initially supposed to be on the docket for this Ibeabuchi fight (a fighter best known for halting Mike Tyson in 2004) but an injury sustained by Williams forced him into withdrawing.
Ike Ibeabuchi and the lofty goals for his return to the ring
Ike Ibeabuchi last stepped into the ring in March 1999 where he would secure a fifth round TKO over eventual heavyweight titleholder Chris Byrd and hand the latter his first professional boxing loss. Ibeabuchi was a fixture in the golden era of 1990’s heavyweight boxing with many fans of that time period fondly remembering his victory over David Tua in a fight that set a heavyweight record at the time for most punches thrown in a bout.
Some of Ibeabuchi’s recent comments though seem to indicate that his headspace and perception of where he’s at is aligned with what he was able to do in the Tua fight as the Nigerian combatant has indicated a desire to want to fight multiple big name heavyweights today. During an interview with Yahoo Sports’ Uncrowned, Ibeabuchi said [via Uncrowned],
“I want a title shot. I look at the heavyweight picture like this: Myself, [Oleksandr] Usyk and [Moses] Itauma. But nobody wants to fight me. I have called out [Tyson] Fury multiple times, but he has always said that I need to have a comeback fight first and get a ranking, and then these big fights can happen. So that’s exactly what I am doing.”
