You want to know what happened to heavyweight boxing? It has been locked up in the Nevada state prison system since 1999.
Nearly 500 miles from Las Vegas, where the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Miguel Cotto super welterweight title bout was scheduled to take place Saturday night, is the uncrowned heavyweight champion, confined to a cell at Lovelock Correctional Center.
Ike Ibeabuchi was once heralded as the heir apparent to Mike Tyson. He was a big, powerful Nigerian with boxing skills and no real challenger on the horizon as he struck fear in the hearts of opponents in the late 1990s. He was 20-0 with 15 knockouts and impressive wins over David Tua and Chris Byrd.
He could have changed the course of boxing, which is driven by the heavyweight division.
“He could have been heavyweight champion,” said Jeff Mayweather, Floyd Jr.’s uncle and a boxing trainer who was a featherweight champion in the 1990s. “He punched like a mule. He would have been one of the elite heavyweight champions. He was big, strong and had good boxing skills.”
Said Roy Jones Jr., who fought as a middleweight and light heavyweight back then: “He was the next big thing. He would have dominated the heavyweights for a long time.”
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Ibea?buchi entered the boxing consciousness with an impressive June 1997 win over Tua, then an undefeated heavyweight contender. Records show both fighters set a mark for a heavyweight fight with 1,730 punches thrown, with Ibeabuchi winning a unanimous decision.
But he lost his toughest fight — the one going on inside his head.
Ibeabuchi was so fearsome in part because he was often in a frightening place in his mind. He developed an alter ego known as “The President,” believing he was some sort of royalty. He behaved erratically.
HBO was ready to get into the Ike Ibeabuchi business, seeing the future of the heavyweight division. But at a dinner to talk about a three-fight deal with network executives, Ibeabuchi grabbed a carving knife, drove it into the table and declared, “They knew it! They knew it! The belts belonged to me.”
Ibeabuchi faced multiple sexual assault charges in 1999 in Las Vegas. He was ruled incompetent to stand trial and committed to a facility for the mentally ill.
Ibeabuchi was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was put on court-ordered medication. In 2001, he was finally considered in sound enough mind to make decisions about his fate. In a plea agreement, Ibeabuchi was sentenced to two to 10 years for one charge and three to 20 years on another.
Since then, he was paroled on one conviction but has been denied parole three times on the other. He was scheduled for another hearing last week — the same week Las Vegas prepared for Mayweather-Cotto.
The last time Las Vegas hosted a heavyweight title fight of note was 2001 — the Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman rematch. The division has been invisible — or imprisoned — since.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
