By Mark Butcher
WITH his wild eyes and extreme views, a dangerous President could be about to return and menace the world as we know it.
Rumours that former heavyweight contender Ike ‘The President’ Ibeabuchi (20-0, 15 KOs) would be mounting an unlikely comeback touched reality when a December 7 date with Egyptian Samy Abdalla (10-0-1, 3 KOs) was announced in The Guardian Nigeria newspaper in mid-October.
The show in Port Harcourt, uniquely headlined ‘Simplified Rumble in Rivers for Champions,’ was endorsed by resident monarch King Iteke Tom, the Amanyanabo of Okochiri Kingdom, with ringside celebrities set to include ex-footballers Jay Jay Okocha and Finidi George as well as the musician Burna Boy, a favourite of many readers of this magazine.
But last week, Ibeabuchi, resembling Richard Roundtree in the movie ‘Shaft’ and in excellent shape judging by recent Instagram posts, announced the show was off, for the meantime at least. “Be aware that the promoter has abandoned the terms of the contract in regards to training cost and propaganda. Thanks and God bless.”
Shortly afterwards, Ibeabuchi re-emerged asking someone to help forward him a $70,675,261 US Department of Justice payment, compensation for not fighting Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield, currently languishing in an American bank account outside of his 77inch reach. Just scan the QR code, what could go wrong? “I am ready to pay cash. Hope to hear from you soon,” said Ike optimistically.
But, according to Boxrec, the comeback was back on with another Egyptian Ayman Farouk Abbas (4-10-1, 1 KO) the man in the firing line.
Welcome back to the mad, bad world of Ike Ibeabuchi. In the late 1990s, Ibeabuchi was the heavyweight division’s bogeyman, terrorising top tier fighters like Chris Byrd (WTKO5) and David Tua (W12). But his bizarre and increasingly threatening antics outside of the ring eventually caught up with him just before a seemingly the inevitable world title shot many expected him to win.
After trapping a stripper in a Las Vegas hotel room in 1999, Ibeabuchi was incarcerated on a string of charges before his release in 2015, then sent back to jail for violating parole in 2016. After Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, he was deported back to his West African homeland over two decades later.
Despite being 51, talk of a potentially lucrative Ibeabuchi comeback feels less outlandish with Mike Tyson, 58, having recently fought. One could imagine Ibeabuchi in this crossover era, should anyone be brave enough to promote boxing’s ultimate loose cannon.
A bullish Ibeabuchi was recently on YouTube calling out IBF heavyweight champion Daniel Dubois while working out on a treadmill. “Hey Dubois! Congratulations you knocked Joshua out in the fifth round… I need that IBF belt! I am the uncrowned champion…. I don’t think you can defeat Usyk without defeating me. You’ve got to go through me, fight me, this is my advice as a brother. Unbeaten fighter as I am, still training, demanding my rights to be restored. When you fight next say you want Ike the President Ibeabuchi….You’ve got fight me, boy….I am a bad man, no one defeats me. Thank you and God bless.”
Given Ibeabuchi’s previous incarceration, a return and visa in the US or the UK would seem unlikely (despite social media murmurs of a Shannon Briggs fight in Manchester) but a relaunch in Africa has no such limitations. ‘Hysteria in Nigeria’ or ‘Chaos in Lagos’ the fight taglines write themselves.
Of course, we will always be left wondering what Ibeabuchi could have achieved at the peak of powers. Respected author Luke G. Williams wrote Ibeabuchi’s compelling biography, “President of Pandemonium: The Mad World of Ike Ibeabuchi“, where he discovered that the heavyweight’s father, Sampson, dubbed ‘Pistor Killer’ and ‘Superman’, was a famed strongman, revered in Nigeria to this day with a statue in Abia state where he still holds mythical status.
“Ibeabuchi could have gone all the way,” Williams told me. “He possessed everything a top heavyweight needs – balance, stamina, a titanium chin and extremely sound fundamentals, installed in him by the wise tutelage of Curtis Cokes. He also had the ruthless streak that many of the great heavyweights possess – witness the shots that nearly decapitated the then unbeaten and much avoided Chris Byrd in March 1999.
“I think Ike would have been too much for Holyfield around that time and would have given Lewis an extremely tough night’s work. Like many of the compelling what-if stories that echo throughout heavyweight history, however, he lacked the mental stability to allow him to fulfil his potential. The very element that caused his destruction is also the element that has kept so many fans fascinated by him.
“There’s nothing so compelling and tragic as wasted potential. However, in the cut throat world of professional boxing Ibeabuchi was never likely to receive the mental health support and treatment he so badly required. Now past 50 he’s still training and dreaming of some form of fistic redemption. Against all my better instincts I can’t help but root for him – if getting back in the ring brings him some form of fragile peace and closure, even within the context of some kind of borderline freak show event then I’m all in for it.
“The world of Ike is truly surreal. By the end of writing the book, I couldn’t wait to get away from it all. Unbelievably, I would say he seems a bit more sane now than in his heyday. I think the issue would be getting out of Nigeria.”
Back in September 1998, in his penultimate fight, Ibeabuchi stopped Everton Davis in nine rounds at the Trump Taj Mahal. Maybe Donald was in the building that night. Two Presidents headed in different directions, either side of the bars. And, despite their advanced years, Donald and Ike aren’t going away any time soon.
“President of Pandemonium: The Mad World of Ike Ibeabuchi“ by Luke G. Williams is published by Hamilcar and available via Amazon.