‘Why Ike Ibeabuchi will not give up his boxing aspirations after 20 years in jail’

Before he was sent to jail in 1999, Ike Ibeabuchi, a former WBC International Heavyweight Champion of Nigerian origin, had a very tall dream. He wanted to be a World Boxing Champion. In fact, by 1997, at age 24, pundits had begun to compare him to boxing greats like Mike Tyson and George Foreman while others tipped him as an undisputable champion and the next big name to rule the Boxing world.

With an unbeaten record of 15 knockouts from 20 wins up to this day, the media crowned him ‘Boxing’s Most Dangerous Man’. He was on his way to becoming one of the greatest athletes from Africa when he ran into trouble with the United States authorities.

His chances of fulfilling his dream is now almost unrealistic at 47, after spending more than 20 years of his youthful life in Arizona and Nevada prisons over allegations of sexual assault on a stripper.

He was recently released from Arizona prison and now being held at the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Eloy Detention center in Eloy, Arizona, until his green card and citizenship paperwork can be reevaluated and resolved. Yet he appears not to be giving up on his dreams.

His brother Stan Ibeabuchi told Robert Brizel, the Chief Boxing Correspondent of Real Combat Media, that Ibeabuchi will not give up his boxing aspirations when he finally regains his freedom.

Before he was released in 2014, Ibeabuchi had earned three associate degrees and certificates and managed to keep fit while in prison. He was making moves to return to the ring, and had signed on with Michael Koncz, Manny Pacquiao’s advisor, before he was picked up again in 2016, spending another four years in prison.

Stan says that although Ibeabuchi’s late mother Patricia wanted her son to quit boxing because she believed the boxing establishments were corrupt and against him, “if Ike can find people he can trust, he can launch his career again.”

“Being someone who was determined to become the heavyweight champion of the world, I don’t see him with any barrier. I don’t see as someone who can easily give up his aspirations. I have known him as someone who is determined and strong-willed, a go getter.”