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President of Pandemonium: The Mad World Of Ike Ibeabuchi
Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi had the boxing world at his feet in 1997 after vanquishing David Tua in a battle for the ages in Sacramento. The Nigerian heavyweight’s subsequent descent into a vortex of mental illness and crime and punishment was as shocking as it was tragic.
Was Ibeabuchi a vulnerable man exploited by a ruthless sport and a dysfunctional criminal justice system, or was he guilty-as-charged for his deeds and rightly punished?
Somewhere amid a colorful cast of characters including Republican politicians, crooked promoters, and demons hiding in air-conditioning units, lies the uncomfortable truth.
In President of Pandemonium, Luke G. Williams vividly recreates Ibeabuchi’s life in and out of the ring. Combining exclusive interviews with those who guided his career and observed him closely, as well as firsthand testimony from “The President” himself, this is a story of brilliance destroyed by dark forces, both real and imagined.
Was Ibeabuchi a vulnerable man exploited by a ruthless sport and a dysfunctional criminal justice system, or was he guilty-as-charged for his deeds and rightly punished?
Somewhere amid a colorful cast of characters including Republican politicians, crooked promoters, and demons hiding in air-conditioning units, lies the uncomfortable truth.
In President of Pandemonium, Luke G. Williams vividly recreates Ibeabuchi’s life in and out of the ring. Combining exclusive interviews with those who guided his career and observed him closely, as well as firsthand testimony from “The President” himself, this is a story of brilliance destroyed by dark forces, both real and imagined.
130 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 12, 2021
3 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Luke G. Williams
7 books1 followerLuke G. Williams is in his third decade as a journalist and writer. A former staff writer for uefa.com, sportal.com, euro2000.com and Boxing Social websites, his freelance work has been published in The Guardian, The Independent, The Sunday Express, Boxing News and 007 Magazine among many other outlets. Luke was also a prolific feature writer and the online editor of Boxing Monthly magazine for several years. In the course of his career, Luke has interviewed many of the world’s top boxers, including Manny Pacquiao, Tyson Fury and Roy Jones Jr, as well as other leading figures from the world of sport such as David Beckham and Jimmy White. Luke’s first book Masters of the Baize (Co-written with Paul Gadsby) was published in 2004 and was named ‘book of the week’ by both The Sunday Times and Independent newspapers. His second book, Richmond Unchained, was published to widespread acclaim in 2015 and was featured on the BBC and ITV among many other media outlets. Nominated for Best Biography at the 2015 British Sports Book Awards, Richmond Unchained has also featured for the past six years on Thomas Hauser’s annual list of the greatest boxing books of all time and is currently under option for a potential television adaptation. In 2021, Hamilcar published Luke’s third book, President of Pandemonium, a meticulously researched investigation into the life and career of troubled Nigerian heavyweight Ike Ibeabuchi which was hailed by sports writing legend Donald McRae as a “gripping read”. Luke’s fourth book, entitled The Natural, is a biography of cult snooker hero and hustler Patsy Houlihan and will be published in April 2023 by Pitch.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 11, 2023
“That guy’s crazy.”
You hear that a lot about guys in the fight game. Usually there’s some hyperbole in there. Even supposed madmen like Mike Tyson are usually just deeply troubled, and because they’re making money for their handlers, their troubles are ignored rather than treated.
There was, however, at least one bona fide psychopath in the boxing game. What makes the tale even stranger and more tragic is that he was a worldclass fighter. There are people who’ve been around this sport for decades who were sanguine on this man’s chances of becoming champ and going down in history.
But again, he was stone-crazy, which put up quite a few stumbling blocks on the road to fame and fortune.
Ike “the President” Ibeabuchi came to America from Nigeria, the son of an African strongman who performed wild feats to entertain passersby in the street. Ike put down stakes in Texas, and began training seriously to become a pro boxer. He debuted and began plowing through no-hopers and fellow contenders, earning middling four-figure purses and a little bit of local buzz.
Then, after being brought in as a late sub after a bigger fighter cancelled, he was finally put on the big stage. No one except Ike probably thought he had a chance. He not only acquitted himself in his first step-up fight, however, but gave the public an instant classic.
David “Tua Man” Tua was being tipped as the most explosive puncher since Tyson. Ibeabuchi, meanwhile, was a closely guarded secret, an unknown quantity whose range of skills and ring intelligence were yet to be proven. Ike not only beat Tua, but the men set a Compubox record for punches thrown in a single match. I’m not wonkish enough to check if their record has been bested, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it hasn’t.
Soon after his upset win, Ibeabuchi fought the much-avoided, frustratingly slick southpaw Chris Byrd. And once again he won, this time via devastating knockout.
In the meantime, though, just as Ibeabuchi’s fortunes were waxing in the ring, they were waning outside of it. He had a brutal breakup with his girlfriend and ended up kidnapping her son and crossing state lines with the child. He also got into a high-speed chase with the cops and ended up in a bad crash that gave the boy in the passenger seat permanent psychological and physical wounds.
Ike’s management were desperate at this point—knowing a heavyweight title shot was well within reach, but also knowing Ike’s precarious mental state. Eventually, what had to happen did happen, and Ike ended up in prison. He was charged with multiple counts of rape after going on a tear with call girls in Vegas, and was sentenced to several years behind bars. While there, he brooded, dreamed, and planned his great return to the ring. He also earned several college degrees and proved himself to be a model prisoner.
The much-promised return to the ring never happened, though.
Instead, Ike and his mother—convinced he had been implanted with mind-controlling microchips—retreated deeper into a world of fantastic paranoia.
Ike also violated parole on a technicality and went back to prison.
After that, he faded into semi-obscurity, his memory only occasionally resurrected on online boxing forums by diehard fans.
President of Pandemonium: The Mad World of Ike Ibeabuchi gets to the heart of the matter, or as close as anyone is likely to get at this point. It presents in straightforward documentary fashion, the story of a man who never really acclimated to Western mores, or even understood them. He was a man of volatile temperament, and was sometimes delusionally arrogant and demanding, but, like most humans, he had more than one side. He could be gentle, polite and shy to the point of it being impossible to understand his words when he spoke. He also was obviously not feigning insanity to avoid the consequences of his actions, but was genuinely a goner. That he could walk around in such a dissociative fugue without anything questioning it—from promoters to managers to sports commentators—is a sad commentary on the continued exploitation of prizefighters. This guy didn’t need to win a world title belt; he needed help, probably in a closed psychiatric facility.
It's tragic, but fascinating, and though its end is definitely a downer, the tale is not without its victories, both minor and legendary. For whatever else happens to Ike at this point, his memory will live on, committed to film in those great fights he gave us. There are many “what-ifs” in boxing and Ike’s story is right up there.
Had he been able to continue fighting—perhaps after getting the treatment he needed—he could have very likely slayed every living legend who got in his way, including prime Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko as well as a fading but still menacing Mike Tyson.
You hear that a lot about guys in the fight game. Usually there’s some hyperbole in there. Even supposed madmen like Mike Tyson are usually just deeply troubled, and because they’re making money for their handlers, their troubles are ignored rather than treated.
There was, however, at least one bona fide psychopath in the boxing game. What makes the tale even stranger and more tragic is that he was a worldclass fighter. There are people who’ve been around this sport for decades who were sanguine on this man’s chances of becoming champ and going down in history.
But again, he was stone-crazy, which put up quite a few stumbling blocks on the road to fame and fortune.
Ike “the President” Ibeabuchi came to America from Nigeria, the son of an African strongman who performed wild feats to entertain passersby in the street. Ike put down stakes in Texas, and began training seriously to become a pro boxer. He debuted and began plowing through no-hopers and fellow contenders, earning middling four-figure purses and a little bit of local buzz.
Then, after being brought in as a late sub after a bigger fighter cancelled, he was finally put on the big stage. No one except Ike probably thought he had a chance. He not only acquitted himself in his first step-up fight, however, but gave the public an instant classic.
David “Tua Man” Tua was being tipped as the most explosive puncher since Tyson. Ibeabuchi, meanwhile, was a closely guarded secret, an unknown quantity whose range of skills and ring intelligence were yet to be proven. Ike not only beat Tua, but the men set a Compubox record for punches thrown in a single match. I’m not wonkish enough to check if their record has been bested, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it hasn’t.
Soon after his upset win, Ibeabuchi fought the much-avoided, frustratingly slick southpaw Chris Byrd. And once again he won, this time via devastating knockout.
In the meantime, though, just as Ibeabuchi’s fortunes were waxing in the ring, they were waning outside of it. He had a brutal breakup with his girlfriend and ended up kidnapping her son and crossing state lines with the child. He also got into a high-speed chase with the cops and ended up in a bad crash that gave the boy in the passenger seat permanent psychological and physical wounds.
Ike’s management were desperate at this point—knowing a heavyweight title shot was well within reach, but also knowing Ike’s precarious mental state. Eventually, what had to happen did happen, and Ike ended up in prison. He was charged with multiple counts of rape after going on a tear with call girls in Vegas, and was sentenced to several years behind bars. While there, he brooded, dreamed, and planned his great return to the ring. He also earned several college degrees and proved himself to be a model prisoner.
The much-promised return to the ring never happened, though.
Instead, Ike and his mother—convinced he had been implanted with mind-controlling microchips—retreated deeper into a world of fantastic paranoia.
Ike also violated parole on a technicality and went back to prison.
After that, he faded into semi-obscurity, his memory only occasionally resurrected on online boxing forums by diehard fans.
President of Pandemonium: The Mad World of Ike Ibeabuchi gets to the heart of the matter, or as close as anyone is likely to get at this point. It presents in straightforward documentary fashion, the story of a man who never really acclimated to Western mores, or even understood them. He was a man of volatile temperament, and was sometimes delusionally arrogant and demanding, but, like most humans, he had more than one side. He could be gentle, polite and shy to the point of it being impossible to understand his words when he spoke. He also was obviously not feigning insanity to avoid the consequences of his actions, but was genuinely a goner. That he could walk around in such a dissociative fugue without anything questioning it—from promoters to managers to sports commentators—is a sad commentary on the continued exploitation of prizefighters. This guy didn’t need to win a world title belt; he needed help, probably in a closed psychiatric facility.
It's tragic, but fascinating, and though its end is definitely a downer, the tale is not without its victories, both minor and legendary. For whatever else happens to Ike at this point, his memory will live on, committed to film in those great fights he gave us. There are many “what-ifs” in boxing and Ike’s story is right up there.
Had he been able to continue fighting—perhaps after getting the treatment he needed—he could have very likely slayed every living legend who got in his way, including prime Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko as well as a fading but still menacing Mike Tyson.
July 7, 2025
Quick read on this fascinating boxer who showed so much promise and so much lunacy. After some lengthy stays in prison over the last 26 years, and not having boxed once in that time, he is supposedly preparing for his comeback fight in a few weeks (as of July 7/2025).
January 14, 2022
Why are these true crime boxing books so dull?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews