 Ivan repeatedly won Greco-Roman wrestling "World Cups" among professionals, including the most authoritative of them – in Paris (1905–08).In 1925–27 he performed in Germany and US.According to the Krasenivka museum, he did not waste his money earned during fights and upon his return home bought of land, two houses in a neighboring Bohodukhivka village, a small store, a churn shop, two mills one of which was located in Orzhytsia (today a town in Poltava Oblast).