"I felt sharp pain when Byrd landed a punch near my shoulder." So let's stop with this "freak injury" bull****. Byrd caused the "injury." Byrd walked him down. Byrd made him quit. Byrd TKO9.
If byrd caused the injury it was by making vitali miss all night, nothing to do with him landing a punch lmao. Considering vitali's leverage, output and lack of accuracy it's not beyond reason that he damaged his shoulder with a missed punch. I have 0% confidence he damaged his shoulder because rapid fire punched him. Was it a freak injury or a stylistic nightmare? We'll never know because they didn't rematch. He seemed quite dominant against adamek and johnson both who tried defending elusively against him. Neither are at byrd's level tho. Would be very interested to see him handle haye's defence. If he could do so i'd happily close the book on this chapter of stylistic match up.
You are absolutely right. Surprising to see someone around here who actually watched the fight. Vitali was made to miss a lot and looked like a total idiot at times. It was like a blindfolded kid trying to bash a piƱata.
out of context.....he said when He through a punch or maybe Byrd hit him in the arm.....either way Vit was not sure...
He did and there was also one other boxer who suffered the same fate but I can't recall the name off top of my head. Great head movement in the pocket. One second his head is there and a power shot is loaded, next second his head is gone and the opponent missed by a mile. It's only really wlad who was able to handle a prime byrd. He fought well with ike until he was caught by a monster shot but foolishly tried slipping his way out of trouble instead of holding and running.
Either way it doesn't matter. Byrd cause the injury by either hitting him or being elusive. That is NOT a "freak injury."
It doesn't have to be self-inflicted to qualify as a "freak injury." This kind of **** doesn't happen often, and is by any definition a "freak injury." Byrd still won.