Why did Vitaly duck a Byrd rematch?

"If I lost to a guy and got criticized and thought I was winning easy, I would want a rematch," said Byrd of Vitali's predicament. "I asked for one but they wanted me to fight Wladimir instead, which is a harder style for me and he's very strong. I thank God that I had the opportunity to fight the both of them, nobody wants to go to Germany. But if you have to do it, you just do it."


What I said is exactly true. The Klitschkos know who suits them and Byrd suited Wlad far more than Vitali, which is why a rematch was rejected in favour of two fights with Wlad.

 

It was from the Scene, which is why I can't post a link.

It's a quote during an interview with Byrd after the end of his career :good

 

Thanks for playing? :rofl

Are you going to back up your claims already or keep talking? Because that's all you've been doing :deal

 

It is not that simple. That would give Byrd an option to walk away with the title.

 

Without the rematch option? Not in a million years. Why would he want to hand the title back? He would have signed with Don King and milked it.

 

byrd ducked Vitali for wlad. true story.


Vitali with 1 arm beat the **** out of byrd. imagine with 2 arms and without the shoulder injury.

 

You need to understand the facts.

There was an automatic rematch clause in the Vitali-Byrd contract. Originally, Vitali wanted to enforce the right to a rematch. However, the shoulder injury Vitali suffered in the fight required surgery, followed by a lengthy recovery period. While recovering, Vitali could not train, and many months passed.

Universum originally hoped to have Vitali back in the ring with Byrd by the end of 2000. But when Universum realized that Vitali would not be ready in time, they decided to substitute Vlad, resulting in the Vlad-Byrd match later that year.

Byrd then fought and lost to Vlad; after this, Universum no longer had contract options on Byrd (rematch clause was fulfilled by the Vlad fight). So, Universum couldn't force Byrd to meet Vitali.

Finally, because Byrd's stock plummeted as a result of his one-sided loss to Vlad, it didn't really make good business sense to rematch him with Vitali. Byrd would have demanded a huge purse to fight Vitali again, and the expense wouldn't have been worth it to Universum. By then -- 2001 -- it wouldn't have helped Vitali's career to beat Byrd anyway.

That's pretty much the whole story. Business turns boxing...decisions are based on economics and marketing realities.

 

Byrd avoided fighers? WHO did Byrd not fight?? WHO did he avoid?

 

Byrd avoided nobody. Dude had 10 ton balls.

 

Exactly!!!