I haven't seen that much of Jimmy Ellis. From what I have seen of him, he was a fairly technicially sound boxer who was capable of beating some skilled men, ie patterson, Quarry and a few others. Byrd was probably a bit quicker, a tad bigger and arguably more durable. I doubt that this is resulting in a KO or stoppage as neither man was particuarly destructive. I suppose it could go either way, but something tells me Chris wins this on the cards, in what would probably be a less than exciting fight.
Ellis was fast as well as being a good hitter, if he's still alive, ask Johnny Persol. Oscar Bonavena hit the floor a couple of times as well. I thinkalso that from all the time he spent as a sparring partner for Ali that he was used to hitting a moving target as well. I pick Ellis to deck Byrd on the way to a very close decision.
I am huge on Patterson and always have been/will be, but I never called that a robbery. I just didn't like the decision. There was one round, I can't remember which it was but it's a great reason why I love Floyd. It was the only round, I think, where it looked like there was no way he was going anywhere in the fight but down and it may have been a 10/8 under today's scoring system. He was done-for. And he completely turned the tide and maintained a lead overall, in my opinion. He put some big leather on Ellis. But a lot of those rounds were very close. And this was not the Floyd Patterson that reigned as champ. To me, a very good version of Ellis got narrowly beaten by a well, well past his best Patterson who wasn't able to put them together anywhere near the speed, explosiveness, consistency or regularity of his earlier days. If he took a loss to Frazier, after winning that title, that would've been a far nicer thing for his career than getting the bad end of the cards there, assuming he wasn't moidalized against Joe.
Ellis was a crafty fighter, had a sneaky right hand with real pop and brought up some of that middleweight craft and quick release, Byrd was troublesome and a crafty southpaw when he decided to box....Ellis right hand power stands out in this close and somewhat tactical fight and a KD may seal the win for him...Ellis SD
I thin Ellis might be better, Byrd thrived against bigger slower and not so good fighters, I'm not sure he did as well against smaller pure boxers
