Chris Byrd is criminally underrated here

Arte you sure he couldn't have "stolen" a fight on points in the US? Besides only landing 8 less punches his connect rate was something like 44% to Vits 22%. Even the German fans were cheering Byrd after he won. Different judges look for different things so its no impossible when you look at the stats they actually had. No?

 

An opinion which was shared by Vitali himself (as expressed in the post fight interview).The fight being as even as it was before Byrd forced the stoppage was part of Vitali's rationale for surrendering his career, diginity & legacy in that fight. I'm sure if he knew that he was enroute to receiving a gift decision, he would've probably soldiered on. If he really DID have a shoulder injury that is. :think

 

Byrd was under rated when he was active. He lacked power and did not have a fan friendly style , so the fans never really took to him despite wins over Vitali, Tua and Holyfield. He was so under rated that even when he was Lewis' mandatory the fans had no problem with Lewis receiving $1 million from Don King to dump the IBF title and fight a shot Tyson.

But now I think he is rated correctly. He was a very good fighter but not great. He was lucky to fight in a transitional era, he caught guys like Holyfield and Golota past their best. He'd beat everyone now other than Wlad or Vitali and maybe Haye.

 

I may disagree with you a lot on the Klits, but I like you Max, you're open minded! :good

 

Pre-Ibeabuchi, Byrd gives alot of heavyweights fits, but as it stands I dont rate Byrd very hightly.

He beat a badly faded and injured to boot Holyfield for part of a vacant heavyweight belt.
Byrd goes to make several defenses of the title against Oquendo, Golata, McCline, and Williamson, of which I thought Bryd lost everyone of those fights but got bogus decisions.

The Williamson fight was probably the worst Heavyweight title fight in boxing history. It was like watching two wino's in a fight afraid to hit eachother.


Underrated? I think not!

 

Chris Byrd is not only underrated here, but he also gets no credit for stopping Vitali Klitschko.

The official excuse is "I hurt my shoulder". If any other fighter made up such a ridiculous excuse, people would hate on him. But somehow Vitali gets a free pass.

I think the excuse is completely made up; I think Vitali quit because Byrd was impossible to hit with a flush shot, and Vitali was being countered at will. Vitali would have been knocked out badly in the 11th or 12th, and he knew it.

 

The punchstats in thrown and connects only got close because Byrd closed the gap the last 2 or 3 rounds because Vitali's injury prevented him from throwing punches.
Up to the point, Vitali easily was outboxing Byrd, it was'nt even close.

 

Wrong. Vits never complained of the injury until after the 8th round. He also never stopped throwing punches. He was in fact vey gassed from missing punches and was lacking much zip on them towards the end.

 

My apologies, Im watching the fight as I post and it the 7th round the commentators mention how tired Vits is getting and how heavily he is breathing talking about how the judges have to be taking notice of that.

 

You mean he was outboxing the air around Byrd. He was missing terribly with a lot of his punches. No wonder he gassed.

 

Lets also remember ion all his fights up to Byrd he had only been to the 6th round once and past it once.

 

He was losing on the cards to Ibeabuchi (and rightfully so) before he got KO'ed. Are you sure you watched that fight?

 

I agree. Byrd was a beautiful technician. Don't have those anymore in the HW division

 

I really have never even payed attention to punchstats. So often they're just decieving. Guagers are counted as connects and body shots are often not counted.

Its been such a long time since VItali-Byrd, but I do remember being shocked that Vitali quit in his corner. He did'nt at all seem gassed to me, and not once was Vitali ever shook by Byrd.
I thought he could just dance his way to victory and give away the last couple of rounds.

I think Vitali said afterward though that it hurt even putting his hand up to defend.
If I'm not mistaken, Vitali ended up having to have surgery to repair the damage he suffered in that shoulder.

 

Yeah, only that it was Vitali that did everything to get a rematch, but Byrd wanted no part of it, he knew he wouldn't have been lucky again.
Just like Lewis! :good