Chris Byrd v Wilder?

I’m hesitant to pick either guy. Look, Chris Byrd was more mobile, more skilled and had some success against big dangerous punchers. Therefore it’s completely reasonable to favor him. But that right hand by wilder is a huge “ X “ factor

 

Byrd by UD as well.

 

Byrd would get clipped. Everyone is forgetting how good Wilder was when he was active in terms of punch output and had unwavering self believe. That guy started to vanish about six years ago.

 

This is the classic Wilder fight of, ‘if the opponent can stay away from 12 rounds, he’ll beat The Wilder’, there were so many guys that were better than Wilder technically, most of his opponents were beating him in world title fights, until they weren’t, if you don’t have the power to stop Wilder and get him out of there, the longer the fight is, the more chance he has of landing a punch, and Byrd isn’t hurting Wilder.

 

6 years ago? So when he started to face fighters with a pulse?

 

Nope. He was throwing bombs in the first Ortiz and Fury fights until the fights ended. Contrast that with the rematches for each and he wasn’t the same guy.

 

I like that you said had. It's clear as day now, his power isn't the same. Likely because those fast twitch fibers he relied on, are gone at 38 years old. He's likely slowed down a fair bit to.

 

Agreed. Also his awkwardness is the kind of stuff that gets through on great defensive fighters…couple that with stupid power, decent speed and timing…

I’ll take Wilder on this one.

 

So what happened in your opinion? Got too reliant on the right hand and stopped trying to set it up?

 

It was a combination of getting old/fighting with chronic injuries, falling in love with his power, and being inactive. He had a huge stretch of inactivity during COVID and the quickness of the Helenius fight did him no favors.

 

But you said he was a different fighter as soon as in Ortiz and Fury rematches. He was fighting 2-3 times a year then.