did chris byrd make a mistake by fighting at heavyweight?

He had a pretty good career there..He held on to a fair bit of speed and awkwardness, and it worked well for him.

Id imagine he made better scrilla fighting at heavy.

 

no jack ass he waz a awesome heavy

he had such reactionz at one stage he waz a top notch heavy

until that ike left hook tore part of his brain stem apart that is

then the not one but two vlad batterinz he got torez hiz mind completely to bitz

 

It's very possible that he could have really had a BETTER career at a lower weight.

That said, he was a two time heavyweight champion, often going in against people weighting 20+ pounds more than him. Ike weighed, I believe 40+ pounds more than him.

And with the exception of very few fighters (all massively bigger than him) he held his own, and often made others look foolish. Evander refused to fight him for a long time for that very reason, until he got to the point where he HAD to fight Byrd.

Lennox threw his belt away rather than fight Byrd. You can debate whether or not Lennox would have beaten Byrd or not. We'll never know, although many probably have their opinions.

Bottom line is this: He fought at a weight higher than his natural weight, and he held his own against some really good fighters. Over achiever if ever there was one, to be honest.

He's my favorite boxer as well. Damn shame about that George fight. that wasn't pretty.

 

what's with the spelling?

to answer the OP's question, he could have had good fights with big names in the lower weight classes, but maybe he benefited from being the speedier man with more 'little man' skills against most of his opponents at HW. of course he met his match against a few bigger, talented, and powerful big men, but i think he had a pretty good career. and others have touched on the money issue...

 

He had a HW belt, so no he made no mistake. Also I cant see him beating Calzaghe at LH or SM that would have been a dead end for him. I believe they met in the amatures and Byrd got KO'd bad

 

I think his mistake wasn't fighting at heavyweight but going down to Lightheavyweight. He should've went down to cruiserweight.

 

Byrd's technical style of boxing (light sporadic punching and evasive body movement) was too lethargic and not entertaining for the heavyweight division IMO. If a HW is going to be technical he should possess some power, which Byrd did not have. However I do believe if Byrd competed at Super Middleweight or Lt. Heavyweight (his natural weight) he very well may have been undisputed, and probably go down in history as one of the best SMW/Lt. HW to step in the ring. There's no doubt in my mind Byrd would have been a superior Lt. Heavyweight in comparison to a heavyweight.

Byrd came along at the right time when the HW division was starting to decline - and he used what little arsenal he had to take advantage of the situation. I can't fault a boxer for going after the money, which some believe is in the HW division, but to alter your composition and fight 30 pounds over your natural weight is a fluke.

Byrd, RJJ, James Toney and others may be great fighters, but in all honestly they have no business fighting as heavyweights.

 

i dont understand the question

he was a champion in the HW division how is that a mistake?

 

BTW, I recently scanned the the Cruiserweight rankings. Can someone explain why the WBC has Byrd ranked in the top ten? :huh

 

He's not. He's ranked #21

http://www.wbcboxing.com/WBCboxing/...m?docId=95&docTipo=4&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC

WBA CHAMPION: Guillermo Jones (Panama)
IBF CHAMPION: Thomasz Adamek (Poland)
WBO CHAMPION: Victor Emilio Ramirez (Argentina)
Contenders:
WBC INT. CHAMPION: Herbie Hide (GB)

1.-Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (Poland)
2.-Herbie Hide (GB) INTL
3.-Francisco Palacios (P. Rico)
4.-Grigory Drozd (Russia)
5.-Matt Godfrey (US) NABF
6.-Alexander Alexeev (Uzbekistan)
7.-Yoan Pablo Hernandez (Cuba)
8.-Pawel Kolodziej (Poland)
9.-Enad Licina (Serbia)
10.-Troy Ross (Guyana) COMM
11.-BJ Flores (US)
12.-Johnathon Banks (US)
13.-Alexander Frenkel (Germany)
14.-Pedro Otas (Brazil)
15.-Thomasz Hutkowski (Poland) YOUTH 16.-Rudolf Kraj (Czech)
17.-Valery Brudov (Russia)
18.-Vadim Tokarev (Russia)
19.-Denis Lebedev (Russia)
20.-Steve Herelius (France)
21.-Chris Byrd (US)
22.-Dominic Vea (Australia) OPBF
23.-Vitaliy Rusal (Ukraine)
24.-Firat Arslan (Germany)
25.-Vincenzo Rossitto (Italy)
26.-Geoffrey Batello (Belgium)
27.-Ran Nakash (Israel)
28.-Emmanuel Nwodo (Nigeria)
29.-Alexander Kotlobay (Russia) CISBB
30.-Arthur Williams (US) USNBC
32.-Cesar Crenz (Argentina)
33.-Rob Calloway (US)
34.-Aaron Williams (US)
35.-Lawrence Tauasa (Australia)
36.-Ehinomen Ehikhamenor (Nigeria)
37.-Lukasz Janik (Poland)
38.-Gustavo Arroyo (Mexico) FECOMBOX
39.-Santander Silgado (Argentina)
39.-Salvatore Erittu (Italy)
40.-Shawn Hawk (US)

 

jesus christ how the heck is herbie hide #2 ????

 

Why is it a mistake? He became a champion didn't he? He was a small HW, but he was able to use his agility and speed to garner success. And when he fought he was arguably the quickest HW. If he had fought in a lower weight class he wouldn't have had the same kind of advantage as he did. And there is of course as you mentioned the money. The only mistake Byrd did was not retire when he needed too.

 

yeah he was fragile. Jones did it also. tarver did it also.