Despite airing on HBO Boxing After Dark, this fight wasn't to be found online for the longest time. It's nothing huge, but it was one I remember enjoying and one that lived up to my recollections. Thunder was pretty much the perfect foil for Byrd to look good against, and Byrd made the most of that fact. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AGeY0rh-VE[/ame] I enjoyed listening to Lampley, who shits on Byrd in his opening monolgue, being won over as the fight progressed. Also of interest is the obvious respect accorded to Byrd by Roy Jones. From his commentary it's clear that Jones sees Byrd as being very similar to himself. If nothing else, skip to the 38:00 mark and catch the way Byrd finishes Thunder, starting with that triple left hand. People like to compary Byrd to Jimmy Young a lot, but can anyone show me an example of Young being psychologically willing to bring it to a guy like that?
I always enjoyed watching Byrd fight.Never deserved the safety first,spoiler tag that was given to him by some people.He never had any issue standing in the pocket and fighting larger,significantly stronger opponents.
Jimmy Young vs Wendell Bailey is a good example. He was very out of shape so he went after Bailey and finished him off early.
Thanks TS. Never knew these two fought, never mind having seeing the fight. Most entertaining. Awesome finish.
I've only seen Byrd at the end of his career against Povetkin, George and the like. People on the forum constantly seem to say he's a boring fighter, yet here he certainly wasen't. There where several things that annoyed me- as a fan of a technical guard how he moved his hands around annoyed me, his lack of variety of punches (he rarely threw anything more than a jab and left cross with a rare hook, yet he didn't need to in this fight) and he didn't let his hands go enough at some points I felt. However technically this is one of the more clinical performances from a heavyweight (albeit a small one) I've seen in a while. He very rarely seemed to miss, took very few clean punches, didn't use excessive movement, stayed in the pocket well, kept working the body, kept his composure very well and all his punches were extremely technical. After seeing this I woulden't have minded seeing his fight Lennox Lewis. Although, as already stated, Thunder was a perfect style matchup for Byrd. Still I really enjoyed his performance- I tend to be a fan of fighters who throw more but that was a beautiful display of boxing. I prefered RJJ as a commentator back then too, very insightful. Has there ever been any fights where he got very excited? I always remember Emmanuel Steward shouting in the 12th round of Toney-Jirov and Gatti-Ward round 8, but in no other fights that I've seen. Did Roy ever get that animated in the commentary booth?
As said, I've only really seen his last few fights in his career and now this one. I've heard of him having exciting fights before. Could you name me some please, I definatly want to check some out now. Thanks
Here's Byrd in his 12th pro fight stopping Tim Puller on an old Tuesday Night Fights card. Puller was no world-beater, his career highlights being a points victory over an ancient Quick Tillis and claiming a bogus IBC belt against a journeyman, but he was a winning fighter with six inches and twenty-three pounds on the young Byrd. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-iH5bcLDk[/ame] I particularly enjoyed the quadruple jab at 15:00 and the knockdown Byrd scored with a left to the body at the 17:35 mark. Byrd's reputation as a stinker was mostly a matter of the physical realities involved in fighting world-class 240 pound heavyweights, not a matter of desire or demeanor. Against the guys he could hurt, he was quite often a vicious little finisher. I can't find Byrd versus Lionel Butler. I remember it was about a year after Lennox Lewis stopped Butler. Chris had him really just blowing hats off people in the audience with the wind off the punches he missed, then eventually decked him a couple times and stopped him.
Byrd is very underrated. Made a prime 225lb David Tua look silly, and he defeated a prime Vitali Klitschko. Wladimir beat Byrd in his prime, but Wlad is a top 10 ATG heavyweight.
One of the things I like about Byrd, and it's something I was surprised to hear Lampley say himself at the end of that Thunder fight, is that he demonstrates the difference between a puncher and a finisher. Some guys have heavy hands but aren't especially good finishers. Byrd was the opposite in that he couldn't really punch, but by god if he did somehow hurt you he was going to be up in your ass slapping you silly for the TKO. There are some fighters ahead of him in the all-time standings, and rightly so, that he would nevertheless embarrass or at least pose a serious problem for.
