Byrd didn't possess Jimmy Young's chin or his defensive prowess. Foreman...any version of of Foreman, young or old, would catch and ko Byrd. The shot that GF caught Young with in round 7 in their bout would've beheaded Byrd.
Prime Foreman would knock Byrd out without a doubt, but the older Foreman would probably lose by UD...
So Tommy Chin......Kraut Schulz.......Crawford Grimsley......Lou Savereasy......Alex stewart......are all better than Chrs Byrd who was actually a belt Holder with positive defenses on his ledger.....all of the above did not get stopped, one won, one got robbed and the others ran razor close...........a fighter who clowned a old Holyfield while same old Holyfield had a field day with Glass cannon rahman One more time, 70's Foreman most likely walks Byrd down a la Ike Comeback Foreman,, no matter when gets embarrassed by Byrd. He would never ever take that fight. Full stop. Chin, lol, after the Ike loss , Byrd was tko'ed while old in the tooth by a prime WK....SEVEN years later, in other words, nobody was able to do the trick until then and that included Tua VK Golata etc aka full size heavyweights.
Ibeabuchi had better hand speed than George Foreman and threw more punches ...but he didn’t punch has hard
Overrated? Byrd's sold short here routinely based on what great SHW caliber sized people could do against him despite those fighters being rare to nonexistent in other eras. None of them are having an easy night with a slick southpaw (something that didn't even exist for most of HW boxing's history). Given 70's Foreman's stamina and pacing issues, this is a winnable fight for Byrd. I personally wouldn't bet on either outcome unless the odds were really skewed.
The problem with backing Byrd over Foreman is that, even though he can be given credit for giving up a size advantage to many of his opponents, he tended to go into an overly-defensive mode, when up against a genuine offensive armory. In fact, he even sacrificed offense for defense in significant patches against opponents, who didn't really carry the potential to detonate game-changing bombs on him. This heavy on the defense approach is why he was facing a wide decision loss to Vitali K. until fate stepped in; why he lost by way of a virtual shutout to Wlad, the match after that, and why the decisions in his Oquendo, Golota and McCline matches could be considered quite fortunate. Sure, one can wax lyrical about Byrd's defensive capabilities, but it was not a facet of his game that was particularly well-balanced, alongside an effective offense. Staying out of range, to the extent of not being able to launch your own effective offensive, is not really defense, at all. Byrd needed to be able to defend well enough and long enough within the kill zone, in order to demonstrate effective aggression, landing his own shots. To his credit, he was able to do this to varying degrees, depending on the level of opponent in front of him. The question is, could he really achieve it against Foreman? I don't think so - for two reasons. 1. Even if he tries to stay out of the kill zone, Foreman will place him inside of it and, 2. Byrd doesn't stay upright for long in Foreman's kills zone.
