Byrd v. Haye

Byrd is quite hard to hit clean and Haye likes to counter as fighters come forward towards him. Byrd wouldn't do that.

It would be a terrible snoozefest with Haye clueless on how to hit Byrd clean and Byrd waiting to counter Haye.

 

It seems like a lot of you haven't seen haye fight other than the valuev and maybe mormeck fights!

Haye is actually a very good boxer and throws one of the most accurate and powerful one-two's in the business.

Haye can fight on the front foot or back foot, and times his punches well. Haye used to punch him self out when trying to finish opponents, as he used to get in too close and not pick his shots. But people forget how inexperienced he was then. Remember in his first 10 fights 5 of them were 1st round ko's, so he wasn't prepared for someone being able to withstand his punches.

15 fights on he is a much more dedicated trainer and I don't think his stamina is such an issue anymore, but also he is a more intelligent fighter too. He has a very good jab, which he doesn't always use (obviously pointless to use against valuev). He is much faster than Byrd, he is also more skillful and has more power. Yes Byrd has a better defence and chin but who did he fight who was as fast as Haye and as accurate?

Also Haye is taller, has a better reach and would weigh more on fight night. Byrd was pretty close to cw weight, fighting at 210-215 pounds, and Haye was a unified cw champ. Remember most of the cw guys were at 210-215 on fight night and Haye beat most of them. Byrd was a champ in a time when the main champ couldn't be bothered with him as it was not seen as a big fight.

Haye would pick him off and hurt him early with fast accurate straight and powerful punches. This would either make Byrd go in to his shell and it would be an easy points decision for Haye or Haye would take him out!

People under rate Haye on this site, whilst I am not saying he is Ali he does have good boxing skills, a good fast jab, is a very accurate puncher, can throw very straight punches as well as finding excellent angles. His movement is good, both head and foot.

Yes he has a weak chin and early on in his career he suffered from stamina issues but he is a very talented boxer.

 

Like against Audley, when Haye was caught completely off-guard when Audley was just sitting there waiting to counter Hayer? Haye didn't know how to handle a fighter who doesn't open up, coming at him. Haye didn't throw a single punch for something like 7 minutes.

Haye can't fight on the front foot and has never fought a good counter puncher. Not only is Byrd a cagey counter puncher but also a masterful southpaw.

In fact we know a lot about Byrd's ability to take a HW punch but we know very little about Haye's ability to box an elite HW.

Again, as things stand Byrd has the advantage here in all these hypothetical arguments. If Haye outboxes Wlad (which Byrd was unable to) then we can revisit the discussion.

 

Haye had always said he was going to win in the 3rd round. Also he was fighting a much bigger man who had a clear reach advantage so he would want to find his range and get his timing down before committing. Byrd is smaller than Haye so it would be completely different.

Also are you saying that audley won those first 2 rounds???

As I said Byrd could survive if he went in his shell for the fight, audley went in his shell from the first second.