Chris Byrd, Could He Beat Marciano?

You can’t just stay away from Marciano unless you have a huge size advantage and can just tie him up, or you’re Muhammad Ali, you have to make him respect you, and that’s what Byrd would probably have to do, although Byrd was very tricky defensively, he could give you a target and take it away very well when you honk he’s open, you need to think steps ahead, where Byrd is gonna be after he moves to catch him.

 

Byrd can beat Marciano.

 

I am a huge Byrd fan but its a bad style match-up for him. Marciano throws too many punches. Swarmers generally have a slight advantage against boxers, and a swarmer with two-fisted power...

Still, I would not count Chris completely out, as he was a gutty, talented, and underrated guy.

 

The problem for Byrd is that he's an elite upper body movement guy but he plants his feet at times, because he knows even planted given his superior upper body movement most guys can't hit him. And although he can move very fast out of the pocket when he wants to, far too often he won't, preferring to use upper body movement then fire back immediately to score because he's in range and position to counter. Staying in the pocket against a swarming hitter like Rocky would not be an advantage. That's how he lost to Ike. The guys who did the best vs. Rocky utilized movement and angles. This is why I'd favor Marciano very, very slightly.

 

I'm not sure. I like Byrd but I feel that it would be similar to the Ibeabuchi fight. Ibeabuchi's pressure eventually caught up to Byrd and stopped him. Against Marciano it'll end with the same results except it will take just one clean punch to get the job done.

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Ike was a lot faster then Marciano... Think it took Marciano a little longer then Ike to get smoking too.

 

Oh, good lord yes. He would likely stop him.

 

Could he? Sure, it is plausible I just don’t think it’s probable

 

This.

 

Absolutely right.

Rocky would faint during the stare down.

Or if he didn't faint, he would just remain in his corner after the opening bell, thereby forfeiting the fight.

 

He was also four inches shorter, fifty pounds lighter and gave up nine inches in reach.

 

I respect the hell out of Rocky Marciano. But I really think that his involvement in fantasy fights needs to be restricted to those featuring cruiserweights, former light heavyweights who moved up or very small heavy’s. Byrd falls into some of the above categories but he spent most of his career as a heavyweight and one who fought and survived some very large men. Could Rocky have prevailed against him ? Possibly. But it’s more the overall principle I’m talking about rather than this particular match itself. We need to stop putting him in with juggernauts for the sheer entertainment of hearing people’s responses. It’s kind of disrespectful to him and this is not a slight against the thread starter either.

 

I agree.