Chris Byrd - Could He Have Beaten Wilder?

"He made Wilder look very average, as did Duhuapas who had him badly bruised."

Ocasio and Billups made Lewis look very average and he didn't even stop them. So did Phil Jackson. Amazing.

"he's a dirty fighter"

They're all dirty and B-sides are more at risk of failing due to politics. Don't care.

"Povetkin sparking out Whyte, Vitali fighting past 40, there are many examples."

I said 42+, not 40. There aren't "many examples" of better heavyweight wins at 42+, there are several at most.

"Wlad, a 41 year old fighter, gave AJ all he could handle"

Sure, Wlad being the oldest Ring heavyweight champion ever and one of the three longest reigning champions ever and Joshua being a 3.5 year pro with one serious fight prior to Wlad.

"That is simply a fact."

It's just your opinion. Stiverne 1 was 3rd Ring ranked coming off career best wins, 30-0 Ortiz was 5th, Ortiz 2 was 6th. Fury was 7th, 1st and 1st. Wilder's record is arguably better than Vitali's, who is Lewis's 1st or 2nd best win. And if he beats Joshua, there will be no debate. He'll have exceeded Wlad against arguably their mutual top 2 opponents and become the best heavyweight in the 3 year interregnum between Fury's return and Usyk's ascent.

 

Exactly. To beat Byrd it takes skill. Against a guy like Chris you have to be able to plug in that power to beat him. And hand speed! Obviously Wlad had it. Showed that twice. Ibeabuchi had decent skills and had good power along with hand speed.

Wilder in my opinion would NOT have the skills to catch Byrd. Those desperate windmilling punches… Byrd would see those coming a mile off. And Wilders 1-2’s aren’t as fast as Wlad’s or even ibeabuchi.

Would Wilder have a chance at catching Chris with something?? Of course. But Byrd had a good chin. I mean if David Tua could catch him a few times and Byrd stay upright… Wilder shouldn’t be a problem. But I don’t think the odds would be in deontey’s favor. And Chris would counter Wilder and pepper him with those quick jabs all night.

Byrd UD 12

 

Wilder is an enigma. On one hand he’s the single most dangerous single shot hitter in history w that right hand, speed and gigantic reach. On the other he’s astonishingly still raw. Even Fury got hit a few times and decked. That said I like Byrd.

 

Byrd was fortunate to get a draw with Golota and Wilder must be pretty skilled if he detonated on every guy who shared a ring with him.

 

Stiverne's career is based on looking good against Arreola twice and getting beaten up by Wilder twice. There's nothing else there that's especially important.

 

If he beats Joshua there will still be lots of debate. Silly to claim otherwise especially with how poor Joshua has looked recently. People have Joshua losing to lots of guys these days and his last performance has lowered expectations even more. I'm not confident he could Makhmudov right now, maybe not Jared Anderson or even Ajagba.

 

No not really. He's just durable, and cautious, which buys him a lot of time to detonate that right hand. The fact that you think he's "pretty skilled" both speaks volumes about you, and confirms what the majority of us know, that Wilder is severely lacking in the skills department.

 

You can lie to yourself about his skill set, either way it's empirical fact that he put Fury on the floor four separate times and knocked out everyone else he fought. Byrd wouldn't be a special exclusion. You were in diapers back then so you don't understand how limited Byrd was.

 

I'm not "lying" to myself about anything. Wilder has very little skill to speak of, and doesn't have even a basic grasp on the fundamentals. The reason he's knocked out everyone else he fought, is because he has probably the greatest power the division's ever seen (with the probable exception of Shavers), and other than guys like Ortiz, Fury, and a few others, he hasn't exactly been going up against ATGs.

I already said I'd favor Wilder over Byrd.... you seem to be arguing with yourself here.

That would be fairly accurate. I was in fact in diapers during Byrd's heyday. My knowledge still ****s all over your's.

 

You've come a long way from your "Joshua is the H2H GOAT" DAYS.

 

Landing a power punch requires a certain skill set.

 

Fair enough. So you would consider Foreman skilled correct? Or will you find a convenient way around that?

 

He was skilled at taking out smaller guys within the first 4-5 rounds, particularly if they had bad chins.

 

AIDS Morrison and his victim Ruddock are not comparable with Fury or Ortiz. Lewis didn't drop or stop Holyfield over 24 rounds and certainly didn't dominate Holyfield in the rematch, who was about to go 1-1-1 with J. Ruiz.

Wlad's got a much longer list of name wins than Wilder but he's also got five losses to five opponents, including two fringe contenders and a journeyman. 30-0 Ortiz is as anyone Wlad beat. And if Wilder beats Joshua, he'll have better results than Wlad against Wlad's top 2 opponents. So while Wlad will have the list of Pulev's, Chambers's and Chagaev's, it won't be cut and dried.

How does failing a drugs test (something a long list of heavyweights have done) make you a less dangerous or feared fighter? Taking PED's makes you MORE dangerous. It's implausible that Ortiz turned down £7 million to fight Joshua (even on a month's notice) to fight Wilder again (who'd already KO'd him) for a fraction of that, unless he had an injury or was legally prevented from fighting Joshua by his promotional company.

Is your position that Ortiz was terrified of fighting Joshua, to such an extent that he wouldn't even accept mega money to fight him?

You can ignore it as much as you like but Povetkin's manager admitted to avoiding Ortiz for risk-reward reasons:

[url]https://www.rbth.com/sport/2014/04/13/chances_of_povetkin-klitschko_rematch_continue_to_recede_35827.html[/url]

Ortiz displayed better power, pointfighting and defence against mutual opponents than Joyce, Pulev, Takam, Chisora, Whyte and Parker.

Hearn signed Ortiz in 2016 to keep him away from the core Matchroom stable (Joshua and Whyte) and have him batter the likes of Allen instead. Hearn said "no one wants to fight Ortiz" when Ortiz was 42 with 2 KO defeats, something he had no incentive to say as a rival promoter. Chisora and Takam would fight anyone but apparently not Ortiz:

[url]https://www.badlefthook.com/2016/10/9/13218844/luis-ortiz-signs-with-matchroom-boxing[/url]

[url]https://www.skysports.com/boxing/news/12184/10651971/dereck-chisora-has-shared-the-ring-with-malik-scott-and-knows-his-strengths-and-weaknesses[/url]

Stiverne looked good when he schooled top 10 Arreola in the first fight and KO'd him in the rematch. Arreola being one of Vitali's better wins.

 

Quick and slick enough to avoid most of Wilder's bombs.

The problem is, "most" won't suffice over 12 rounds. On his best night he would need extraordinary luck to eke out a cautious (and, if he makes it, very wide if not shutout) UD.