Huh, looks like he's on the undercard for the Vitali fight today. I had no idea he was still boxing. Did he decide to bulk up or what?
He might need the paydays. Byrd doesnt strike me as the type to have thrown away his money, but he never did make big bucks during his career. If he can keep fighting healthy at Cruiser, thats fine for him. Thats where he should have been this whole time anyways.
i have no idea whether or not byrd has enough steaks in the freezer, so to speak, but i am not sure about saying that he never had a big payday. the purses for heavyweight fights are ridiculous. even really small time, non-televised matchups somehow seem to pull high five or low six-figure purses. and byrd internationally televised fights on his record with holyfield, tua, ibeabuchi, golota and so on. he very likely made between 500,000 and 1,500,000 dollars at least a half dozen times in his career...probably more, i am estimating drastically low here. his career earnings must be between 10 and 20 million. he most definitely is not the type of guy to have spent his money on dice games, coke, prostitutes and crashing bentley bombers. i suspect his motivation, perhaps tragically, is to finally get the respect he has been denied throughout a career of open handed slapping, awkward running, notorious ko losses, unmarketable dorkiness and all that. he is division hopping now in a kind of literal exercise of never knowing quite where he fit in.
that would be a very bad decision on byrd's part. i hope i don't have to see adamek walk through him. i would just feel bad for chris...the final insult in a career of demotions. and it would prove nothing for adamek, do nothing for his career, by my estimation. but i don't want to see adamek fight hopkins either, i think bernard would finally be stepping way beyond his body's ability to comfortably maintain speed, flexibility and reflexes. that weight would even up the fight in all the wrong ways and squander hopkins advantages. hell, i'd give hopkins a better shot if he fought a 196-pound adamek while he, b-hop, came in at 175. if bernard bulks up to 200, i think all we'll see is hopkins hiding behind a defensive shell and holding and elbowing for 12 rounds en route to a boring, awkward decision win for adamek followed by months of hopkins complaining about the decision.
good for tony...he was fighting adnan serin right? not a big victory, by any stretch, but thompson is the kind of fighter you just have to like for his patient, workmanlike clawing up and down the rankings. tony thompson is the very reason mandatories can be justified, i think.
He made millions. I think he just loves to box and it's all he's really ever done. Hard to give that up.
Lets see him at 200 against a contender before he calls it. At 175 he was way way too stressed. Cruiser might be a really good fit for him.
I have read reports that Byrd looked much better at cruiserweight. I think he lost way too much weight before.
