Chris Byrd on Lennox Lewis

Lewis beats Byrd. Byrd has no advantages in this fight (hell Lewis is probably better on the inside and that is where Byrd would have to be in order to win the fight). Byrd still would have been a good name on his resume.

 

Those younger generation boxrec fans

Watch the fight, Byrd won 2 rounds out of 9, he was getting schooled so imagine what Lennox would do.

 

lewis had a very hard time against that nondescript croatian kid who was a "technical fighter", and byrd was far too crafty, and lewis far too slow, for Manny Stewarts liking. Lewis ducked him, plain and simple.

 

He dropped his belt rather than face his mandatory. If lewis could give kirk johnson a shot why not Byrd?? Byrd was his mandatory! It's irrelevant that lewis would be fave to beat him.

Here's what happened....Lewis defended his WBC & IBF titles against Mike Tyson in 02 he then had to defend his title against No1 contender Chris Byrd and refused so was stripped... Lewis then chose to fight the amazing Kirk Johnson in defence of the IBO belt, Johnson pulled out due to injury so Lewis brought forward his mandatory WBC defence against Vitali Klitschko from December 2003 to June 2003.. u can't act like byrd so far beneath u u don't need to fight him then go beat up Botha!

Quote from Byrd around the time that Lennox refused to defend against him.

"It's Emmanuel Steward. That is the reason why Lennox Lewis will not fight me. Emmanuel knows my style beats Lennox. Lennox would never hit me and Steward wants somebody to stand in front of Lennox. That's why Lennox wants to fight the Klitschko brothers, because they will stand flat-footed in front of him. Lennox is too big and too slow and he is older now. He is 37 years old. My reflexes are quicker. I would make him look silly. I am too great of a challenge. You go ask anybody in the top ten, "Who do you NOT want to fight?" and everyone will tell you "Chris Byrd" because I am too quick, too slick and I will make you look bad. I wish Lennox had been a man about this. Evander Holyfied has said he wants to avoid me but he has always stepped up to the plate. Evander has never ducked a challenge. All of the great boxers fight everyone. Look at Ali! Look at Holyfield! Lennox will go through the rest of his life with people saying he avoided me. How can you say someone is not worthy who has earned the #1 spot? It is greedy. A true champion fights anyone in the division. I would fight whoever was there if I was champion. I have already proven I will fight anybody, anywhere. I have lost to Ike Ibeabuchi and Wladimir Klitschko. Ike would have been the future of boxing if he had stayed out of trouble and Wladimir is considered one of the best. Lennox was beat by Hasim Rahman and Oliver McCall. If I am not worthy, are Rahman or McCall worthy because they beat him?"

 

Great post which sums up what really happened:thumbsup

 

The problem Lewis fans have dismissing Byrd is he was, A, better than Rahman, and B, a southpaw, and Lewis never fought one. Who knows how Lewis would have coped there. And as the above poster proves, Lewis ducked him. Vitali, Holyfield, they ducked nobody.

 

Imagine Wlad dropping the belt to avoid Haye!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuCKhaQKz1M[/ame]


Byrd deserved a shot!

 

Interesting

 

Say what you like about Byrd but he held a belt for a long time and has the same number of defenses as Holyfield, not a pushover for anybody.

 

kliturds only started to claim lewis avoided byrd AFTER light heavyweight byrd had embarrassingly crushed superheavyweight vitali.


but before quitali lost to byrd so embarrassingly, no kliturd claimed lewis was ducking byrd.

funny that. because its the same case with neverman sanders, ONLY AS SOON as shot retired sanders had obliterated easily prime wlad.

 

Yep, he crushed Vitali years before Lewis, easily Lewis best win...matched years before by a light heavy.

Well, Byrd became Lewis mandatory a few years after he beat Vitali...so of course that's when the duck talk started. Lewis saw how Byrd embarrassed prime Quitali and wanted no part of that.

Good thing, Lewis has wins over Tua and Holyfield

 

Equally exciting wins vs Billups and Mavrovic to name but two, and of course those avenged ktfo's.

 

Billups...

The same Billups knocked out in one round by Sanders, and easily shut out by Byrd.

 

the very same.