Two fighters that could not be more polar opposites, but my question stands... whom is a better heavyweight all time in the grand scheme of things? Wins from both include to save time for those who don't have it to boxrec... Chris Byrd - Ross Purity James Thunder Bert Cooper Lionel Butler Phil Jackson Maurice Harris Vitali Klitschko David Tua Evander Holyfield Fres Oquendo DaVarryl Williamson Jameel McCline Now there's some quality wins there... He fought a motivated, in-shape Tua and pitched an absolute masterclass, even hurting him with bodyshots. I give him far more credit than most for hanging in there tough against Vitali, and he more than likely wouldn't have injured himself if he wasn't throwing and missing so many big punches against Chris On the flip side, a portion of his record is leftover fighters from the 80's or early 90's... Holyfield, Butler, Cooper, Ribalta. I've heard a lot of people swear up and down he deserved to lose the Golota and Oquendo fights, as well as the McCline being razor close. If that is the case, it appears he really struggled to distinguish himself from the pack against his actual time period of quality heavyweights.
Smith on the other hand beat quite a few of the top heavyweights of his time... An unbeaten Bruno, Mike Weaver and Tim Witherspoon (Dual first round knockouts) He had less than flattering results against mediocre opposition as well, a lack of consistency that Byrd did not share. So, who, and more importantly, why?
Well if you consider Vitali a legit win than Byrd easily. If you feel, a corner retirement due to an injury in a fight Vitali was up big in is more of a loss for Byrd, than I still pick Byrd although the margin shrinks significantly.
I think Chris Byrd has to get my vote. James had some decent wins and galant losing efforts as well. But he had far more losses and Byrd's list of wins are a tad better even if only marginally. Throw in the fact that he actually has a few title defenses and its basically a no brainer.
