Chris Byrd v Tyson Fury, prime v prime who wins?

I think Byrd was fast and skilful enough to make it closer than you think. But yeah, he's definitely working uphill here both stylistically and size wise. Difficult fight for Chris.

 

Byrd was tricky and a good mover, but when he was in with the super HW type fighter he had no chance. He didnt have the pop in his punches to stop the bigger men from walking him down.

Tyson Fury wide UD

 

Byrd's win against Vitali was legit, hitting the shoulders making Vitali miss. Seen that fight many times, the older Klitschsko was uncomfortable with the bodyshots, he was being walked down. That was Chris's best performance, never gets the credit, for a injury he caused.
Fury would be taken too school, he don't have a prime Wlad's power.

 

Fury via UD or Late Stoppage. Byrd frustrates Fury & makes him look like a fool in the early going (similar to Cunningham). As Fury isn't used to looking bad, he starts to use his size & strength to overpower & dominate Byrd - as he can't outbox him (Byrd is the superior technician & defensive fighter here - as well as being quicker-handed). He leans over, grapples & wrestles Byrd against the ropes & onto the canvas in order to neutralise Byrd's slippery style to get the win.

 

Fury never fought anyone like Byrd. Fury has been given the most problems by smaller guys. Byrd was used to fighting big guys, and Fury doesn't have the punching power to score a big KO. I think Byrd makes a good showing of himself, but Fury squeaks out a win in a stinker.

 

Aside from 210 lbs cruiser Cunningham who is billed as 6'3 with an 82 inch reach and who Fury was the only fighter in 40 fights to KO, which "smaller guys" have given Fury "the most problems"?

 

The first guy to drop Fury was also cruiser sized. Also Cunningham was dropped over and over in a lot of fights, the guy notoriously has an awful chin. I am not trying to rag on Fury but Cunningham has a known weak chin. He just got up a lot, and the ref didn't allow him to do that vs Fury

 

Pajkic was billed as 6'3, 232 lbs (his 2nd lightest career weight) for the Fury fight while in decent shape, which is stretching the definition of "small" imo. Byrd wasn't even a natural cruiser; he made his debut at 169 lbs, probably 6' tall with a 75 inch reach. Paj caught Fury with a big swinging overhand right (not a southpaw left) about a decade ago (like Chisora 1, Firtha, Cunningham) which tells me it was a punch that Fury used to be susceptible to more than a certain type of opponent.

Cunningham had time to get up against Fury but quit instead as he knew he was finished. If Cunningham had an "awful chin" he would have been stopped on at least one occasion by one of the cruiser champs he fought 10 times, or in one of the many fights against a lesser opponent either side of his prime.

 

-Down against Glowacki twice
-Down against Fury
-Down against Hernandez twice
-Down against Hernandez (1)
-Down against Visinia
-Down twice against Mansour (lmao. Like Cunningham but lmao)
-Down against Ross

 

Cunningham was down in more fights than that but we could make a similar list of all the times Wlad was down and he was TKO'd 4 times. If Wlad had an "awful chin" he would have been KO'd far more frequently and no extended win streak would have been possible. Cunningham by contrast was only stopped once, not 4 times and never blown out.

Marco Huck wasn't down anywhere near as frequently as Cunningham but Cunningham was tougher and harder to stop. Huck was TKO'd by Usyk, a closer to prime version was KO'd by prime Glowacki (while almost 40 year old Cunningham survived prime Glowacki) and TKO'd by relatively light puncher Cunningham (who weighed in sub-193 lbs for that bout). I don't regard Huck as possessing an "awful chin" though, having survived punishing fights with the likes of Briedis, Povetkin and Lebedev.