Chris Byrd v Wilder?

I enjoy reading most of your posts. But when it comes to Wilder, it’s just pointless.

You have proven time and again that you can’t have an objective debate.

Shaun George?

Come on.

What’s the point in even trying to engage you, if you’re bringing up Shaun George.

It’s just a complete waste of time.

You know that bringing that up is a joke. And you know why.

So it’s pointless to continue.

Yes, Wilder could have beaten Byrd. Absolutely. But considering that Wilder is limited technically, and he’s struggled with far lesser fighters, and that he’s never seen such a slick southpaw before, you’d have been foolish to have been so supremely confident. You certainly wouldn’t have bet your house on it.

But we’ll leave it there.

BTW, I really enjoyed your posts regarding why Larry Holmes was never the undisputed champion.

I enjoyed reading all of the links that you put forward.

 

Thanks.

However, Byrd's "slickness" is "ridiculously" overrated on this board.

RIDICULOUSLY overrated.

Golota outboxed him (and got Robbed) when Byrd was champ. Jameel McCline nearly outboxed him (and floored him) when Byrd was champ. Davarryl Wiliamson nearly outboxed him when Byrd was champ in a truly awful fight. Fres Oquendo did outbox Byrd (and got robbed) when Byrd was champ.

Those guys would be considered BUMS if Wilder had fought and wasted them (as he would've).

Byrd preyed on short slow guys in his heavyweight career. Wilder was not that.

And Wilder fought plenty of lefties in his career. He stopped all of them except one. The only one he lost to was a power puncher who outweighed him by nearly 80 pounds when Wilder was 38.

And Byrd isn't Zhang.

Wilder was the same age when he was losing to Parker and Zhang as Byrd was against George.

Parker had 40 pounds on Wilder. Zhang had nearly 80 pounds on him. Think a "shot" Wilder loses to George? How did George beat Byrd? With straight right hands?

How slick did Byrd look against Oquendo, McCline, Golota and Williamson? How slick was Byrd against George? It's easy to look "slick" when you're fighting guys like Bert Cooper or guys who need shoulder reconstruction after their fights with you.

Byrd didn't look so slick when he was champ, however. He barely scraped by in all his defenses.

 

Style over substance. Most of Byrd’s better opponents did tag him. And Wlad had a field day.

 

You could argue he lost nearly all his defenses by decision against pretty ordinary boxers. Hardly a "slickster."

 

I don’t care if you think his slickness is overrated.

Wilder hasn’t outboxed anybody on that level, with that style.

Wilder has often struggled, even against lower level opposition, until his power has bailed him out. And when it hasn’t bailed him out, it’s left him vulnerable where he’s lost.

He’d either have caught Byrd eventually, or he’d have lost.

It’s that simple.

He would have a punchers chance against pretty much anyone. But if he couldn’t land perfectly, he’d have been in trouble.

I’ve no interest in discussing the George fight. And the fact that you keep mentioning that just weakens your argument.

At the end of the day, Wilder has done nothing for you to have been so confident that he’d definitely have taken out Byrd.

 

None of that means that Wilder would definitely have won.

He hasn’t got the technical ability for anybody to be 100% confident.

 

What you're saying simply isn't true.

Wilder has 43 wins. He was behind on the cards in ONE of those 43 fights (the Ortiz rematch) when his power "bailed" him out with a KO.

One ... out of 43.

You guys always paint him as some guy who was always down on the cards when he scored a KO. It happened ONE time in 16 years.

Once.

And Byrd got "outboxed" by guys like Fres, Jameel, Golota and Davarryl Williamson for large portions of all those fights. I thought he straight up lost three of them (Fres, McCline and Golota).

Wilder wipes out Byrd. Byrd wouldn't have a 40 or nearly 80 pound advantage on his side, like Fury, Parker and Zhang.

 

Again, Wilder was behind on the cards in one fight out of the 43 pro fights he won when the fight was stopped.

ONE.

And Wilder won the US Amateur Championships ... the National Golden Gloves Championships ... the U.S. Olympic Trials ... won the Bronze medal in the Olympics ... and won the WBC heavyweight title ... ALL by decision.

But, just keep going with he'd be nothing without his power.

Even though he won none of his amateur or pro titles by KO. He won them all on points.

Whereas Byrd won two heavyweight belts when BOTH guys he faced suffered debilitating shoulder injuries that required surgery to repair. And when Byrd defended against ordinary challengers, the "too slick" Byrd arguably lost most of his defenses by appearing to have been "outboxed."

You guys are the ones who speak in generalities. Wilder's power always bailed him out. He struggled all the time and was behind on the cards all the time until he got the KO. He can't outbox anyone. Byrd was so slick. He'd never touch Byrd.

Hell, Arthur Williams ... clumsy, clunky Arthur Williams boxed Byrd on even terms and even floored him (with, guess what, a RIGHT HAND). Did you see that one?

I feel like some of you haven't watched many of the fights being talked about here.

 

What I’m saying is 100% true.

Wilder is flawed technically.

He beat a string of lower level guys with his great power.

He then had 3 attempts at beating Fury, and he couldn’t beat him.

Because if he can’t take a fighter out, he’s left extremely vulnerable due to his lack of technical skills.

I never said that he was behind on the cards.

I said that I’ve seen him being outboxed by guys, until his power had bailed him out and swung things in his favour.

I don’t know why you have such an obsession with this guy.

He never outboxed a guy like Byrd. And I don’t care if other fighters troubled Byrd. Wilder didn’t. Wilder didn’t outbox anybody with Byrd’s style. A technical southpaw.

You’ve said yourself that he was behind on the cards against an old Ortiz.

Yet you’ve convinced yourself that Wilder would have wiped out Byrd, without question.

There is a question.

Wilder would either have knocked him out, or lost a decision.

It wouldn’t have been a foregone conclusion.

Yes, he’s now faded. But there’s no proof that he’d ever have beaten Parker etc.

 

You think that Vitali JUST injured his shoulder?

It had nothing to do with Byrd whatsoever?

I never said that Wilder wouldn’t touch Byrd.

I said that he could have knocked him out, but that it wouldn’t have been a certainty.

How many technical southpaws on Byrd’s level as he knocked out?

Yes, he is vulnerable if he can’t knock out a guy.

He couldn’t take Fury out, and lost all 3 fights. The first fight was a joke.

He couldn’t knock Parker out, but didn’t have the skills to outbox him.

The truth is: He knocked out a string of mostly B and C level guys who were good stylistic match ups for him.

As soon as he stepped up his competition in Fury, he struggled.

It wasn’t a coincidence.

Wilder is a very dangerous, technically flawed fighter.

 

I like the guy for the same reason everyone liked watching him fight ... because he was an exciting fighter for a dozen years, scored great KOs, was involved in one Fight of the Year (should've been two), and was a dominant, entertaining champ for five years when the other belts were getting passed around from fight to fight pretty regularly.

How many guys held belts while Wilder was WBC champ? Six?

Clearly, even people who said they didn't like him still wish he was around because they're still posting threads wondering if he'll come back, and he hasn't been champ in four and a half years.

He made everything more exciting. Unlike Byrd.

 

Wilder successfully defended the title for the eighth time against Fury and floored him twice in that fight. (It should've been Fight of the Year.) Fury admitted he was out on the way down.

Wilder challenged Fury for the title in their third fight, again floored him twice, and it was the Fight of the Year. An all-time classic.

And, again, people like YOU bash a totally shot, inactive 38-year-old Wilder for losing a decision to Parker, but I can't bring up 38-year-old Byrd getting knocked out by a journeyman light heavy.

Don't talk about Byrd getting dropped and not outboxing people when he's old. Don't talk about Byrd getting dropped and not outboxing people when he's young. Don't talk about Byrd only winning titles against guys who suffered major shoulder injuries in their fights. Don't talk about Byrd struggling to defend against ordinary guys and appearing to get outboxed.

Don't mention that Wilder won all his major titles, amateur and pro, on points. Not by knockout. Don't mention that Wilder was only behind on the cards once when he scored a KO win.

You think Wilder-Fury I decision was a joke? How'd you score Byrd's title defenses? Did you even see them? Who'd you have "really" winning those? (Byrd didn't even have the excuse he scored two knockdowns against any of them.)

You don't want to talk specifics. You just want it to be as general as possible.

Same old false generalities.

 

I liked him.

He’s great for the division.

Exciting and unpredictable.

But you have an obsession with him on this forum, where you ignore his flaws and make ridiculous claims.

 

I don't have an obsession. I'm just one of the few who defend him. I'm not starting threads about him every week (or ever), like some here routinely do.

I even avoid most. But when I do comment, I'm "obsessed."

I take "obsessed" as just meaning I made "some good points" to counter the garbage heaped on him. But I don't like boring fights. And Wilder-Parker was boring as hell. Wilder is done. It was fun while it lasted.

He'll be a guy who is more respected as the years go on.

And he'd have destroyed Chris Byrd, who is wildly overrated around here. Watch Byrd's title defenses. He was hardly a master boxer against even relatively ordinary challengers.

 

I never said that the Fury fights weren’t great.

I said that if he wasn’t successful in taking a fighter out, that he didn’t have the technical skills to outbox them.

Do you understand that?


Usyk couldn’t take out AJ.

Yet he boxed him to 2 decision wins.


Usyk couldn’t take out Fury.

Yet he boxed him to a decision win.


If Usyk can’t take a guy out, he can outbox them to decision wins, based upon his great skill set.

But if Wilder can’t take a guy out, he hasn’t got the technical skills to win a decision.

That’s how simple it is.

Wilder couldn’t beat Fury on a decision in THREE attempts.


No, I haven’t bashed him for losing to Parker. I just said that there’s no evidence to suggest that he could ever definitely have beaten Parker.


Regarding Shaun George, you know that Byrd had a disastrous time getting back to LHW after a whole pro career at HW. He burnt the muscle and was dead at the weight with no punch resistance at all. George was a B-C level LHW. And if that had been a true reflection of Byrd’s abilities, then he’d have been crushed by every HW he’d ever have faced.

So, no. We’ve never seen that happen to Wilder. But then his circumstances are completely different, where he could never have fought at LHW.


Again, I’ve never said that Byrd outboxed everyone, or that Wilder couldn’t have beaten him.

I agree that Wilder could 100% have wiped him out. It would have been realistic. But I’m not as 100% confident as what you are. Because again, if he couldn’t have found something huge, it isn’t in any way realistic that he’d have outboxed Byrd for a decision win.


The point is: When it comes to Wilder, you always exaggerate everything.


Now read the rest of the comments.

Look at the poll.


You think that Wilder would DEFINITELY have knocked out Byrd.

Yet me and many others don’t share your confidence. Because despite what you say, Byrd’s skills and style could have caused Wilder lots of issues.