Chris Byrd versus Jimmy Young

Would be a bit of a yawn to watch,because of the stylistic match up. I take Jimmy to win. He could do everything that Byrd could do just that little bit better.

 

Young takes the nod

 

at the end of the day, i have to wonder what young did that byrd didn't? he looked good in losing efforts, and many will argue they were controversial. but in the end, in his absolute prime (forgetting the dozen post prime loses) he beat foreman, went 0-1-1 with shavers, beat lyle (who himself did not actually accomplish much) and lost to norton and ali.

byrd thrived in a decent era of exceptionally large heavies. he lost to ibeabuchi, wlad x2 (once WELL past prime) but beat prime tua, vitali, mccline (who wasn't much), dominated a very faded holyfield, drew with golota.

byrd's ACTUAL record against good/great opponents is better than young. however young's mythical record based on robberies and fantasy match ups is about 147 wins, 0 loses.

based on their real records and styles, i favour byrd who always came to fight and had the championship mentality to push for the win, not look decent in defeat (sorry red cobra...)

 

Young by controversial SD in a hideous snoozefest. :tired

 

:deal

 

I think only Jimmy Young vs. Joe Bugner would be a more boring fight.

Jarodz already spoke for me really, as I think Byrd has a championship mentality. I remember how after falling behind against Oquendo and McCline, he came out storming, picked up the pace to win those fights, albeit controversially. I think he got discouraged less easily than Young.
For this reason, Christopher Byrd has my endorsement in this delightful "Fantasy Fight". Won't you endorse him, too?

 

even though we've fought in the past, it's posts like this that have me coming back like tina turner

 

Jimmy Young was better than Chris Byrd.

 

Firstly Byrd was never a true champion, so throw that out the window. Many thought Young should have become true champ against Ali, and WBC champ against Norton. Secondly your wrong Byrd does not have a better record if you compare against their best opponents both have losses and controversal decisions, Young overall did better against his best opponents (Foreman/Ali v Ibeabuchi/Wlad/Vitali)

Vitali - very good win, I think this is legit and don't think Vitali had a bad injury at all, some give him no credit for this but he deserves it
Golota - most fans gave this to Golota
Oquendo - many consider this a robbery against the best spoiler he faced. George Foreman 'he know he didn't win that boxing match'
Tua - clear win, very good against a past prime Tua
Holyfield - Holyfield had a terrible and was 40, clear win though, a good 1 but put an asteriz next to it
Wlad - 2 dominating losses
Ibeabuchi - destroyed
McCline - this was pretty close
Povetkin - stopped late past prime

Compare that to:

Foreman - clear win
Lyle - 2 clear wins and a very good ones
Shavers - blatant robbery and an early devastating KO loss
ALi - controversal loss - the fans are divided 50-50
Norton - controversal loss - more fans had Young winning than Norton
Garcia - decent contender


Lets examine Byrd's 1 fight against a spoiler with a good jab in Oquendo:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGut-V1YmZA&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk2YqI2sc8E&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLXuaObAmg&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_BYv-eBEog&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAxMDfxxIHs&feature=related[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frlDh50h-Gw&feature=related[/ame]

 

i get what you're saying and there's certainly an argument for jimmy's resume to be better than it is...but it isn't. and in the end yes, he absolutely COULD have beaten ali clearly, and norton clearly...but he didn't. i am underrating his skills a bit though by focusing so much on resume.

however, and i could be wrong, it's the mental aspect that gives byrd the edge. when he needed a pitter patty jab to make distance and score, he did. when he needed to stand in the pocket, trade and outhustle, he did.

byrd had a championship mentality (hard to objectively define i know) but i don't see that in young. young wanted to spoil and make the other guy look bad, not win. and other than his fight with a completely wiped out foreman, he never stepped it up and truly went for it.

it's subjective but i see byrd taking it in one of the lowest punch connecting fights of all time

 

The thing is where was Byrd's championship mentality against Wlad, Ibeabuchi, Golota and Oquendo. We're also sort of giving Byrd extra marks for getting decisions he shouldn't have over Young getting decisions he possibly deserved. Doesn't seem fair. Plus Byrd got to fight for a vacant title against a past it injured Holyfield, I have no doubt Young would show a championship mentality if he got such an opportunity. Would Byrd be able to beat Foreman because he couldn't beat Ibeabuchi

Anyway with the actual match up, I think Young is probably wrong for Byrd based on the Oquendo fight, but I think it would be another close call, maybe he gets robbed again

 

If I was really looking twist facts I'd backtrack on my claim that Vitali is an underrated win

Byrd didn't beat Golota he got a draw, Oquendo many people thought won including the HBO team (who I don't always put that much stock in). I think I need to rewatch these as I remember them being close but Byrd givign the play away. I remember practically everyone on ESB scoring it for Oquendo at the time.

Young for me has better peformances against the best he fought. Young wasn't simply spoiling either he was boxing behind a jab on the backfoot and outlanding his opponents