Chris Byrd vs Vitali Klitschko: My Scorecard with Comments

Byrd asked to fight Vitali again. The rematch never happened because Vitali's management realized he couldn't deal with a slick defensive technician. This is why they also kept him away from Eddie Chambers and Ruslan Chagaev.

Here are some quotes from Chris Byrd himself:

“He quit because he knew I was gonna stop him.”

“He didn’t hurt me. I started walking him down and getting to him. The crowd knew it too - that’s why they started to cheer for me.”

“If I lost to a guy and got criticized and thought I was winning easily, I would want a rematch. I asked for one, but the wanted me to fight Vladimir instead, which is a harder style for me and he’s very strong.”

This illustrates the Klitschko way of ducking. The brothers picked opponents based on styles: the aggressive types went to Vitali, whereas the slicksters went to Vladimir. But Vladimir, being the overall better fighter, also learned to beat some good offensive guys, thanks to Emanuel Steward who got rid of his robotic style and taught him the Tommy Hearns style.

 

Surely you're smart enough to know that judges pick based on who pays them, and not based on nationality.

CJ Ross is American and scored Floyd vs Canelo a draw, when Floyd clearly schooled Canelo. She did what the casinos paid her to do.

 

Vitali would have either got stopped or would have taken a beating in the remaining 3 rounds. Vitali probably had no idea that the judges were scoring the fight in his favor.

When Vitali gave up, Byrd was in a groove, and was landing flush punches while taking nothing noteworthy in return.

 

Harold Lederman was scoring the fight for Vitali. But you have to remember that HBO hated Chris Byrd (HBO always hate defensive "boring" fighters).

Lederman often scores the fight according to HBO's wishes. They were hoping to turn Vitali into a big star.

 

Remember Sherlock Holmes' classic line: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Giving up your title when you could easily just coast through 3 more rounds and win, is an impossible theory.

The only reason he could have quit is that he was on his way to getting knocked out or seriously embarrassed.

 

You're grasping at straws to protect your idol. Marciano was injured and was losing liters of blood, but didn't quit. Ali and Abraham had broken jaws, and continued taking punches to the final bell. Vitali had a bad arm (if you believe his story). Not jaw, not a split nose, but a bad arm.

Your theory implies that Vitali could have just fought with one arm and won a hometown decision, but instead opted to give up his title and (most importantly) his undefeated record. How can you possibly believe that?

 

On the day of the fight, that's what we all thought. When you think it over, you realize something's rotten. And when Vitali not only never asks for a rematch, but declines Byrd's requests for a rematch, you realize Vitali was just knocked out.

 

The Vitali crowd will never answer the following questions:

1) Why did Vitali never ask for a rematch with Byrd?

2) Why did Vitali turn down Byrd's request for a rematch?

3) When exactly did Vitali's arm stop working?

The reason they won't answer these 3 questions in particular, is that there's no way to lie your way out of them.

If you ask them an easier question like "Why did Vitali quit?", they can say that he was in such pain that he couldn't go on. That's believable on the surface, but even then you could wonder "Couldn't he have just stopped using that arm and kept Byrd at bay with the other?"

Don't torture them with these questions. :nono

 

You're right: a broken jaw is much worse because the other guy will continue punching it.

A bad arm is just as bad in the ring as it is outside the ring after the fight. The opponent isn't going to punch it. So why didn't Vitali just stop using that arm and coast to a hometown decision victory with his good arm?

 

You have to understand that when a boxer says something, his nut-huggers will always believe every word without questioning it. After all, why would a boxer lie? Boxers can't lie, because they're superheroes.

In fact, nut-huggers will sooner deny facts like dates, video and so forth than admit that their idol has lied.:|