Completely swap the era's of young and byrd; how successful would they be?

Sorry m8 - i have never seen them fights - are they worth watching??

 

Personally I think it was the styles he faced rather than his approach. Stylistically Ibeabuchi was the best pressure fighter he ever faced. Although Ike may have technically be better than Foreman too in that regard

I don't think I consider him an ATG but it depends on where your parameters of an ATG lay. Where do you draw the line, top20 HW? top 30? top40?

Foreman imo was prime and just fundamentally flawed and overrated, but quality win none the less. Ali was past it like you said. Norton wasn't far from his best so quality performance. Shavers was a win too but no great shakes. Lyle was a good win but again nothing amazing

As 4 wins (arguably) they easily rate over Dempsey's best 4 wins and maybe over Holmes, Liston, Wlad's and Vitali's best 4 wins. But he was never as dominant as those last 4 at least.

You also have to look at the performances of the Ali, Norton and Foreman fights. Even if you thought he won them all they weren't great performances. There were no dominations going on. But then again he probably get's underrated for not being a pure boxer. But as a pure boxer, like Byrd, he was too much of a spoiler and even when winning didn't looked dominant or amazing

For me as a HW he's on the level and maybe above the following: Sharkey, Baer, Byrd, Moorer, Norton and maybe even on the level of Dempsey, Walcott, Charles, Jeffries, Tunney, Foreman or Schmelling

 

Did you have Young beating Dokes, I never saw that 1? Dokes was pretty good too. Anyone else want to weigh in?

 

I can see Byrd being more consistent and he surely would have a larger career at the top.....

At their best, they are competitive H2H......

 

Ike was technically better, especially better than lackluster post-Ali Foreman.

 

Many rate dominance very highly.

It's easier to be dominant when you're not facing your best challengers, isn't it?

 

Yeah he won, even if it was close. Young showed up out of shape but Dokes didn't land many punches while Young worked the body and was able to land some good shots. Dokes would flurry off the ropes and not land flush.

 

Thanks for the insight, this ups Young's legacy for me

I do rate dominance and spectacular performances within context over less dominant wins. It's important in distinguishing quality. Obviously when the quality of opponent goes down or way past prime it's less impressive

 

Young achieved much of his success through risk management boxing.

Anytime he had to choose between fighting, and running or covering up, he chose covering up and running every time.

Byrd was always the more aggressive, which means, when he fought the guys Young fought, he would lose more often, because class tells when punches are flying.

Young and Byrd are of similar quality, but Young's approach to boxing was more likely to get him results against greats.

Both still masters of the craft.

 

He'd have been utterly impotent against the Klitschko's. Hanging around, being safe, and pecking is THEIR game, and they are bigger, longer, stronger, faster, and hit harder. Just not the right style to bother them.

I think he beats everybody else Chris did though. I think he would bring out Golota's crazy with frustration, despite Andrew having the necessary tools to beat him. Tua was just too light on ring-cutting skills and variety when he fought Byrd to get to Young often, and I can't see him getting Jimmy gone when he got through.

Whats interesting is thinking about Ike vs. Young. I don't think Ike blasts him out with one shot like he did Byrd, but you never know, and I have really no clue how Ike handles that style.

 

This is actually a pretty solid point.

Ali handled southpaws really well, but you wonder how Shavers, Lyle, and Norton would have.

They very well might have struggled mightily with the very concept.

I don't think George would care, in that he'd just go do the same thing anyway. He was seriously one dimensional young, but that might have finally been an advantage against kitchen defender Byrd.