How good would Chris Byrd have been at LHW?

Perhaps not as good as some people might think.

His advantages in terms of speed and reflexes would be somewhat diminished. Not to dismiss his chances of being the force in the division.

If he had hung round at cruiserweight he could certainly have cleaned the place up.

 

Well, he was awfully lucky on the Vitali front, but that Tua fight was maybe his signature performance. Like Janitor says, maybe CW may have been a better fit. A great one maybe. I can only think of Eddie Chambers now, who could possibly be a great cruiserweight if he wanted to give it a shot, imo.

 

Roy Jones would have beaten him at light heavy. He'd probably beat the rest, including Tarver, until Dawson showed up.

 

Very elusive fighter with solid head movement. Not much of a punch though. He wasn't good at capitalizing on the opponent's mistakes. Nuff times I've seen Byrd elude punches only to watch him continue admiring his movements without throwing back. There were times against both Wlad and Vitali that Byrd wouldn't throw back after making them miss and I couldn't understand why. He always kinda struck me as a bigger, tad slower, light heavy/heavy Sweet Pea but with far less work rate than Whitaker.

I think Byrd vs Jones prime for prime at light heavyweight would have been a good fight if Byrd disciplined himself to throw back. Hopkins vs Byrd would have been a good fight, for boxing purists that is.

 

Didn't matter which weight. if he only had just a LITTLE power. he would have been a force. good boxer though.

 

I´m with Janitor here, I don´t think he would have done that well, he would lose his speed advantage and just rely on his skill which won´t be enough against the best.

 

This.

 

I agree. What made him good at heavy was his speed and elusiveness, he would most likely run into guys as fast as him at LH, and he already had LH power.

 

I would find James Toney from the CW Jirov or HW Ruiz fight VS a young Chris Byrd a highly intriguing match too.

 

Could have been a great cruiserweight. It was disappointing when he moved down to cruiser but was past it. Still, he made a great career for himself at heavyweight so can't complain

 

Well, Calzaghe whooped him badly in the amateurs.

I think Chris always had problems with speed, and made a career out of fighting bigger, slower men.. adopting a style based on speed himself.
So to answer your question, I don't think Byrd would've done that great as a LHW, but perhaps a CW.

 

Wlad and Vitali were just too big, and, unlike for example McCline (same size more or less) they didn't chase Byrd around the ring, just kept him at distance. Byrd made them look bad by missing a lot of punches, but even when they missed he was too far to do much. If you want to see Byrd counters you have to watch other fights than those three.