How well would have Chris Byrd been at middleweight?

I vividly remember at least of couple of interviews where he said he literally had to eat himself into the HW division, and he did it simply because they made more. I only brought it up because there's a long list of pros that fight at higher weight classes as amateurs.

My main issue though was just how so many people appeared dismissive of his ability and placing the "average MW" chain around his neck. We both definitely agree on that.

 

Yeah, I’ve read them myself. But I’m just wondering why he never turned pro as a MW.

He says he moved up after his first 2 fights when the promoter he approached signed a HW instead of him. It gave him motivation to prove a point.

There’s no logic in thinking that he’d only have been an average fighter at the lower weights.

He’d have had the same ability but would obviously have been lighter and quicker.

There’s so many great fights we could have seen him in.

The surprising thing for me, is that there wasn’t anybody wanting to sign him after straight after the Olympics.

 

Had he stuck w/ MW, he'd very likey have been in the mix with:

Hopkins
Eastman
Holmes
Joppy
Echols
Glenn Johnson...

Wouldn't have minded him there. Pretty sure he'd have moved up to face Ottke or Joe C sooner as well.

 

Amateur success doesn’t always translate to professional success. Plenty of guys that were even more successful than Byrd as amateurs went on to accomplish nothing as pros.

Also, that fact that no promoters were even interested in him as a pro middleweight meant that Byrd would’ve had a lot of inactivity and like most unbacked fighters would’ve been sitting by the phone praying for fights, so he would be going into most fights in less than top form. Byrd simply never would’ve had the support needed to be successful at 160. Roy Jones and James Toney on the otherhand had backing up the wazoo.

Look how inactive Byrd was his first year as a pro, but once he became a heavyweight he was fighting regularly, since he had backing.

Even Mayweather himself would’ve had a hard time being successful if he didn’t have Arum’s backing early in his pro career.

 

I’d have loved to have seen him fight Bernard.

 

Byrd simply couldn’t get any fights at 160 and wasn’t paid for his first two fights at 168 and 175, so rather than sitting on the shelf he jumped on an opportunity, which meant him jumping to heavyweight.

 

Yeah.

Do you think he could have been a career MW though?

 

With backing certainly, but that backing never came.

 

I don’t think he could comfortably have made 160 for a prolonged period. Especially as he aged and fought less.

 

He could have won titles at mw smw lh and hw (alphabet belts at least).

He is only guy that was natural mw that was in hw picture for so long and at time wlad beat him was ranked no1 i believe.

Neither Jones or Toney held title for long or defended it and Toney actually never won one.

As for him making mw imo he could do that as Andre Ward fought at smw as pro altought he was lhw at am (at amateurs lhw is 81 kg something 180 pounds)

But i dont believe he would just fight at mw i see his career similar to roy jones and maybe they would be rivals him chasing roy payday

 

???????
Your physical peak is from 20-33, the ageing process doesn't kick in until 33 years of age.

Amateurs have the same day weigh in. You weigh in then fight a couple of hours later . You simply cannot afford to cut any water weight . Tarver tried that against Jirov and look what happened there. The most his bodyweight would of increased would have been 2-3 lbs.

??????
You don't have to make weight for your official weight class until you actually fight for the belt. It's the reason why Hopkins never weighed in at 160 lbs for the first 20 plus fights or so. It's only around the time he was in line for a title shot that he actually started weighing in at 160. You cannot just take everything you see on Boxrec at face value. So for all we know Byrd was competing at mw, but had made a agreement with his opponents to come in above the 160 mark. Why go through the hassle of boiling down when there is no belt on the line.

His ring weight would not of been higher than 169 lbs either. You stop growing at 18. At that age is he was fighting at 156 lbs. In his early 20's he was fighting at 165 lbs, during the same day weigh ins. So why would he be much higher? For the record boxing training causes fat and muscle loss, so where is this extra mass coming from?

We don't know the circumstances surrounding that fight, so you shouldn't be too quick to read anything into the weight. If memory serves me right even Hopkins was weighing in over 170 lbs for some of his early fights. It doesn't mean anything.

What has this got to do with anything?

As I said before, you don't have to make the weight for your weight class, until a belt is on the line. Look at the weights for Hopkins fights before he fought for a title.

Byrd said himself he was planning to fight at his natural weight class, but the promoters were only interested in heavyweights. Hence the decision to move up.

He was 21 years old, while fighting in the amateurs at 165 lbs. He is a natural middleweight.

You don't need me to find you a quote.
He wasn't growing anymore. The only muscle he can put on his frame in his 20's is from training and that is hard to to do because boxing training causes muscle loss. That's the reason why steroids are abused in boxing because it allows fighters, like Byrd, to fight in weight classes they could not get to naturally. Without steroids Byrd struggles to get to lhw.

That doesn't mean anything. Hopkins debuted at cw, does that mean he can't fight at mw.? Tarver was a cw for his first 15 fights, does that mean he can't make lhw? You are reading too much into Boxrec stats.

 

???????

I have addressed this point already

So what if it is 2 years old?

Why on earth would he lie about his weight?

He was a natural mw.
For the record most mw fighters rehydrate over 171 lbs by fight night.

You are in your physical prime at 20 years old.
There are plenty of fighters who can safely cut around 14 lbs of water weight, so 9+ lbs should not have been a problem for Byrd.
If he fought 3-4 times per year he would of found making weight easier, not harder. Less time to blow up in between fights

You don't need a quote

True

 

Byrd was a much smaller guy than people realise.

He said himself that he intended to fight in the pros at 154 or 160. The 169-171 range in his first few pro fights was because he wasn’t cutting weight. The 165 in the amateurs was presumably same day weigh-ins.

He was genuinely a 169lb, fight night, in the ring guy. Same sort of weight as someone like GGG, or one of those big 154lb guys like Charlo.

Every lb above 170 was basically excess bulk to fight at HW. It’s honesty extraordinary. You have to go back generations to find a top HW that naturally small.

 

I respect what you’ve written. But you haven’t really said anything of substance here that we’ve not already covered.

I’m fully aware of all of the above.

Bernard Hopkins made his debut at CW and he didn’t start fighting at MW until he’d made the decision to fight at that weight. But everyone’s circumstances are different.

Yes, you don’t have to weigh-in at 160 until you get a title shot. But many fighters turn pro and then either weigh-in at, or very near, the limit that they want to fight at. Lots of guys make weight to fight at their preferred weight class, where they can fight for prolonged periods even when they’re just starting out and there’s no title fights on the horizon etc.

When he was in the ams, he was fighting all the time. He was fighting almost every weekend. I’m merely asking how he would fared once he got into his 20’s and 30’s, where he’d have been fighting 3-4 times per years, maybe less.

I’m not talking about the natural growth of the human body. I’m talking about when you age, and your metabolism changes and your circumstances change. When you have a different lifestyle. When you go from fighting every weekend and living in the gym, to slowing down.

You’re saying that the 169-171 pounds that he weighed in at for his first 2 fights, was basically what his fight night weight would have been, after he’d officially weighed in as a MW. Okay. I’m merely asking if he could continuously have been able to have gotten down to 160 in order to have officially fought as a MW. Yes, lots of other fighters do it. But it’s still a significant amount of weight.

Yes, in order to change my opinion, I do need a direct quote. If not, I won’t be fully convinced.

 

Again, most of the above has already been covered.

Why couldn’t he have lied about his weight?

Most fans know of his recent struggles. It could have been his way of highlighting that he was now healthy.

The point is, even if he was being truthful, it doesn’t mean that he could comfortably have made the weight years earlier. His body now will be incomparable to what it was years ago when he was active.

If he’d have fought 3-4 times per year, that would have been a lot less than his schedule that he had when he was younger.

Yes, most fighters rehydrate up to around 170 on fight night. But again, 171 pounds was 6 pounds above his Olympic fight weight where he had a same day weigh-in. So his fight weights was 165 pounds for 2 years, and then he turned pro 6 pounds heavier in his 2nd fight. So did he add mass? Or did he not slim down as much? Was his fight night weight any different?

If he could have made MW, I’m just curious as to why when he was asked the question that I noted, that he only said he could have been a SMW and LHW champ.

Why didn’t he say he could have been a MW champ?

To my knowledge, he’s never spoke of initially wanting to have become a MW or a MW champ. Maybe he has. But I’ve never seen. All I’ve seen, is that he made his debut around his natural weight, before he made the decision to move up to HW.

You’re saying he could always have been a MW. Okay. Again, maybe you’re right. But he never had an official MW fight, I’ve never heard him speak of wanting to fight at MW, and when he fought Shaun George, he said he wanted to show people that that was always his natural weight.