Is Chris Byrd Hall Of Fame Worthy?

He's 2-0 vs. big name opponents with injured shoulders pre or during the fight. Give the guy a break

Byrd was a skilled, slick runner, that's about it. Loses most of the time to a prime Holy & 10 of 10 times to an uninjured Vitali.

 

No. He was never the best in any weight division, so how can he be a great?

 

Yeah, winning an Olympic silver medal is no big deal. Any bum can do it, not impressive in the slightest. Going on to become a 2x heavyweight champ is also not impressive for a natural 175 pounder. I'm sure many great fighters that size could beat the likes of Vitali and Tua.

Anyway, it's hard to blame fighters for being cynical if they're punished for not being cynical. Simply retiring 9 fights earlier would have got Byrd in to the HoF, let alone targeting certain 175/190 titlists for the first 5 years of his career too. He'd be considered an "ATG" had he done that as well. And he would have had a far less punishing career.

 

He’s a fine fighter but I mean Vit had to quit because of a shoulder injury.

tua…..lol.

 

"had to quit because of a shoulder injury."

Which he presumably picked up from throwing and missing punches at the evasive Byrd. And he didn't "have" to quit. He wasn't stopped from continuing by the officials against his will, Byrd beat him without controversy and Vitali never pursued a rematch.

"tua…..lol."

Ruiz KO19 seconds
Maskaev KO11
Rahman KO10
Oquendo KO9
Moorer KO30 seconds

Neither Ibeabuchi or Lewis dropped or stopped Tua over 12.

Tua was a very good win for Byrd, who was the underdog.

 

He made it

 

Considering some of the garbage that's made it into the HOF a quality underrated HW like Byrd is more than worthy. He ****ing beat prime Tua, prime Vitali, slightly past prime Evander, and Golota. That's a great resume, especially considering he was always undersized and lacking in power. He got by on skill alone, and on that basis he was one of the most skilled HWs since Jimmy Young, and till Usyk.

 

This.