I've got Jimmy at around 30 and Bryd one below. Byrd with Victory s over Vitali, Tua, Jameel Mcline, old Holyfield and draw with Golota. Jimmy Young with wins over lyle x 2, and of course big George. A shot at Ali, bad terrible fight but good few thought he'd won. And the Norton fight which could also have gone either way. Both fellas had styles that bugged some but both would give any top Heavyweight a nightmare match. Who do you have higher Iyo?
In terms of accomplishments, Young. In terms of ability, Byrd. Byrd actually implemented offense into his repertoire, unlike Young.
That is true. To the degree that if Byrd had been in there with Foreman, imo he'd have either stopped him or being kod himself.
Wins over Vitali, prime Tua and Evander beat wins over Lyle and prime Foreman, but only just. Stylistically Byrd was trickier than Young, but Young was masterful at what he did. His footwork and control of range were sublime. Byrd could stay in your pocket and make you miss all day, Young could stay just on your outside and you'd never catch him.
For the more knowledgeable Jimmy Young has a impressive list of fights that he arguably should have gotten the nod, Muhammad Ali, Ken Norton and Earnie Shavers.
This is a hard one to figure out. Byrd had the more (financially) successful career and managed to win a belt in a somewhat chaotic and weaker era. Young was robbed multiple times and not appreciated in a very strong era. While both were slick, cagey guys who relied on smarts over brute force, their careers were almost opposites. If we're comparing wins it isn't any less tricky. Their best wins are somewhat comparable but there's an asterisk*. The Vitali win was a huge upset and certainly comparable to a prime Foreman, but Vitali was ahead on the scorecards and was stopped due to an injury and not from Byrd beating the mess out of him. If he were to legitimately stop or outpoint Vitali it would bump the win up a notch. Shame they never rematched. He did display good courage, strategy, and chin against a much larger opponent and had his moments making Vitali look bad. Overall, Young gets the nod for comparing best wins. Next would be Lyle 2x and Tua. Each opponent was a dangerous rugged slugger who no one was in a hurry to face. I would also have to give Young the nod since he beat Lyle twice in a dominant fashion while Tua was pretty competitive in some rounds. Next is shavers and Golota. Both fights were draws but I give it to Byrd since Golota was much more well rounded than Shavers who was fairly 1 dimensional and had stamina issues. You could compare old Holyfield with old Ali. You can make a case Young deserved the decision so they're tied against past it champs. As for losses, Young was stopped by rising star Cooney and was outpointed by Dokes when he was past his prime. Nobody really made Young look bad until he started getting old and fought far longer than he should have. He still managed to remain on his feet and even when way past it, forced much younger opponents to settle for decisions with his defensive skill. In contrast, Byrd was brutally KO'd by Wladmir and Ike and retired at a fairly good time in his career. If You scored the Norton and Ali fights for Young, then he quite clearly has the better overall wins, but had a worse career with sticking around way too long. If you didn't, then Byrd has a very slight edge but loses points for the number of times he got knocked out. It's close either way.
