Rocky Marciano vs Chris Byrd

Byrd isn't getting stopped by any version of Marciano, he was a master of surviving in the pocket. Rocky probably wins this on work rate but he ain't stopping Byrd because he punched too slow for a cagey defensive wizard not to see his shots coming and take evasive action,Byrd isn't some 185 pounder who will accomodate Rocky by laying on the ropes and allowing him to wing shots at him.
Throw in the fact that he was a south paw and I can't remember Marciano facing one.


Byrd would embarrass Lastarza for defensive skills.

 

Byrd was able to operate at Heavyweight because he was able to gain so many artificial pounds in a way that had not been invented before the era he fought in.

Even so, Bryd was something of a defensive wizard who relied on skill which was nice to see during a time when heavyweight was increasingly becoming a power event.

But wasn't Archie Moore a defensive Wizard too? He may not have been a southpaw but Archie baffled more fighters than Bryd ever did. Interestingly Bryds defensive skills got him knocked out as he came down in weight at the end of his career.


"said light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson, who watched the fight at ringside. "He was still fighting in heavyweight mode. He wasn't throwing that many punches and he was slow and he wasn't moving. You can fight like that as a heavyweight, but you can't do that at light heavyweight."
George found the stationary Byrd an easy mark for right hands. He staggered Byrd with the first solid right he landed in the first round and dropped him with another one later in the round.
"I should have put him away in that first round," George said. "I should have put my punches together better. But it was very difficult to hit him with that third shot."
When George did land that third shot in the ninth round he nearly took Byrd's head off. It was hard to watch Byrd, who had been such a valiant warrior as a heavyweight, getting smacked around the ring so easily at a lighter weight.
So Byrd's great light heavyweight experiment came to a crashing end at the hands of George, who had seven knockouts in his previous 20 fights. Every time George put together a combination it hurt Byrd. He had been softened up considerably in recent years in bruising heavyweight matches against Jameel McCline, who outweighed him by 56 pounds, and IBF/WBO champion Wladimir Klitschko, who pummeled Byrd on the way to a brutal seventh round KO.
A victory by Byrd would have added some excitement to the light heavyweight division. Roy Jones had talked about fighting Byrd when Jones was finished with a proposed match against Joe Calzaghe.
A competitive Byrd would have fit nicely in the 175-pound division with Tarver, Glen Johnson and Bernard Hopkins. But the way that George blasted him, there really is no need to continue that conversation. Now you have to wonder how George will fare against someone like Dawson, a 24-year-old slugger.
Having already won two heavyweight championships and having been stopped in recent fights against Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin, Byrd can't go back up. He can only go out."

Bryd weighed 169lb for his first fight but months later he was fighting over 200lb. It was a different time..

 

Completely different styles and defensive repertoires. Byrd used a far more cautionary, spoiler-type style and as a result was able to go a lot of rounds against some very talented big men. Moore was far more aggressive, opened up more, and in my opinion would have sustained way more punishment than Byrd did had he fought Byrd's opponents.

 

Why did you skip the part where the author and Dawson observe (like many other people did at the time) that Byrd lost way too much weight too quickly and was toast by the first round?

Byrd had nothing from the very first round. No legs, no speed, no power and no chance against George, a lightly regarded light heavyweight from Brooklyn, whose two previous losses had come at cruiserweight.Byrd had lost 36 pounds over seven months after deciding to drop down in weight and bypass cruiserweight. It was a dramatic, and as it turned out, drastic weight loss that sapped him of his strength, speed and power.
"I think he lost too much weight too fast," said light heavyweight titlist Chad Dawson, who watched the fight at ringside.

(you also left out the part about how he apparently dislocated his shoulder early in the fight...)

Byrd had long since grown into a real heavyweight and he made a catastrophic mistake trying to lose so much weight so late in his career. Only did it out of desperation, because he was getting too old to hang with the leading 225-250lb heavyweights of his day.

 

Marciano by late TKO. Byrd does not have the power or counter punching skills to keep him off.

 

No Archie wasn't a defensive wizard and by the time he fought Marciano he relied on his Armadillo defence of cross- armed gloves to ward off punches not head movement ,add to which by his own words his legs were gone.He also didn't have the greatest of chins. Once Marciano had worn down the near 40 Moore enough to be able to hit him consistently he was a sitting duck
What Byrd weighed for earlier or subsequent fights is irrelevant and immaterial as is your hypotheses that peds magically appeared in 1985 and loads of coordinated giants metamorphasised from lumbering Carnera clones .
Jack Johnson weighed around 165lbs for his first fight wtf does that have to do with anything?
James Byrd was put into tiny home- made rings by his Father to fight his brothers and neighbouring kids he was comfortable being in the pocket because he had grown up fighting there.

Moore was eventually trapped there and doomed once he was as he eloquently said in a taped interview.

Byrd got stopped at the tail- end of his career well what a surprise! He was35,37,38 and he only weighed at the lighter weight ONCE when he was 38years old ! The two other stoppages at that stage of his career were to the leading heavyweights Wladimir KLitschko and Alexander Povetkin and he scaled 213.5lbs for Wlad ,and 211.75lbs for Povetkin.

 

He also left out the fact that Byrd was 38years old!atsch

 

Byrd naturally weighed 190lb. He is quoted as saying he had to eat and bulk his way up over 200lb.

Byrd may be a master at surviving in the pocket, but Marciano was a master at finishing opponents with his brutal punching power and relentless volume punching. Furthermore, he defeated defensive masters who hit harder than Byrd and we're better fighters.

Moore and Walcott would embarrass Byrd with there superior ability

 

Archie had plenty of head movement in 1955 and upperbody movement. His power and hand speed were also still intact. His record is proof in the pudding. The Archie who fought Marciano knocked out a prime Harold Johnson . No version of Byrd would have beaten Harold Johnson .


Archie was the better fighter Than Byrd, period

 

BOLLOX.

No one other than Marciano fan boys are stupid enough to claim that Moore, Walcott, or Charles were anywhere near their primes when they faced the slow, crude, easy to hit Marciano. And even the more sensible ones of them only try to claim these guys had " one more fight left in them ".

Highly convenient, don't you think? Much like the same fools will make a big deal out of jones losing weight to go back down to fight Tarver, but they will dismiss the fact that Byrd aged 38 did much the same to fight at L / Heavy after campaigning for years at Heavy.

I don't care what Marciano did against old men and C level fighters, 4 or 5 rounds of hitting NOTHING but fresh air will sap his stamina the same as it would anyone else's.

 

Archie Moore disagrees with you he stated his legs were gone when he faced Marciano. Moore adopted the Armadillo stance to compensate for the lack of mobility and head movement.
Compare his fights with Ron Richards to his fight with Marciano.

 

You think Archie was better against Ron Richards? I'm not talking YOUNGER I'm talking BETTER.

 

Marciano was easy to hit, his opponents just had a hard time hitting him.

 

Marciano was crude and slow, and pretty bad at everything except hitting his opponents enough times to win all his fights.