Rocky Marciano vs Chris Byrd

Not only does Byrd lay on the ropes, he rarely puts any degree of snap or power into his punches, he just tries to gather points with his feeble slaps. He's pretty flat-footed and he's not exactly known for fighting at a hard fast pace.

It makes no sense at all to imagine he could defeat Marciano, or even survive the distance probably.

 

Walcott does seem to have more sting on his punches and has better movement on the back foot, I wouldn't say he's any better at counter punching though.

The problem is, the fight with Walcott was essentially a cruiserweight fight, and it is one he struggled in. Moving up to HW and it isnt a guarantee he'd manage to pull out the victory.

I favour Rocky but I think he's gonna have a hard night here.

 

It seems Byrd is being given a lot of credit for beating big guys, even though we know those big guys were firmly second-raters and that Byrd often struggled to edge them on the score cards.

Specializing in narrowly outpointing massive second-rate/fringe contenders doesn't automatically equate to being superior against cruisers.
In fact, Byrd may well have had less success at at cruiserweight if he chosen to fight there in his own era (and there's little doubt he could have comfortably made that weight).

 

What does this mean though?

Chris Byrd 6'1" 74" 210-215
Joe Walcott 6'0" 74" 195-201

We aren't looking at a massive size difference. And I can't see Byrd dropping Joe Louis with one punch counters, or scoring one punch KOs over Charles and Shkor.

As far as Byrd's actual body weight being a problem, Joe Louis weighed 213 in what looked to be lean muscle mass.

[url]http://www.thefightcity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/RockytagsLouis.jpg[/url]

And Marciano had no problem pushing him around the ring and at points appear to lift him off his feet with punches.

 

Interesting to note that.

Byrd's 210-215 range is what most Cruisers actually weight in at on fight night.

 

It doesn't necessarily mean anything. Just something to consider.

Being able to beat a slick WW fighter doesn't mean you can beat a slick LMW fighter.

I've no real doubt that Walcott could carry the weight that Byrd did.

To be completely honest I've no real doubt that Marciano could carry the weight that Byrd did.

As I've said, I pick Rocky to win, but it's no guarantee as Byrd can pose a lot of problems.

 

This is more important:

Byrd of the Tua fight: Age 30
Walcott of the frst Marciano fight: Age 38

 

Depends on the WW and LMW lol

In this case I just don't see Byrd's weight advantage playing a significant role.

 

That is because we don't know how strong Byrd will be in comparison to Marciano and whether the weight would be an advantage or not, we don't know if it's an advantage that could be negated by Rocky adding a few pounds himself.

Stylistically someone who sits in the pocket making you miss should be cannon fodder for Tua but Byrd was able to stay one step ahead.

Wilfredo Gomez was a top level ATG but those extra few pounds were the difference between him winning and not winning at the highest level.

Would it be the same here? We don't know. But it's just another indicator that beating Walcott doesn't necessarily mean you'd beat Byrd.

 

We can make an educated guess and it doesn't look good for Byrd.

Byrd never demonstrated much punching power at any weight or against any size of opponent. If Byrd was leveling LHWs and other small heavyweights I could see the point.

Marciano bullied a lean 213 pound Joe Louis, I don't see Byrd's 213 being any harder too move.

 

I'm almost certain than anyone picking Byrd to win, is not doing so based on the strength of his punching power.

 

Using a decrepit, shuffling, one-handed Louis as a barometer for anything fistic is pathetic. Unless we are talking about a late-stage depleted Byrd, this has no relevancy and is a fairly pathetic line of argumentation.

 

I bet Louis of the Rocky fight would beat Byrd of the Tua fight.

 

If you watch round 8 of Tua/Byrd side by side with round 8 of Rocky/Louis, you will see 3 fighters fighting at the same pace. And then you will see a fourth fighter attacking like a bull.

 

Oh, you pulled your face out of McVey's snatch long enough to make a post that wasn't defending his honor.

Let't see what we got.

You are either stupid or deliberately misunderstood the incredibly clear point of my post so you can use the clever phrase "pathetic line of argumentation" Good for you. You got a like from me, mam.