Thoughts on Chris Byrd........

He was an extremely talented fighter with the misfortune of competing in the largest era for heavyweights in the division's history. Chris was very fast, both on his feet and with hands. He was not the most durable fighter of all time, but he could certainly take a good whack, and whatever he lacked in power, he well made up for in skill. I happen to think that he was underappreciated in his day, but will be better remembered as time goes by.

 

for me he had enough skills to beat according to some fighters he should not be able to compete with with because of thier huge size advantage over him

 

He is one of my faves HWs.......I agree with Magoo.....underappreciated in his day;

 

Really the only big men who were too good for him were the Klits (although Vitali quit while ahead). This is a small man who debuted at 169lbs afterall! However he wouldn't exactly have beaten non-huge (but much greater) champs like Holyfield or Tyson would he? What i'm saying is the "misfortune of competing in the largest era for heavyweights" is not really that. He never would have beaten top level smaller heavyweights either. In fact i would say overall he benefited, it may be the biggest era, but it's also an extremely weak era with a lot of slow, overweight slobs like McCline, Purrity & shot Golota (who he beat on my card)...

 

He was a capable defensive fighter, especially by cruiser\heavyweight standards, but overall as a pure boxer and technician i always found him a tepid uninspiring fighter.

 

Misfortune or choice?

He could have chosen to campaign at cruiserweight and would likley have unified given the parlous state of the division.

That aside, he was breifly the #1 contender in a division with a vacant championship. That at least in theory put him at the top of the division.

 

Byrd benefitted from a crop of giant slowpokes. You saw guys with a small amount of speed combined with reach could either box his head off or stop him. He wouldnt have been champion in the 80's. There were too many fast guys with comparable skills who could hang with him. That being said, he still accomplished a lot for the tools he had.

 

Chris Byrd actually debuted at 160 lbs back in 1993, before abruptly bulking up to compete at over 200 lbs, the following year. Therefore, this implies that it may have been a choice, but I don't know weather or not he would still have the ability to get back down to that weight by the late 90's. He was afterall, over 6 feet tall with a sturdy looking frame, so fighting around 190 might have been a strain.

 

Very good post, exactly why i think Byrd was not unfortunate.

 

I think he could have outboxed gus like like James Smith, Gerrie Coetzee and probably a few others. hell Trevor berbick was beaten by ST. Gordon and Snipes by Rickey Parkey. The 80's crop had talent, but I don't think it was out of Byrd's league.

 

Yeah but I dont think he would have gotten past the Tubbs, Tucker, Witherspoon, Thomas, Biggs, level guys to get a shot. Sure he could have beaten a guy like Smith, but in comparison Smith wasnt much of a player outside of the lucky stoppage of Spoon.

 

A motivated James Tillis would beat Byrd too. :bbb