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

I think Chris Byrd is in frankenfrank's top 10 ATG P4P list

 

No doubt he could be a slippery mofo. He had Ike missing and missing but once he landed Byrd was drooling all over himself.

 

Think it was a left uppercut at a weird angle and Byrd got caught moving right into it. Amazing he didn't suffer a neck injury or something more serioius. Shame, was shaping up to be a very impressive performance from Byrd, made Ike look really bad until the stoppage.

 

Actually it was a Tyson combo. Right to the body lefthook. Cokes kept telling him to throw that combo as he knew it would catch Byrd eventually. Ike had quick hands.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7AZTLHFx7o[/ame]

 

1. Its true that the Holyfield of the Rahman fights was far removed from the Tyson fights, by 6years all the punishment aside

2. Your either underestimating Lewis's power, which saw him blow away numerous SHWs or missing the flush punches Holy took time and again. This first fight maybe proved Holy's chin better than any other

3. Well Patterson looked better, Moore probably had faded a little and would continue to gradually fade as older men do

 

Ike landed plenty before that too though, the Byrd was winning until he got caught some put across certainly isn't true

 

1. Duh, its 6 years later but the point is that you wouldn't know that watching the two fights. Its not a fluke coincidence Evander looked great against Tyson, bad against Bean, ok against Lewis and Ruiz, and than great against Rahman. He needed the right opponent to let him go to work on the inside.

2. You seem to live in your own world sometimes.

3. Thanks for the tip.

 

Hell of angle, pretty close to an uppercut with Ike throwing his entire body into it.

 

Byrd to me is an underrated champion. He was a very skilled, very quick heavyweight. He definitely had the style and talent to beat a fair few big names in heavy history in a few upsets.

I do think, however, against most of the great big men, the size and power comes into play. Against Wladimir in their first fight, Chris was more or less peak, and was just battered. He couldn't handle to size or the reach, and though he made Wlad miss plenty, what did land did too much damage. I also wonder if he had the foot speed to handle top flight boxers and movers like Ali.

Still, Chris is class.

 

And when exactly was the period that we are supposed to be focussing on, when those two guys were at their "peaks?" From 1982-1987, Greg Page was beaten by approximately 7 men, including David Bey, an aged Joe Bugner, an unknown Douglas, and Journeyman mark Wills... His best win was against Gerrie Coetzee who hadn't fought in over 15 months. When was this spectacular "peak" that you speak of? How about Tubbs? Notoriously criticized for showing up well over weight, even in his best fights, and who's only two noteworthy victories were against Smith and Page, who everybody and their brother were beating at the time..

Chris Byrd was a world champion, for more than twice the time, and twice the number of fights that either of those two guys were combined.. He has wins over men who were at least as good, if not better, and showed superior skills, conditioning and durability....

For the record, I grew up during the 80's, and have respect for some of the top rated men of that period, but with certain restrictions.. If we were talking about Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Michael Spinks, Evander Holyfield, Tim Witerspoon and Mike Weaver, then I'd be on your side.. But throwing out names like Tony Tubbs and Greg Page doesn't do that period any justice...

 

I was gonna disagree with you, then I read your post carefully, and find myself in agreement.

Resume is important in measuring how a guy will actually perform when it comes time to go.

 

I'd like to have another go ranking the top 10 heavies of the 00-09 decade at some point. Last time I had Byrd around the 4-6 area. Clearly behind Lewis and the Klitschkos but possibly ahead of everyone else. Maybe I'm forgetting someone