Underated heavyweights

Chris Byrd.

Man, he sure does have a ton of detractors because he does not punch hard and prefers the "cutie" boxing style. But he had that opposition to his style way back when he was the up and comer on USA cable fights. And he'd fight anybody anywhere and not exactly pull a Valuev or Wilder optimal matchmaking only thing.

Just think of other heavies and now give them Chris Byrd punching power......how many guys would be able to box their way to decision wins? Or have that fight to fight conditioning to continually go the distance? Win fights using those tools and of course, boxing brains.

I always thought with the lack of southpaws thru the years, Chris--and Corrie Sanders--would have done much better fighting in the 70's and 80's. There just weren't any southpaws with any sort of pedigree.

 

good one

 

I thought the same thing. Also possibly got thieved against Tim Witherspoon, Renaldo won that fight.

 

lucien had the french nationality and evangenlista was from urugay with spanish nationality. nothing to do with italy

 

Tony Tubbs the guy went 10 with Bowe and won some rounds ,this wasnt 80's Tubbs. Tubbs beat on Bowe in sparring as well. he was a big/somewhat overweight HW but was fast and slick, i think a better Ruiz jr, but slightly less powerful. bowe refused a rematch.

 

No problem.good question well posed.

 

Both fighter deserve a lot of respect.

Snipes fought the who's who of the 80s. Coetzee, Holmes, Witherspoon, Berbick, Page, Biggs, Du Plooy, Eddie Mustafa Muhammed. He always gave a good account of himself, win or lose.

Mason, I know less of. He seemingly fought who he could at that time, seeing that British boxing, at that time, is not what it is today. He gave Lewis a hell of a fight.

 

I would add that his power probably was in the Tua/Sanders/Shavers/Ruddock/Smith class.

 

"Floyd patterson for sure when you are talking about h2h fantasy matches, in fact i think that the people would get surprised cause he would beat walcott and charles relatively easy and he would give marciano a hell of fight with his speed and power, rocky would go down once or twice for sure. Which versions of Charles and Walcott are you talking about for Floyd to fight? Charles that beat Louis could beat lightheavies and small Heavies, and the Walcott that iced Charles with one punch and hung tough with both Louis and The Rock, would be very tough for Floyd.

 

Michael Grant is underrated. He was legitimately good going into the Lewis fight. His confidence was shot after Lewis and having Atlas hurt his confidence even more along with the poor performance against McCline due to the ankle injury.

A few things that get forgotten about him:
1. He was on his way to beating Golota. Golota was already almost finished when he quit.
2. He did better against the the common gatekeepers and journeymen of that time than the other prospects like Tua and Wlad.
3. He came back way past his prime and was competitive with a prime Adamek.
4. Lewis folded a lot good big men; Grant wasn't the only one.

 

Yes, I have to agree with you. Byrd definitely is underrated.

A prime Byrd could probably cause every heavyweight from any era problems. That elusive style of his and that speed... Most of the big men couldn't keep up with Chris, like you alluded to.

I think he's a Hall of Famer. He defeated Vitali and Evander (the first one is a surefire HOFer while the other is in Canastota as of this June officially) and defeated the likes of Williamson, McCline, Oquendo, and Tua. There's no shame in his losses at heavyweight because how can there be when you lose to a future HOFer twice (Wlad), or a Povetkin and/or Ibeabuchi? Byrd definitely has the resume to make it into Canastota someday, and I hope he does sooner rather than later. Well-deserved.

 

I don't think either are underrated. I think both were below elite level.