What would Ruiz and Byrd have added to Lewis' resume?

byrd would have possibly have been a marginal boost if kliturds admit that he was good enough to stop vitali.
ruiz was just a minor titlist in the mode of the 90s wbo ones.

 

Ike Ibeauchi proved what would happened to Byrd in any other era.

He , like Chambers , Toney etc saw the worst heavyweight landscape known to man as a way to find more success than in their own natural weight divisions.

Thats why Holyfield was beating one of the biggest names of the era at 46 years of age.

Byrd would not even cut as a sparring partner in former era's , let alone as a competitor :roll::nut

 

I personally think there's only one right answer, which is that it would be a mild legacy boost. Hard to see why it would be a clear boost as you can pretty much eliminate Ruiz from the discussion and focus on what a victory over Byrd would have meant.

 

I'd be fine with the wording, "moderate" legacy boost, if that were an option.

As to accomplishments, Ruiz's certainly doesn't mean all that much to me, he certainly never won any of those fights impressively, and a motivated Lewis, would be in a completely different league than either Rahman or an over the hill Holyfield. But a win over Byrd would have been a nice feather in his cap. But you can't re-write history, at the time Lewis fought Grant, he was considered a dangerous opponent, and the fight was much more marketable, than fighting either of the two fighters you mentioned. He was 31-0 going into that fight with Lewis.

 

I really rate Byrd tbh. I think his skills p4p are incredible and he would be a talent in any era.

That being said Wlad and Ike beat a prime Byrd and neither of them are lauded as having great resumes so Lewis wouldn't revive a huge boost.

It would just be the clearing out of another era which would benefit Lewis: Rahman, Ruiz, Byrd, Vitali would all go on to achieve big things after the time line talked about so in that sense it makes a difference.

 

Byrd would be lucky to survive in the era of Ali, Foreman, Frazier let alone be solid.

 

It would've been nice to round out the range of his resume, which features a ton of orthodox sluggers and left hook-centric guys.

Not a huge miss, but it'd have helped add some stylistic diversity.

 

Yes, those top 10's were a real murderer's row. What with guys like Wepner being rated in it for years and all, it'd have taken a miracle for poor Byrd to last more than a handful of bouts. Johnny Boudreaux woulda moidered the bum!

http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Heavyweight--1970s

 

I'm merely reiterating the words of the great trainer Manny Steward.

Now imagine years later when Burd was shot to bits , Wlad would beat him to become champ and people would then claim Wlad was a top 10 ATG :rofl

 

Tbf if we're to dismiss every victory under 220, the top 10 might look very different :rofl

 

Now you are just being silly. Byrd didn't stop Vitali at all. Now if you want to say you don't believe the shoulder injury was genuine that is another matter all together.

 

:rofl:thumbsup

 

A win over Byrd would have had some significance, Ruiz very little to none at all.