who was better, Jimmy Young nor Chris Byrd?

I think on both fronts I favour byrd here.

For about 5 years byrd really was a top talent.

His skills eventually saw him at the top of the pile due to a series of fortunate events (lewis, sanders and vitali retiring)

For me byrd's level of performance was consistently brilliant and I sometimes wonder if we lost an atg lhw in byrd.

Young of course has the great victory over foreman.

I think based on my view point of the fights they had, i'd struggle placing young above byrd: I do think ali and norton deserved their victories over young. I also believe byrd deserved his victory and draw over fres and andrew respectively.

However, if you believe young beat ali, norton and ocasio then I think you'd have to rank him pretty highly.

 

Young knocks Byrd out and shits on him...shits on him with a mighter **** than 10 Foremans.

 

Resume: Byrd

Peak H2H: Byrd

 

Agree with kalasnin really.

We have to remember byrd had no right being a hw nor even a cruiserweight. He was fighting in an era of the super heavy.

 

At least someone doesn't think i'm crazy.

I think Byrd could've been Undisputed Champ & a ATG at cruiserweight.

 

Greater yes, harder to beat? Impossible to say.

As I said, it depends how you scored the fights. I think young lost to ali and norton. Had him beating foreman though. That one victory doesn't make up for a career of being a challenger compared to byrd's career of being a champion.

Young's close fights I thought he did lose. Byrd's fights I thought he didn't.

As I said, for me it's comparing a challenger to a champion and inreality to me it's a no brainer.

 

nope you can't compare them like that. Young would've snatched a belt in Byrds era. Byrd would never be champion in Young's era.

 

can't argue with this. showing great skills in losing (which young did a lot) is not a mark of true greatness. showing slickness in borderline effortless (not a compliment) performances is not a mark of true greatness. basically, young showed he had a lot of talent but no drive to put it on the line and his record shows it. he gave half assed efforts in most of his big fights and people are shocked he didn't get the decisions.

byrd put 100% in EVERY fight, win or loss. which is why, unlike young, he's got a pretty ****ing good record.

 

I'm sorry but you demonstrate the exact way you can't compare them.

You have no way of knowing if young would have picked up a belt, nor if he'd have ever hit number 1 in the division. Likewise you have no way of knowing if byrd would ever have been champ in young's era.

All you can go off is what happened. As I said, if you think young deserved decisions over ali and norton I can completely understand ranking him above byrd, especially if you think byrd lost ever fight since holyfield.

As it is don't so I rank byrd higher.