Chris Byrd – A Modern Day David Defeating the Goliath’s of Boxing! By Ken Hissner, Doghouse Boxing (Aug 25, 2011) Doghouse Boxing - Tweet
When
you hear the name Chris Byrd you have to think of “David &
Goliath”. How he went up against all those big heavyweights
including the current world champions, the Klitschko’s is
astounding! Two-Time
heavyweight champion Chris Byrd loves a challenge! The
Middleweight Silver medalist from the 1992 Olympics had close to 300
wins before entering the professional ranks. His father and
mother worked his corner as he followed his brothers Patrick and Tim
into the fight business. His sister Tracy was a World champion.
“I
had 25 international fights. Our team in 1991 tied Cuba. It
was first time a USA team did that. I felt our 1992 Olympic
team was the best team since 1976,” said Byrd. He was in the
1988 Olympic trials and the US light welterweight champion in 1989.
He was the middleweight champion in 1991. At the 1992
Olympics in the middleweight division he defeated Russia’s
Alexander Lebziak, a World Championship runner-up and a future 3-time
Olympian who would win a Gold medal in 2000. After Byrd won 4
bouts he lost to Cuban Ariel Hernandez in the finals to gain his
Silver Medal. Hernandez would also win the 1996 Olympics.
Turning
professional in 1993 Byrd won his first two fights weighing around
170. After a 10 month lay-off he came back adding 20 pounds.
By his fourth fight he was up to 200 and giving away 30 pounds.
By his ninth fight he stopped Mike Rouse, 17-12-2, for the
vacant USBA Heavyweight title.
Two
fights later, Byrd won a split decision over future cruiserweight
champion “King” Arthur Williams after coming off the canvas in
the first round for the first time as a professional. In
his eighteenth fight he defeated another future cruiserweight
champion in Uriah Grant, 24-11, in August of 1996.
At
20-0 Byrd defeated “Smokin” Bert Cooper, 33-15, in March of 1997.
On HBO at the end of the year he stopped James “From Down
Under” Thunder, 32-8, in the ninth round. Three more wins and
Byrd would face Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi, 19-0 (14),
including a win over David Tua, then 27-0. “He had a good
trainer who was wise enough to tell him to rush me and swing at my
body. He caught me on the ropes,” said Byrd. Ibeabuchi
would never fight again. He is serving time somewhere in NV.
No, not for beating Byrd!
Byrd
would win his next 4 fights by knockout and get his first title fight
against the WBO champion Vitali Klitschko, 27-0, in Germany. Only
problem was he only had 8 days to prepare against the 6:07 ½
Klitschko! After the ninth round Byrd would need a knockout to
win when Klitschko suddenly didn’t come out of his corner for the
tenth round due to a rotor cuff injury. Byrd would become the
WBO world heavyweight champion after 8 years with a 31-1 record on
April Fool’s Day, 2000! “I could have held the title a lot
longer or fight the other Klitschko, Wladimir, 34-1 (32), which I
did,” said Byrd.
He
was back in Germany in October when he got dropped in the ninth and
eleventh rounds showing the heart of a lion to go the distance. “I
over trained for the younger brother, Wladimir, who hit twice as hard
as Vitali,” said Byrd. The 6:06 Wladimir may not have had the
chin of his older brother but was a harder puncher.
Two
wins later and Byrd won the vacant USBA heavyweight title over
Maurice Harris, 18-10-2, in Madison Square Garden on a Don King card
with 11 fights and 5 of them including Byrd’s scheduled for 12
rounds each. Harris had won 9 of his last 10 fights since
dropping a disputed split decision to former world champion Larry
“Peanut Head” Holmes. It would take Harris another 9 years
but he would win the USBA title in 2010 and still holds it today.
In
Byrd’s next fight in August he took on David “Tuaman” Tua,
38-2, in Las Vegas, NV. Tua won 11 of his last 12 fights, only
losing in his previous fight to WBC/IBF/IBO world champion Lennox
Lewis by decision. Both had lost to Ibeabuchi and that is where
the similarities ended. Tua was one mean Samoa who would track
down his opponents with vicious force. It would be the final
part of an IBF title eliminator. “It was my best fight,”
said Byrd. Without a doubt he frustrated the oncoming Tua
throughout the fight almost to perfection.
Lennox
Lewis had lost his title to Hasim Rahman in April and was getting a
rematch in November. Byrd was to get the winner. This
time Lewis was in much better shape and defeated Rahman to win back
his 3 titles by knockout. The money factor reared up its ugly
face and the IBF allowed former world champion Mike Tyson, a shell of
his former self to get next crack at Lewis instead of Byrd. It
was a mismatch until it was finally stopped in the eighth round with
Lewis the winner.
Now
how could the IBF avoid Bird? Easy, by Lewis would not fight
again for a year. Though the WBC/IBO allowed him to remain
their champion, the IBF would strip him of his title and match Byrd
with another former world champion in Evander Holyfield, 38-5, for
the vacant title in December of 2002. That was 16 months since
Byrd defeated Tua in an elimination bout while only fighting once
stopping Jeff Pegues, 18-9, in 3 rounds.
Holyfield,
38-5-2, had defeated former champion Rahman in a WBA eliminator in
June while the WBA champion John Ruiz defeated Kirk Johnson the
following month by disqualification. Ruiz and Holyfield had
split in 2 fights and in their last encounter fought to a draw with
Ruiz still holding the title. He wasn’t overly interested in
fighting Holyfield again so when the chance to fight Byrd came up
Holyfield went for it instead of waiting until March of the following
year for Ruiz to fight again. It seemed like an “easier”
fight taking on Byrd for the vacant IBF title for “The Real Deal”.
Watch what you ask for!
Byrd
had just as easy a time with Holyfield that he had with Tua in
winning the IBF title over 12 rounds in Atlantic City, NJ, over 12
rounds. “My opinion a younger Holyfield wouldn’t hit me,
but he was smarter while older for our fight,” said Byrd. This
made him a two-time and a two-division champion!
It
would be 9 months before Byrd defended his title against Puerto
Rico’s Fres Oquendo, 24-1, at the Mohegan Sun Casino, in
Uncasville, CT, in September of 2003. This was a much tougher
defense for Byrd than expected. Oquendo’s only loss was to
Tua for the NABF title. “I was full of it and wanted to slug
it out with him and I’m glad it happened,” said Byrd. He
came close to losing his title. Instead of giving Oquendo a
rematch their promoter Don King put both of them on the same card in
April of 2004 with Oquendo losing to Ruiz for the WBA title in 11
rounds and Byrd keeping his title drawing with 6:04 Andrew
Golota, 38-4. Once again it was the kind of fight that could
have gone either way. Golota had been unbeaten in his last 5
fights including a no contest with Tyson.
Once
again the fight with Golota could have gone either way and King would
put both boxers on the same card but not against each other. Golota
would get a shot at Ruiz for his WBA title losing over 12 rounds.
Byrd was matched with 6:06 Jameel “Big Time” McCline,
31-3-3, who was coming off 3 straight knockout wins after losing to
the younger Klitschko, Wladimir. Once again Byrd would take a
close fight defeating McCline by split decision. He was in the
land of giants doing what he could’a should’a done instead of
giving the younger Klitschko a shot at his WBO title by defeating his
contenders. It
would be almost a year before Byrd’s next fight against his good
friend the NABF champion DaVarryl “Touch of Sleep” Williamson,
22-3 (18), and 6:04. Williamson was a devastating puncher who fought
one of his worst fights. He was completely not taking any
chances with Bryd and just going through the motions to everyone’s
surprise. A year before this, he lost on a technical decision
to the younger Klitschko but had a win over former WBC champion
Oliver McCall.
“I
took the fight with Williamson on 4 week’s notice,” said Byrd.
He easily won the decision in defending his title for the
fourth time. Next up would be a rematch with Wladimir
Klitschko, 45-3, after more than 5 years. Klitschko had been
stopped twice since their first meeting. His previous fight a
tough one against Samuel Peter with both fighters hitting the canvas.
“I was getting pretty good money to go back to Germany to
fight him,” said Byrd. It would be a totally different fight
this time with Byrd being stopped in 7 rounds.
It
would be almost a year to the day when Byrd came back against Paul
Marinaccio, 22-2-2, in Nassau, Bahamas, scoring a stoppage in 7
rounds. He was back in Germany for his third visit against the
2004 Olympic Gold Medalists Alexander Povetkin, 13-0, as part of a 4
boxer tournament for the IBF title. “I had a cracked rib in a
sparring session before I went. I was in with IBF cruiserweight
champion Steve Cunningham and Joe Hanks. Hank’s is the best
prospect to win a title for the US. If he can’t win it before
he’s 30 (now 28) it’s his own fault,” said Byrd. Byrd
would be stopped in the eleventh round. “Povetkin is not a
puncher, but determined and in shape,” said Byrd.
It
would be 7 months before he would fight again and he would drop from
almost 212 to 174 and meet Shaun George, 16-2-2, who was a former
cruiserweight that dropped back to light heavyweight. When Byrd
entered the ring it looked like a completely different person. He
looked frail and would be stopped in the ninth round. Close to
a year later and adding 20 pounds to his weight he and Tony Thompson,
both southpaws, were working with Vitali Klitschko preparing him for
his fight with Cuban southpaw Juan Carlos Gomez, a former
cruiserweight champion. Byrd was on the undercard and what
would be his final bout stopped Matthias Sandow, 4-3, in 4 rounds, in
a cruiserweight match. He was 38 years old and knew he didn’t
want to be doing this at 40.
His
final record was 41-5-1 with 22 knockouts. Byrd brought a lot
of excitement to the game as he proved a smaller man could beat a
bigger man if he was smart enough and of course skilled enough. He
was a small man in a land of giants giving away enormous height and
being lighter in every fight from the time he won the WBO title in
2000 in the next 15 fights before ending his career! As we were
finishing this story Byrd would turn 42 on August 15th.
This
middleweight Olympian did something another middleweight Olympian did
named Floyd Patterson. Both went onto win the heavyweight
championship of the world. Only Byrd did it without the help of
one Cus D’Amato but with the help of his Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ.
