Bryd gets ko'ed by a lhw with 7kos in 20 fights

[KobeIsGod]

i knew he was shot in terms of letting his hands go but this is just shocking. the weight loss seems to really hurt chins/punch resistance.

_x31EC-_CKo

[TFFP]

Christ

He must have been terrible in there, to go from a solid chin at heavy to getting KTFO by a journeyman LHW. Weight draining/age I guess...

[Jazzo]

How did the fight play out?

[TheGreat]

Yes losing that much weight hurts, RJJ before moving up with have pitched shutouts against guys like Tarver and Johnson but the weight drain killed him.

[jaco]

Chris should hang em up, he was horrible tonight.

[KobeIsGod]

How did the fight play out?

similar to ali-holmes or louis-marciano. an old man w/no business fighting being beaten from pillar to post

[brooklyn1550]

This was truly sad seeing Byrd like that. He looked so drained and his legs weren't there all night. He had a great career with all things considered and has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. Enjoy retirement Chris.

[See Me Flow]

How did the fight play out?

Byrd was getting beat up all night.

[liljp361]

Byrd played his usual game of trying to outsmart but he doesnt have enough physical ability left to do that =/.. Byrd went down in the first round and in the final round went down twice and injured his left shoulder when he went down maybe he dislocated it.. He was wobbled in about 3 or 4 rounds..

[Zakman]

I don't really think it had much to do with the weight loss.

No, it had EVERYTHING to do, however, with Byrd being completely, totally, and utterly WASHED UP. Hopefully he has the sense to hang 'em up.

[jamel]

It was a good win for Shaun George, but for me I could only feel for Chris Byrd here. It was truly sad to see a good former Heavyweight Champ being battered for nine rounds.

In the first round Shaun George came out confidently and aggressively. he fired in jabs but the punch that did the damage all night was the right hand which he threw mostly from a side on stance. He floored Byrd and dominated the round, it looked like and early night was in store.

In the second George was more measured and less aggressive but continued catching Byrd with the right hand and easily won the round.

The Third was more of the same, however Byrd became more active in the fourth but continued to eat right hands.

In the fifth another round for George winning with basically just single right hand shots. I thought Byrd had possibly at best won a share of one round after the first 5 rounds were completed.

Byrd had his best round in the sixth and outlanded George possibly even winning it.

But the beating continued in the next round with George hitting Byrd with hard rights again. I think if George had of fought more aggressively throughout he could have ended it much earlier but as it was he finished it in round nine flooring Byrd twice.

Byrd really should now retire he has nothing to prove and is no longer capable of fighting at world class level anymore based on this showing.

[KobeIsGod]

gosh byrd didnt even stick around for a post-fight interview. even after wlad gave him that vicious beating in 06, he talked with hbo. not the ideal way to go out.

[brooklyn1550]

gosh byrd didnt even stick around for a post-fight interview. even after wlad gave him that vicious beating in 06, he talked with hbo. not the ideal way to go out.

I think he would have if not for his shoulder.

[Heavyrighthand]

Too many hard fights, and I think his reflexed are too depleated, as well as the weight probably drained him much more than anyone expected. He should probably retire, after the hype over this big LH debut, then to look this bad......and before that, looking bad against Povetkin, and before that, against Wlad........

He threw about two meaningful combos, and that was about it, that I saw. He was mainly a punching bag in there. That delayed reaction in the shoulder fall was pretty dramatic as he backed up, then crumbled to the canvas. Kind of sad to see Byrd being thrashed like that.

[KobeIsGod]

I think he would have if not for his shoulder.

and he got injured!?! yikes :-(

[lackadaisical]

I don't really think it had much to do with the weight loss. Byrd loss the weight gradually over a long period of time and he was on weight weeks prior to this fight. It had mostly to do with his age, at a certain point you just can't do it anymore and everything including your legs and punch resistance goes.

And on a sidenote, that guy could've gotten rid of Byrd a lot sooner had he really stepped it up in the middle rounds. Instead we just saw a slow and agonizing beating of the old warror Chris Byrd. Sad sad night for boxing

it was a combination of being shot & the weight loss. The thing is when you lose alot of weight (the man lost 40 lbs), you lose alot of strength. I don't care if he made weight weeks prior to the fight, it takes awhile to adjust to that weight & gain strength suited for it.

Also, Byrd hasn't had to make weight in years, so it's a possibility he went about it the wrong way. Eating one meal a day isn't gonna help

He should fought some bums, got use to the weight, & gradually increased his competition. Regardless, he's done & woulda got knocked out by someone anyway, but atleast he would been better prepared.

[cpnasty]

Time to retire

[Boxfan1]

I noticed his collar bone looked separated from his shoulder the instant he got back up. When I saw that I told my wife he was hurt badly. 10 seconds later he proved it. He was extremely slow and somewhat lethargic tonight. I think the last fights with Wlad and Povetkin really messed him up. He couldn't avoid any punches tonight. Time to accept that father time has won and move on. I think he should be the next HBO guy and not Max Kellerman.

[fitzgeraldz]

i knew he was shot in terms of letting his hands go but this is just shocking. the weight loss seems to really hurt chins/punch resistance.

George is a big light heavyweight w/ fast hands and good power ... a majority of his fights were at cruiserweight ... and both of his losses came at cruiserweight against world class opposition.

I just got off work and didn't see the fight, but I read that Byrd looked drawn and sluggish.

He was dropped twice early in the fight and dominated w/ right hands.

[Adaptation]

Sucks to see such a good guy get beat up like that.
Time to hang the gloves... too bad for him.

[LockDog387]

Believe what you want, but the gguy was a world class trained fighter. Even if he had lost a lot of weight I'm sure he kept his strength up, especially if he used weight training as apart of his training regimen. n that case the guy could have conceivably gained strength.

And I didn't really have a problem with the choice of opponent. This was a mid-level guy who wouldn't have been too tough a challenge for Byrd had he been in his prime, but now even a guy like this mopped the floor with him. Byrd just needs to hang them up now.
Shaun George is a talented fighter and his only two losses were at crusierweight. One of his losses he was clearly robbed and the other was against a much bigger fighter who was also a puncher (Matt Godfey). George is not a cruiserweight and was at a serious size disadvantage. Mid-level guy? More like a B level fighter for now. Byrd was defintley shot though and even if he was better prerpared he still wouldn't beat George at his age.

[nervousxtian]

"better prepared"... you are joking.. right?

This had NOTHING to do with prep, it had everything to do with him being "shot". He had nothing, no legs, no pop, no balance. He had zip, zero, nilch. It wasn't what George did.. it was what Chris couldn't do, which was put up a fight.

[yogster740]

Hell damn straight...I missed the enitre night of boxing bo...suxs ass about Byrd..the only insight I can give is u can't play with weight like that...droppin 35+lbs and competin at the top level...its gonna eat you up B...

[Farmboxer]

Byrd took way too many punches from heavyweights, plus losing way too much weight.

[yogster740]

Byrd took way too many punches from heavyweights, plus losing way too much weight.



exacly bro......all the training\sacrifice\mentality\ aint gonna cut it....it is what it is.....

[Farmboxer]

Byrd has been through a lot in his career.

[nervousxtian]

Don't blame the weight, he looked like shit his last few fights at heavy, he has been pretty much shot for a few years now. This was a desperation move by Byrd, he knew in his mind he couldn't handle a HW punch with shot legs, and probably in his mind he thought he could handle smaller guys, but he was further gone then even he thought.

Still has heart, and he is a good guy both in and outside the ring, always gives respect when it's due.

[LockDog387]

"better prepared"... you are joking.. right?

This had NOTHING to do with prep, it had everything to do with him being "shot". He had nothing, no legs, no pop, no balance. He had zip, zero, nilch. It wasn't what George did.. it was what Chris couldn't do, which was put up a fight.

Well some people said that Byrd should of fought C and D level fighters to get "used" to being a LHW. Thats what I mean by being prepared, of course having more tune-ups fights means he'll just get older.

[o_money]

I'm crushed. I just got back and checked the news. I haven't seen any highlights but it sounds like he looked awful and took a real beating. I guess this is the end of the road for Chris. He was a good guy and he accomplished so much. All the best to him and his family they all seem like real classy people.

[Cruiser1]

Byrd had been on the decline for 4 years. He should have moved down to cruiserweight immediately after the Klitschko loss in '06 but instead stuck around at heavyweight, aged 2 years, and got beaten up by Povetkin.

Anyone could see from the first round on that Byrd was done. His balance was horrible, his punch output was low, and he couldn't avoid the right hand. These are signs of a shot fighter. Taking off the weight didn't help but I doubt he would have done any better had he still been at heavyweight. Byrd should retire with his faculties intact because it's clear that he would be putting himself in danger by fighting again.

[teke]

Dam this is sad, he comes across as a really nice bloke who was really enthusiastic about the change in career.

It's always good to see blokes loving what they are doing, time for him to move away from fighting and into other areas of the game.

[Loufatski]

Byrd must realize his age. Some have the genetics, some don't. Skill and focus is not always enough.

[aceshigh]

That was really sad to see.

Whatever you may think of him, the man has giant balls of steel!

Here's to ya Chris!:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

[Cruiser1]

I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chris Byrd. He's a class-act.

[elgrancampeon]

Christ

He must have been terrible in there, to go from a solid chin at heavy to getting KTFO by a journeyman LHW. Weight draining/age I guess...

2 loses does not make you a journeyman. Why do you even post here you say the dumbest things and are always wrong.

[yogster740]

Don't blame the weight, he looked like shit his last few fights at heavy, he has been pretty much shot for a few years now. This was a desperation move by Byrd, he knew in his mind he couldn't handle a HW punch with shot legs, and probably in his mind he thought he could handle smaller guys, but he was further gone then even he thought.

Still has heart, and he is a good guy both in and outside the ring, always gives respect when it's due.


I agree my friend....it just suxs thats its Byrd.....fukin aye a hell of a good man...

[HauntingTheHoly]

At Least He Still Has Jesus!!!!

Lmfao

[LeonardLeroy]

I'm really sad about it

[Boom_Boom]

Alot of you dont realize how bad of a transition it is to lose that much weight

look at Roy & Tarver, now look at Byrd, you cant lose 30 pounds or more and expect to become succesful.

[Lance_Uppercut]

Damn....I was hoping he might do well @ 175.

[yogster740]

say what you what to say....but Byrd looked much much stronger at heavyweight..at 175 he looked like a freakin crackhead....just rdy to ....

[YOUNG*LORD]

This fight is proof of how being weight drained can affect your ability to take a punch. RJJ, Miguel Cotto, when he was at 140 and now Byrd. Notice how good Miguel's chin is since moving up in weight. The uppercut he recieved from judah would've stopped many fighters.

[o_money]

Alot of you dont realize how bad of a transition it is to lose that much weight
look at Roy & Tarver, now look at Byrd, you cant lose 30 pounds or more and expect to become succesful.

I agree. That’s not to say that his age, in activity and recent beatings didn't have a lot to do with it but losing muscle messes you up bad. For professional, well conditioned athletes to lose weight it’s not like losing weight for us regular folk is, where you just run around a lot in a heavy winter jacket and burn as much fat as possible. These guys don't need to burn fat; they're already in great condition. What they need to do is deconstruct their muscles. As I'm sure you all know muscles are made of lots of interwoven muscle strands. In order to lose weight you need to remove a lot of strands. Unfortunately, you can't control which of these strands are lost when you lose weight rapidly. So you lose muscle function.

Think of your muscles as a stack of Jenga blocks. When you decrease muscle size you can't just pull blocks off the top of the stack. They come out at random within the muscle so what your left with is a tower of blocks with random pieces missing everywhere. So as you can imagine these muscles aren't as tight as they should be (i.e. they don't have the same spring, elasticity and strength as they ought to have). Overtime they reform into well compact stacks. I know Chris tried to take his time to bring the weight down in order to minimize the damage to the muscle in the first place (i.e. minimize the amount of random wholes in the stack) and he was trying to use weights to quickly fill-in the gaps but that’s not a natural way of re-ad******g your muscle. I'm not an expert and I bet he had some pretty good guys advising him but I'd still guess that he didn't give himself enough time to do it right. Definitely should have taken a few really easy fights for at least a year before he tried to take on a decent fighter. It’s a shame cause he's such a good guy and he was really looking to start over again at lightheavy.

[2ironmt]

the weight loss had to play a significant part. i mean his punch resistence looked pretty bad from the get go. george looked pretty powerful for a lhw, but he's no povetkin and i don't think povetkin had byrd stumbling around like that.

too much of a drastic change and imo he didn't look healthy leading up to the fight. if he was going to do this he shoulda fought some bums at cruiser and than lhw (bums first), and take like a year to really work into some good comp. but given his age, i think he really wanted to line himself up quickly for some decent money fights given the interest in the division of late.

[o_money]

the weight loss had to play a significant part. i mean his punch resistence looked pretty bad from the get go. george looked pretty powerful for a lhw, but he's no povetkin and i don't think povetkin had byrd stumbling around like that.

too much of a drastic change and imo he didn't look healthy leading up to the fight. if he was going to do this he shoulda fought some bums at cruiser and than lhw (bums first), and take like a year to really work into some good comp. but given his age, i think he really wanted to line himself up quickly for some decent money fights given the interest in the division of late.

Yeah I think thats exactly what was going through his head.

[magnificentdave]

I agree. That’s not to say that his age, in activity and recent beatings didn't have a lot to do with it but losing muscle messes you up bad. For professional, well conditioned athletes to lose weight it’s not like losing weight for us regular folk is, where you just run around a lot in a heavy winter jacket and burn as much fat as possible. These guys don't need to burn fat; they're already in great condition. What they need to do is deconstruct their muscles. As I'm sure you all know muscles are made of lots of interwoven muscle strands. In order to lose weight you need to remove a lot of strands. Unfortunately, you can't control which of these strands are lost when you lose weight rapidly. So you lose muscle function.

Think of your muscles as a stack of Jenga blocks. When you decrease muscle size you can't just pull blocks off the top of the stack. They come out at random within the muscle so what your left with is a tower of blocks with random pieces missing everywhere. So as you can imagine these muscles aren't as tight as they should be (i.e. they don't have the same spring, elasticity and strength as they ought to have). Overtime they reform into well compact stacks. I know Chris tried to take his time to bring the weight down in order to minimize the damage to the muscle in the first place (i.e. minimize the amount of random wholes in the stack) and he was trying to use weights to quickly fill-in the gaps but that’s not a natural way of re-ad******g your muscle. I'm not an expert and I bet he had some pretty good guys advising him but I'd still guess that he didn't give himself enough time to do it right. Definitely should have taken a few really easy fights for at least a year before he tried to take on a decent fighter. It’s a shame cause he's such a good guy and he was really looking to start over again at lightheavy.

Wow, GREAT analogy, that really put it in perspective for me, thanks.

[Hugh Jerrod]

He was not right from the bell. He needs a CAT Scan, looks reminiscent of somebody with a latent head injury.

[divac]

I'm baffled as to why Byrd at the age of 37 would chose to drop 40 lbs and go all the way down to LHW.....

Why not have dropped just 15 lbs and fought at Cruiserweight?

What made Bryd such a troublesome heavyweight, was that he was so much quicker and faster than just about all of them.

I thought that Bryd had lost quite a bit of speed and quickness even by the time he became champion when he fought an old Holyfield.....that was quite a few years back, and he only got worse from that Holyfield fight, getting gift after gift and staying champion for a few defenses.

Why on earth did he think he'd be effective against much quicker fighters at 175 lbs is beyond all comprehension.

The weight drop only made it worse, but imo Bryd is a completely shot fighter and would'nt compete with a top 15 fighter at any weight!

[o_money]

Wow, GREAT analogy, that really put it in perspective for me, thanks.

Thanks, no problem. I actually came up with this Jenga block analogy about a week ago, while talking to my brother about this fight and how much weight bryd had to lose. Its a pretty simple and easy to understand way of breaking it down just too bad it proved prophetic.

Also I wrote this post before I got a chance to see the highlights in the other thread. After watching them I’m pretty confident that this is exactly what happened because if you look at Byrd's leg movement after he eats the first few punches he looks like a guy whose been on the bike at the gym for an hour and a half - springy and awkward. That to me is a pretty clear sign his muscles were fucked.

[Brighton bomber]

Byrd's career is over. He looked slow compared to his opponent and he didn't fight anything like he used to. At heavyweight he was always the counter puncher but he simply does not have the speed or snap in his punches anymore to be able to box as he once did, especially at light heavyweight against faster opposition.

A real shame, I would have loved to have seen Byrd be a real contender at light heavyweight but at 37 having had a long career fighting men naturally 40-50lbs heavier than him it should be no suprise that he has little left.

Hopefully he retires as he has nothing left to prove at this point. Even a shot Jones Jr at this point would be too much for him.

[Brighton bomber]

I agree. That’s not to say that his age, in activity and recent beatings didn't have a lot to do with it but losing muscle messes you up bad. For professional, well conditioned athletes to lose weight it’s not like losing weight for us regular folk is, where you just run around a lot in a heavy winter jacket and burn as much fat as possible. These guys don't need to burn fat; they're already in great condition. What they need to do is deconstruct their muscles. As I'm sure you all know muscles are made of lots of interwoven muscle strands. In order to lose weight you need to remove a lot of strands. Unfortunately, you can't control which of these strands are lost when you lose weight rapidly. So you lose muscle function.

Think of your muscles as a stack of Jenga blocks. When you decrease muscle size you can't just pull blocks off the top of the stack. They come out at random within the muscle so what your left with is a tower of blocks with random pieces missing everywhere. So as you can imagine these muscles aren't as tight as they should be (i.e. they don't have the same spring, elasticity and strength as they ought to have). Overtime they reform into well compact stacks. I know Chris tried to take his time to bring the weight down in order to minimize the damage to the muscle in the first place (i.e. minimize the amount of random wholes in the stack) and he was trying to use weights to quickly fill-in the gaps but that’s not a natural way of re-ad******g your muscle. I'm not an expert and I bet he had some pretty good guys advising him but I'd still guess that he didn't give himself enough time to do it right. Definitely should have taken a few really easy fights for at least a year before he tried to take on a decent fighter. It’s a shame cause he's such a good guy and he was really looking to start over again at lightheavy.

Great analogy. I was always a little scepticle about how much the weight loss effected Jones Jr and Byrd but if you put it that way it makes perfect sense. :good

[Hugh Jerrod]

I think he'll retire. He had that "fuck me" look about him,like he knew at that moment he had booked one fight too many.

[henrik]

byrd lost his power,speed,stamina...everything,
he was absolutly completely drained after that weightloss.
i have never watched byrd being so bad....
were the hell is byrd´s trainer or nutritionist?
if you loose a lot of weight,and do that fast,and at the same time trains like an animal.it will cost you strenght,stamina,speed.
it has to be done by a pro.
magnificentdave knows what it takes.
a sad day for chris byrd.

[o_money]

Great analogy. I was always a little scepticle about how much the weight loss effected Jones Jr and Byrd but if you put it that way it makes perfect sense. :good

Thanks for the props.

And yeah, losing muscle's no joke. I'm mean think about it everyone had that friend who was the fastest guy on the field until he broke his leg really bad and had to spend 3 months in a cast. It didn't take him long to get his muscle size back but it took two years before he was back to the level he used to be at. Personally, I had at least four friends that had this happen to them.

I mean taking off muscle isn't the end of the world and you can do it right and Byrd had professional strength coachs helping him make his move down too, which is the right way to do it. But having 25 yrs of boxing and some pretty solid beatings under your belt doesn't help the situation. I guess it seems like at this point in his career there was probably no way he could have lost that much weight and done it right.

[Smith]

Damn

[FROST]

I'd still say that going down to LHW was the right move for Byrd. I mean he didn't have no future in the HW division, so he had to try something completely different. It just didn't work out. But at least he tried. He had a great career and he should retire now. The fact that he managed to come down to LHW from HW demands a lot of respect in itself.

I never really liked watching Byrd, but one has to respect him - he was competitive with the best HWs for years, guys that were much bigger and stronger than him, he always fought his heart out, took the biggest shots from Klitschko and Ibeabuchi and still got up. He beat some good HWs and even held two belts.

[joe the great]

I would think that Byrd should've done the same thing that Jones should've done go to cruiserweight. Now I think they both should retire.

[they_killed_kenny]

Loosing all that weight does hurt you, we all seen it beore, Rjj when he came down to fight tarver and Tarver himslef did it after teh Rocky movie when he fought Bhop

[elgrancampeon]

Loosing all that weight does hurt you, we all seen it beore, Rjj when he came down to fight tarver and Tarver himslef did it after teh Rocky movie when he fought Bhop

Also Fernando Vargas.. I know he was not himself anymore at the time but god damn he had unsteady legs.