Chris Byrd

Chris Byrd
Data
Birth Name	Chris Cornelius Byrd
Fight name	Rapid fire
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	15th August 1970
place of birth	Flint
style	Legal display
size	1.87 m
Range	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	47
Victories	41
Knockout victories	22nd
Defeats	5
draw	1
Profile in the BoxRec database

Chris Cornelius Byrd (born August 15, 1970 in Flint , Michigan ) is a former American boxer and former WBO and IBF world heavyweight champion.

amateur

As an amateur, Byrd was three times American champion: 1989 in light middleweight and 1991 and 1992 in middleweight. In 1990 he took part in the Goodwill Games in Seattle , but lost in the first fight against Torsten Schmitz on points. He also failed in the first round of the 1991 amateur world championships in Sydney , this time against the Cuban Ramón Garbey . He was able to beat this in an international match that same year.

In 1992 he was able to qualify in the middleweight division for the Olympic Games in Barcelona and won the silver medal. In the last sixteen he managed to win over Alexander Lebsjak , but then lost the final to Ariel Hernández .

Professional career

In 1993, Byrd turned pro. He is southpaw , but rather small and light for a heavyweight. So it is astonishing that he did not remain successful in the middleweight division of the amateurs , like Henry Maske , for example , in the light heavyweight division of the professionals, but instead switched to the heavyweight division in 1995, where he regularly fights against opponents who weigh 10 to 20 kg more.

In his build-up phase, he won against Phil Jackson , Bert Cooper and Ross Puritty .

He suffered his first defeat as a professional in March 1999 against the strong Nigerian Ike Ibeabuchi , who kills him in the fifth round. o. suggested. A year later, on April 1, 2000, he surprisingly won the WBO title against Vitali Klitschko , who gave up the fight after the ninth round because of a shoulder injury. At this point, however, Klitschko was clearly in the lead with all three judges. Byrd had been signed as a substitute for Donovan Ruddock , who was indisposed.

Already in the next fight, on October 14, 2000, Byrd lost the title again, against Vitali's younger brother Vladimir , who beat him high on points and twice down. Byrd later suggested on several occasions that something was wrong with the gloves in this fight.

He then signed with Don King and was promptly offered to participate in an elimination tournament in which he defeated Maurice Harris and the highly regarded David Tua . On December 14, 2002, he won the vacant IBF world title with a points win against Evander Holyfield , who at 40 years of age was already considered obsolete.

He successfully defended the title several times in the next few years, but the "victory" against Fres Oquendo was more than controversial despite the unanimous decision of the judges. The draw against Andrzej Gołota is also seen as rather flattering.

On April 22nd, 2006, he lost the title to Wladimir Klitschko in front of 14,000 visitors in the Mannheim SAP Arena due to a technical knockout in the seventh round. As in the first fight, he could hardly be dangerous to Klitschko.

After a year of inactivity, he won by breaking off in round seven against the build-up opponent Paul Marinaccio.

On October 27, 2007 he competed in an IBF eliminator against the Russian Alexander Powetkin , who was 2004 Olympic super heavyweight champion. He lost in round 11 to a technical knockout when his father and trainer Joe Byrd surprisingly threw in the towel around a minute before the end of the eleventh round.

After that defeat, Byrd decided to leave the heavyweight division. He lost over 30 pounds in the next six months to be able to compete in the light heavyweight division.

Byrd played his first light heavyweight fight on May 16, 2008 against Shaun George . In this fight, however, Byrd was clearly inferior to his opponent and went down for the first time in the first round. After suffering two more knockdowns in the ninth round, the referee finally broke off the fight.

In his last professional fight on March 21, 2009 in the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle he defeated Matthias Sandow by technical knockout in the 4th round.

List of professional fights

Clout

As part of a comparative test with regard to the impact force of different athletes, Byrd achieved a maximum force of 5800N on a sandbag with pressure sensors using regular boxing gloves.

Web links

• Chris Byrd in the BoxRec database
• Chris Byrd in the BoxRec -Encyclopaedia
• Chris Byrd in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Chris Byrd on the boxing encyclopedia boxen-artur.de

predecessor	Office	successor
Vitali Klitschko	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBO ) April 1, 2000 - October 14, 2000	Wladimir Klitschko
Lennox Lewis	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( IBF ) December 14, 2002 - April 22, 2006	Wladimir Klitschko