Lewis Sends Byrd into a "Holy" War
Diego Rodriguez
04.12 - Once again, boxing is preparing itself for another title fight, featuring Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield and Chris Byrd, with a little help from Lennox Lewis; boxing fans have an opportunity to see whether or not Chris Byrd can truly make an impact in the heavyweight division. Byrd, who's most notable wins are against David Tua and Vitali Klitschko, was to face Lennox Lewis for the IBF World Heavyweight Championship title, until Lennox Lewis made an announcement claiming that the fight would not sell to the public, and that he was relinquishing the title, leaving it for number one contender, Chris Byrd, and number two contender, Evander Holyfield, to battle for it on December 14th.
As of today, we recognize Lennox Lewis as the true Heavyweight Champion of the World, but when you relinquish titles instead of fighting to keep them, people tend to believe that you don't want to fight. In the 90's, Lennox Lewis was crying because Riddick Bowe dumped the WBC title in the garbage instead of defending it against Lewis. Lewis fans went on a frenzy claiming that Bowe was a chicken and did not want to fight Lewis because of their amateur bout in '88 where Lewis knocked out Bowe to win gold. However, since Lennox unified all three major titles in the ring, he has been stripped of both the WBA and the IBF world titles because he picks and chooses his opponents. The WBA mandatory challenger was John Ruiz, and even though Ruiz has a very displeasing style in the ring, he gave Holyfield three tough fights. In the second of their three bouts, he knocked Evander down with a sneaky right hand, leaving Holyfield badly hurt and holding on for the remainder of the round. Could this be the reason why Lennox decided not to fight Jon Ruiz? And as Lennox continues to play "Duck, Duck, Goose," Evander seems to be getting the tap on the head, "Goose!" by those fighters that Lennox does not pick to fight.
Chris Byrd has been hard at work since turning pro, and today has faced both Klitschko brothers, beating Vitali; after a shoulder injury had occurred during their bout, Vitali elected to throw in the towel, even though he was ahead on all three cards. But most people felt that it was Byrd's craft rather than the shoulder injury that ended the fight-just before the fight was stopped, Byrd had started to catch Vitali with good shots and all of a sudden the Ukrainian fighter seemed to have become a big strike zone for the smaller man in the ring.
The Klitschko's, like David Tua, are big named fighters who have power and skill, but none of the three fighters were able to knock Byrd out. Could this be why Lennox Lewis elected to let Holyfield take the fight against Byrd instead?
Evander Holyfield is 40 years old, with a remarkable record of 38-5-2 with 25 KOs, seems to find ways to shock the world with huge upsets when the world least expects it. Case in point, Evander's last bout with Hasim Rahman, most fight fans anticipated an easy win for the "Rock," but as the fight unfolded, Holyfield seemed to pick his man apart, and boxed beautifully as each round progressed. Most people have written Evander off because of the way that he and Ruiz had fought together, and how ugly those fights had been; but leave it up to "The Real Deal" to upset the world again. Since Holyfield turned pro, it has been all up hill for him, and even more so as a heavyweight. Since winning the heavyweight titles by knocking out Buster Douglas in the third round of their fight, Holyfield has went on to fight nothing but top, elite fighters, meeting up with the likes of Foreman, Bowe, and Tyson. And although Foreman was past his prime when they met for the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the world, Foreman still did win the titles from Michael Moorer by way of knock out shortly after his bout with Holyfield. Moorer had won those titles from Evander in a close decision, a fight in which it was later announced that Holyfield had suffered from a heart condition, and had been fighting with this condition throughout his entire career.
Evander Holyfield has never in his career ducked a single fighter to this date, and, although by now, he should be able to pick and choose whom he fights, he still welcomes any and every challenger. He is closing in on retirement, another good reason why we should not count him out just yet-the Warrior from Atlanta still seems to pull things together when he needs to. It is through simple science that Evander has pulled off these big upsets; that is, if you let him fight, chances are, you are going to lose, but if you tie him up like Ruiz and Lewis did, you may have a chance of not getting knocked out.
Squaring off against Byrd is not going to be an easy task for "the Real Deal," but nevertheless, Byrd, in my opinion, has only faced a few B caliber fighters: David Tua, a limited fighter who's fight style is one dimensional, and both Klitschko's, who, up to this point, have not truly been tested. So for Byrd to deal with Holyfield, it is not going to be much easier, we're looking at a crafty southpaw vs. a savvy veteran, youth against age.
Holyfield should not be written off in this bout simply because of his age. Evander has shown us enough to know that we should never count him out or doubt him. His performances against Michael Moorer should be a "sneak peak" into what he may be able to do with Byrd. Sure, Byrd has real good movement in the ring and is hard to hit, but Evander has been through that before, and knows how to make adjustments while he is in the ring.
Although Byrd seems to know how to survive in the ring when faced with fighters who can box, Holyfield is not a one dimensional fighter the way that Tua is, Evander will not stay on the pitchers mound and throw heat, Evander will do everything to get inside and make this a fight. It is up to Chris Byrd if he wants to win, but pulling off a win over Evander has never been an easy thing to do for any heavyweight.
The winner of this bout has a legit claim to being recognized as the Heavyweight Champion of the World, considering that champions are suppose to fight like champions, and as Heavyweight King, you must be willing to risk being hunted for your throne. Lennox has yet to show the world that willingness, he has picked whom he wants to fight since unifying all three titles. Throughout his career, Lewis has continuously made claims that fighters are avoiding him, but in return, nearly ten years after Bowe decided to dump the WBC title in favor of a rematch against the Warrior, Lewis has pretty much done the same with the IBF and WBA titles. The only difference here is that the fighters he is dumping the titles off to have to fight for the titles, they aren't just being given to them-Lennox Lewis did not have to fight for that title in the ring when Bowe dumped it off, but we still consider him a three time world champ? Lewis gets to tie Ali and Holyfield's records as a three-time world champ, even though he has only won it twice in the ring? The first time Lennox won the WBC title in the ring was when Oliver McCall had an emotional breakdown in the ring, started to cry and could not get things going. The second time he won his title in the ring was when he got revenge against Hasim Rahman in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most people felt that Rahman didn't stand a chance when he went to South Africa to fight Lewis, even Lewis didn't think so but look at what happened in that fight. So are we to truly believe that Byrd or John Ruiz could not have done anything to Lewis, just because Lennox says so? After all, Ruiz knocked Holyfield down in their second bout, with Grant gloves at that, something Lewis could not do in 24 rounds with Holyfield.
But in the end, isn't this what boxing is all about, high drama when you least expect it? After Evander Holyfield becomes the five time World Heavyweight Champion, I would like for Lewis fans to remember what the great Cus D'Amato once said,--"There is no difference between a hero and coward. Inside, they are the same. It's what the hero does that makes him a hero, and what the coward doesn't do that makes him a coward."---Cus D'Amato
