30.03.06 – By Lee Hayes: This April 22nd, IBF Heavyweight champion Chris Byrd will be returning to Germany to have his third fight with the Klitschko brothers. Klitschko cinched the number one ranking in the IBF by defeating Samuel Peter soundly last December. This is an analysis of what you can look for and may expect during their fight.
The Fighters
Wladimir “Dr Steel Hammer” Klitschko
Height: approx. 6’6
Weight: approx. 243 lbs
Reach: 81 inches
Age: 30
Best punch: Several. Jab, right cross and left hook are all dangerous.
Experience: Klitschko has an incredible amount of fight experience for a 30 year old fighter. With an amateur record of 134-6, and a professional record of 45-3, Wlad is one of the most experienced heavyweights fighting today. Klitschko was actually more of a boxer than a puncher as an amateur fighter. His list of notable opponents reads Monte Barret, Chris Byrd, Frans Botha, an ancient Ray Mercer, Jameel McCline, Corrie Sanders, Lamon Brewster and Samuel Peter.
Style: More a boxer than a slugger, Wladimir doesn’t really like to trade with his opponents. He’s really only aggressive when he knows he can dominate the man he’s fighting. Whenever an opponent is sturdy enough to take his enormous offense, Wladimir tends to crumble. He boxed very impressively in his last fight against undefeated Nigerian sensation, Samuel Peter.
Speed: Fast, for a big man. He seems a lot faster than he is, because he’s so large that it’s just impressive to see a guy that size throw combinations like he does. Still, he’s faster than John Ruiz, Lamon Brewster, Nicolay Valuev and Hasim Rahman. And outside of Byrd and James Toney, those are all the top fighters in the division.
Power: Top notch. Even though he’s more likely to chop his opponent down over 4 or 5 rounds, Wlad’s power is A+. His offense has never been his problem. Much like Evander Holyfield, his power is in his combinations. If the first punch doesn’t hurt you, the third or fourth one will.
Chin & Recuperative Abilities: This is one of Wladimir’s definite detriments. All three of his losses were stoppages. DaVarryl Williamson proved that it doesn’t even have to be a full force punch. Just an arm punch can put Klitschko on his rump. The truth however lies somewhere in the middle. Wlad’s chin isn’t as bad as it looked against Corrie Sanders. That was just one of those terrible, off nights that any fighter can have. But his chin also isn’t as good as it looked against Peter. Samuel looked like a rank amateur compared to Wladimir. It was nearly embarrassing. Peter barely landed a flush power punch on him the entire night. The fact remains that because of Chris Byrd’s superior speed and equal high accuracy rate, it’s not inconceivable that Klitschko could be stopped by the light hitting south paw. I know you’ll think that’s unlikely, but I’m telling you, don’t be surprised if it does. Wlad’s ability to recuperate from being wobbled seemed very suspect right up until his last fight against Peter. In that fight he showed that he could get up from a knock down, hang on and punch back when he was hurt. That was something new to his arsenal, and it’s noteworthy.
Heart: Even though Klitschko is often criticized for his heart, and I doubted it myself after he surrendered against journeyman Ross Puritty, he has actually demonstrated a champions heart in the last few years. He got bounced up and down on the canvas like a yo-yo by semi-retired golfer/part-time boxer Corrie Sanders. But on the bright side…to get up four times, that takes heart. Not many fighters would keep getting up. He was really busted up against Sanders, but he kept getting up, and he was up when the fight was stopped. I don’t really know what his damage was in the Brewster fight, but I think it definitely warranted more criticism of his testicular fortitude. However, in his fight against DaVarryl Williamson, I got the feeling that his look of disappointment in the way the fight was stopped was sincere. He even seemed more disappointed in the fact that it was such a terrible fight to begin with.
Intangibles: Really, the best quality that Wladimir Klitschko possesses is that he brings excitement to every fight he’s in. His knock out ratio is very high, and he usually tries for a knock out if he thinks he can overwhelm his opponent. And, he can get knocked down or out at any given time. He could collapse. Or he could gas out and quit. There is a more likely chance that he will walk through his over matched, hand selected opponents without even breaking a sweat until he faces more power punchers, and larger heavyweights.
Chris “Rapid Fire” Byrd
Height: approx. 6’1
Weight: approx. 212 lbs
Reach: 74 inches
Age: 35
Best Punch: Short left cross to the body. The punch that wobbled David Tua, Andrew Golota , Evander Holyfield and Jameel McCline.
Experience: Incredibly, Chris Byrd has even more experience than Klitschko packed into 35 years. His amateur record was 290-25, which is one of the most successful amateur careers in the history of the sport. He fought the likes of Kostya Tszyu and Sven Otke, to name a few. Most of his fights were at super middleweight or below. Interesting trivia, Chris Byrd was actually a pretty wicked puncher when he was eleven or twelve years old. He was fast and hit hard for that weight class, and he was knocking out almost everyone he fought. Since his super middleweight silver medal victory at the ’92 Olympics Byrd has compiled a professional record of 39-2-1 (20). His list of notable opponents reads Ike Ibeabuchi, Vitali Klitschko, Wladimir Klitschko, David Tua, Fres Oquendo, Evander Holyfield, Jameel McCline, and Andrew Golota. That is better than any active heavyweight fighter.
Style: Byrd’s style has evolved quite a bit over the past four years. When he first turned pro, he was fighting C level opponents that he could toy with, and he often “slapped” with his punches, even using backhands instead of jabs. A lot of potential fans were turned off by the act. In reality, Byrd had little choice. He was merely trying to add theatrics to his game. Because he knew he didn’t have the kind of power punches to make loud impact sounds that natural heavyweights have to influence judges score cards with. It backfired, but after hearing a total over board backlash for his sins, Byrd responded by continually trying to stand right in front of his large opponents. Even when facing giant opponents like the Klitschko brothers, Andrew Golota and Jameel McCline. He stopped back handing, and he has said many times that every punch he throws is thrown with the intent of knocking his opponent out.
Speed: Only the heavyweight debut of Roy Jones Jr. could compete with Chris’s hand speed. It’s tops in the division. Even though his critics claim he’s slowing down with the years, I have to disagree. Perhaps they didn’t watch him nearly KO Jameel McCline with his incredible flurries to the head and body. Maybe they didn’t notice that it was Chris Byrd that was rallying with flurries to save his title in his controversial draw with Andrew Golota. His speed is one of his key assets, and it’s not only his hand speed. It’s his reflexes as well. Byrd can ‘juke ‘n jive’ as well as James Toney when he’s playing defense. He only seems to be slowing down because he’s getting hit more now a days. But that’s not because of speed. That’s because he’s trying to win over the fans he blew it with so many years ago, and he’s trading with power punchers risking his life to do it. So he gets hit more, because he’s taking more chances and having to face far more punches. Take a look at his compubox stats before he started trading more. He rarely even got hit by his opponents. That’s only changed because he’s standing in the pocket and trading with them.
Power: Even though Byrd’s improved his power slightly since he turned pro, he’s still one of the lightest punchers in the division. And probably one of the lightest punchers to ever hold a world title too. Still, he’s not completely feather fisted. He goes the distance in almost every fight now, but that’s because his opponents are of much better quality. His power has gone up, but so has the quality of chins on his opponents. Byrd has wobbled David Tua, Evander Holyfield, Andrew Golota, Jameel McCline and DaVarryl Williamson. He just has absolutely no finishing power. Because he’s dedicated himself to a strength program since his first fight with Wladimir, Byrd is far more capable of physically withstanding a pushing contest with large opponents. McCline laid on top of him on the ropes during their entire right, and he’s even heavier than Wlad. Byrd was able to push him off on several occasions and land rapid fire combinations off the ropes.
Chin & Recuperative Abilities: For a small heavyweight, Byrd’s chin is remarkable. It’s not in the league of James Toney, but Byrd has an excellent beard. He’s only been stopped once, and that was against a prime Ike Ibeabuchi. Byrd took a massive amount of punishment in that fight before the ref stopped it. Byrd was on his feet before the count of ten and wanted to continue. He was out on his feet, but he made the count. He’s been knocked down by Wlad in their first fight and by McCline. All by excellent power shots. In ever case though, he got up immediately after hitting the canvas and showed excellent recuperative powers.
Heart: No heavyweight has more heart than Chris Byrd. None. He is one of the lightest hitting heavyweight champions of all-time, yet he stands and trades with all of the largest behemoths the modern heavyweights have to offer. Just look at his record. Ike Ibeabuchi was 6’2, 244 3/4 lbs, Vitali Klitschko 6’8 244 1/4 lbs, Wladimir Klitschko 6’6 238 lbs, Jameel McCline 6’7 270 lbs, Andrew Golota 6’4 237 ½ lbs, and he’s fighting Wladimir 6’6 243 lbs again! He can be knocked down, but only with a full balanced flush power shot from a heavy puncher. Even then, he gets right back up. The punch that Ike Ibeabuchi put Chris Byrd down with made him drool out of the side of his mouth and probably would have put most heavyweights in to a comma. Byrd got up. When he gets tagged with clean, hard shots, he lets out a “woo!” and counters back with quick, sharp combinations.
Intangibles: How much will the awful showing with DaVarryl Williamson effect Byrd’s self confidence going in to this fight? People were incredibly hard on Chris after his sleep inducing bout with DaVarryl, but what his critics seem to forget, is that DaVarryl is an incredibly boring, drab fighter. John Ruiz has a more exciting boxing style. DaVarryl ran like a coward against Wladimir, and ruined what a lot of fans thought would be a great shoot out between heavyweight punchers. But he probably thought he’d get KO’d if he stood still. But there was no excuse for running from Chris Byrd. Williamson had a much harder punch, and as the slugger, he should have been pressing the attack. But much like Fres Oquendo, Williamson decided to rob the fans of an exciting fight by trying to take Byrd out of his game. Fres admitted to doing this after his fight with Chris in 2003. He said he knew if he pressed the action against Byrd he would get countered all night long, so he stayed back and made Byrd come to him.
Forcing the light hitting counter puncher to try walk him down. That’s what caused Byrd vs Oquendo to be one of the most boring fights in the history of heavyweight championship boxing, and ditto for Byrd vs Williamson. Chris can’t stalk guys like George Foreman. We all know that. So if a power puncher decides to stink the joint out by running from him all night long, I don’t think it’s fair to trash the guy when the fight reeks like rotten eggs. Byrd looked great against Jameel McCline, and that’s a good measure of what he looks like at his best. If he fights like he did that night, he will do well. He’s had his heavyweight title for longer than any other current titlist. Even though he’s been put to the test in the last few years, Byrd’s shown that nobody has been able to dominate him for six years.
Final Analysis: Byrd is bigger and physically stronger now and better equipped to physically push around mammoth heavyweights. Where he has had some downers since becoming champion, most of them have just been due to his fights being boring. Usually, they are one sided in his favor. In recent years, Wladimir has also received a ton of criticism. But it’s because he’s been fighting like a journeyman pugilist. Not the savior of the division. This is just the lesser of two evils. Neither of them have been perfect, and I concede that Wladimir’s thorough boxing lesson on Samuel Peter was as impressive as anything Byrd’s done in two years. It’s incredible to think of Wladimir’s football field length reach advantage. Byrd has the same reach as Oscar De LaHoya. Wladimir has the same reach as George Foreman. But despite Byrd’s reach, he has above average skills at landing combinations from the outside. His inside game is outstanding. As good as James Toney’s, and tops in the division.
This fight is going to come down to a couple of things. Whether Byrd will try go for broke because he’s in Germany again, and knows he probably can’t get a fair shake on the score cards. If he goes all out, I think he definitely has a good chance of TKO’ing or KOing Wladimir Klitschko. I think Klitschko has shown a Golota-esque tendency towards panic attacks when under pressure or new circumstances. He’s never been hit by blindingly fast combinations. Byrd lost all his vision by the end of the third round in their first fight, so he could not unleash with his regular accuracy. This fight will be different. In Wladimir’s favor, Manny Steward has been drilling in to his head the concept that he has to use his size and strength to rough up his opponents. Steward has talked about this before several of Wlad’s fights, but the first time we really saw it was against Peter.
Wlad pushed Sam around like a rag doll in the later rounds, and looked like the bully in their brawl. If he is able to successfully do this to Chris- particularly if Byrd is in fact trying to stop Klitschko to avoid biased score cards- he could possibly win a decision. My choice for the fight is Chris Byrd by stoppage in the late rounds. Probably by referee’s stoppage. I say this because Chris can take Wlad’s shots. Neither of these guys are going to run, and Wlad will try keep it on the outside, and Chris will try take it to the inside. The difference will be on the ropes. Byrd is much better at fighting off the ropes than he was six years ago. Byrd is nothing like Sam Peter. You couldn’t get more polar opposites. One major difference is that Peter was gassed by the middle rounds in his fight against Wlad, and Byrd never seems to get gassed. He always seems to have something in the gas tank.
This writer welcomes your productive comments/suggestions: