24.04.06 – By Lee Hayes: The plan was in place. Chris Byrd was going to beef up with muscle, stand in the face of Wladimir Klitschko and make him work until he tired out. “Walk him down” as the Byrd’s had referred to it in the past. Chris looked terrific in training. He had the hand speed and technique to land solid shots on the face and body of a slower, larger opponent. He had told several boxing insiders, including Friday Night Fights analyst Teddy Atlas that he was going to “go for” Klitschko right from the first round. It seemed to me at least, very possible.
The past has taught us that there are two ways to beat Wladimir Klitschko. To punch fast and hard, and make him panic, or to out last his massive offensive onslaught and merely let him burn himself out. Byrd may not have been capable of the first method -although I personally believed he could- but he certainly had shown through out his career that he was capable of the second.
He’s been on of the most resilient heavyweights of the past 10 years and his recuperative abilities are uncanny. The problem this last Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 is that Byrd did none of the things required to beat Klitschko. Round one indicated that the opportunity was there.
Some Klitschko supporters have mentioned to me that they too noticed that Wladimir came in to the ring with barely a sweat, and that he was “dry” by a minute in to the fight. In fact, Wladimir fought “scared” for the first round. He refused to stand and fight with his much smaller opponent, and he held so often that I couldn’t help but wonder if the fight was going to be worse than Chris Byrd vs DaVarryl Williamson. It looked that bad. With Chris stalking the 6’6 Ukrainian giant, it seemed that he had the window of opportunity right in front of him. He landed 4 or 5 decent short left hands to the body, but the second I noticed he had no intentions of throwing shots to Wlad’s head, I realized he was not going to try the game plan he had indicated he might go with before the fight. Instead he had decided to punch Wlad’s belly and try slow him down later in the fight. A mistake he would later pay for. Wlad for his part, did not throw a single right hand during the round and seemed determined to throw pawing jabs and grab Byrd and push his entire body weight down on his neck. He was behaving as if he was in the 10th round with Samuel Peter all over again, yet for some bizarre reason, it was with a 214 lbs former middleweight with the reputation for having the lightest punches in the division.
What was going on?
The second round showed Byrd trying more of the same game plan, and after hearing HBO analyst Larry Merchant comment that he though Wlad had actually won the first round, I realized that there was no way Byrd could win with this strategy. Even if Klitschko only threw a pawing jab or two in return. Merchant, who had once called both Klitschko’s “chicken Kiev” and insulted their fighting courage, was clearly back on board with a potential future asset to the company, and even made excuses for the excessive holding. I defended Wladimir’s excessive holding in his fight against Samuel Peter, but that was because Wlad was using it as a survival tactic to get his head cleared, and he was throwing offense on his way out of the clinches. What he did on Saturday should have warranted much heavier warnings and possibly point deductions. His “style” looked worse than anything I’ve seen from John Ruiz. Luckily that would all change and the fight would pick up. Lucky for everyone but Chris Byrd that is.
I don’t know who else felt this, but I couldn’t help but notice that Klitschko seemed fine with simply staying on the outside and throwing only occasional punches until Chris Byrd made the mistake of “trash talking” him in the ring. He wasn’t exactly being James Toney, but he was pulling a Rocky Balboa by saying “is that as hard as you can hit?” , “I can take that all night long” etc. Not a particularly smart thing to do in retrospect. I’ve seen fighters do that and get under their fighters skin, even using it to help them pull a fight out by making their opponent swing wildly trying to take their head off as revenge. What Wladimir did was simply start giving Byrd what he was asking for. It seemed to make him angry and impassioned his game. Byrd should have realized it because every single time he made a comment at Wlad, he received a severe beating. The same could be said for Byrd’s corner exclaiming “he has no heart!” loud enough for the Klitschko’s to hear it. The Byrd’s have always been one of the classiest acts in the sport, and really, that stuff was very out of character for them. I think the fact was, that this was a huge fight for Chris, who really did want to show he was the best heavyweight in the world and maybe felt he had to be a little less of a nice guy and at least try act a little macho in the ring. I don’t know, only the Byrd’s do. But what I do know is that it didn’t work the way it was intended.
Once Wladimir realized that he had an immobile target standing before him that was barely even throwing punches, he became brave and started tattooing Byrd with some of the hardest punches I’ve seen a heavyweight absorb since George Foreman assaulted Joe Fraizer nearly three decades ago. Byrd, who has always been the most elusive heavyweight in the division since he turned pro, did not move his head. He was more in to the idea that he couldn’t be KO’d and seemed more determined to tell Wlad “that didn’t hurt” to try take away his confidence, than moving and ducking to make him miss. He should have known better. Making your opponent miss is the best way to deter him and take his confidence away. He should have learned that from his fight with Wladimir’s older brother Vitali Klitschko, but he hadn’t. Maybe it’s because the fight press about Byrd over the last five years has all been about his “feather fists”, “great stamina” and “ability to take a punch”. Apparently he believed he could take anything and recover, and that was a mistake.
Wlad for his part, did extremely well once Byrd stopped responding. He was scary when he was angry and taking out Byrd’s words on him. I already knew he was a very talented offensive fighter, if nothing else, but, much like Roy Jones Jr’s alter ego “RJ”, once Chris had really pissed Wlad off, the fight was practically a forgone conclusion.
Or was it?
The knock down that Wladimir scored in the 5th round was the results of an absolutely perfect one-two left jab right hand. It landed with such ferocious force that it probably would have knocked out half of the heavyweight currently in the top twenty rankings by any organization. Byrd bounced up at the count of one. He’s always done that. How, I’ll never know. That punch was better than either knock down he suffered in his first fight with Wlad, and better than the one that McCline was able to cause. Byrd’s recuperative powers are the best I’ve seen since Muhammad Ali. Only Ali could come back from devastating knock downs in a second. If only Byrd had Muhammad Ali’s physique and chin! I’ve been a big Chris Byrd supporter since his amateur days, and I still am. I always will be. I don’t jump on bandwagons and never will. How he made it out of the 5th round, only he will ever know. Anybody that ever called him a coward should be embarrassed for their sheer stupidity. Ditto for anyone that said he was ducking Wlad, or that his opposition has been less than credible. I don’t think anybody, even the most rabid Klitschko supporter thinks that Wlad could have recovered from a one-two like that. It’s hard to think of who might. The next two rounds would be Byrd’s reward for such bravery.
Round six was more of the same one sided beating, Byrd never recovered. I mentioned to my friend Jason, who I was watching the fight with, that Byrd had completely stopped throwing punches and wasn’t even attempting to move his head. That I felt he never did recover from that first brutal knock down. Indeed, it seemed he was only showing his heart and balls from the 5th round on. It wouldn’t have been a crime for the ref to stop the fight before the final knockdown in the 7th.
One observation that I did make in between rounds five and six and even more so between rounds six and seven was that Wladimir did indeed seem to have gassed himself out, yet again. I was shocked because Byrd had been taking such a one sided beating, but particularly between the six and seventh, Wladimir seemed unable to catch his breath, and he was heaving as if he was going to drop on his stool. He was breathing extremely hard, and yes, it was due to increasing his punch output after the first knock down. It also seems to be that the “moment” caused anxiety in him. I thought for a second, “if Byrd sees this, and just throws a few punches to Wladimir’s jaw, you never know…Brewster did it”. I knew it was a huge long shot, since Chris had only pawed with a couple of negligible punches to Klitschko’s face during the entire fight, it seemed like a legitimate feint hope non the less. This was somewhat similar to the Brewster fight in more than one way. Unfortunately, there would be no late rally for Chris. He was done after that first knockdown, and as he said very humbly after the fight, he was never in it.
The final flurry that Wladimir landed on Chris’s face was one of the most destructive combinations I’ve seen in a very long time. It was sad to see Byrd take such shots, knowing that he’d never had to his entire career due to his unique skills. The final punch was more of a roundhouse right, than a straight or hook. Wlad clearly winged it from the side and inverted his fight to land with maximum power. It landed flush and immediately broke Byrd’s nose splattering blood all over his face, particularly his left eye socket. When he got up, it looked like he was still going to survive, and that the fight might still continue. Unbelievably, he was already starting to get up at the count of one or two. You can’t keep a good man down. In fact, he’s still never been counted out in a fight. I guess there’s something to say for that. Once Chris turned around though, and the referee and the crowd saw his eye, there was a very uncomfortable “Oooh!” throughout the crowd and the end was obvious. Referee Wayne Kelley made the right choice by stopping the fight and preventing Chris from receiving any more punishment. He had been giving the champion the benefit of the doubt for three rounds and that was all that was required.
A lot has been made of Byrd’s family and their “bravery” with Chris’s health in the ring, or why he would have his children at ringside. Well, the Byrd’s are a fighting family. Boxing has been around them for their entire lives. When you have a boxing family, your children see fights all the time. It’s nothing unusual and you don’t go in to a fight thinking you might get your face smashed in. Otherwise, why would the Klitschko’s bring their mother to see Wlad fight? What if she had been there to see his bout with Corrie Sanders? If you are a family member of a boxer, especially one where children are often involved with the sport, it’s very common for them to be at ring side. There was nothing wrong with it, and the only disturbing scene in the post fight interview was the unclassy spectators that kept shoving them and trying to get them out of the way of the camera. I’ve never seen such a terrible display of disrespect during a post fight interview with dozens of clumsy fools walking behind and in front of the camera’s trying to get some comments from the nights combatants.
For the fighters part, both were polite and complimentary to each other. Both showed class. Byrd was more honest of his terrible fight plan and execution than I’ve ever seen a fighter after a fight. Many have said he has a career in fight broadcasting should he so choose. It would be a great mix, however with the masses of Byrd haters that will boo him no matter where he goes, it seems unlikely. It’s boxing’s loss.
Congratulations to those who picked Wladimir to win for picking the correct fighter in Saturday’s sporting event. After the second round when he was forced to fight and quit holding he looked incredible. He’s always been a very good offensive fighter, and until someone is able to make him panic and get in to a dog fight, he’s going to be hard to beat. I’m looking forward to his claim of unifying the title belts. I have my doubts as to it happening, but if he’s sincere than it can only be good for boxing.
This writer welcomes your productive comments/suggestions: