Chris Byrd, a reflection on a 47 fight career.

Chris Byrd has retired (not that recently granted) from the sport after a long and mostly successful career. His professional record stands at 41 (22) - 5 (4) - 1, and he has picked up the WBO and IBF (which he kept over 4 defences) world titles along the way. He holds a win over Vitali on his record, though in truth he was losing before Vitali injured his shoulder. He has also suffered 2 defeats to brother Wladimir, going the distance the first time round by was KOd in round 7 in the rematch. Apart from Wlad and a shocking loss from to unknown Shaun George (thanks Boxrec) in his second to last fight he has only lost to Povetkin, who is still unbeaten, and Ilk Ibeabuchi, who could have been a huge influence in the division if he weren't affect by his personal problems (and thats another discussion). He drew against Golota, and won every other pro contest he fought in.

His best wins are Tua and Holyfield, and he also has decent wins against fringe contenders Oquendo, McCline, Ross Purity and Davarryll Williamson.

What do people think? I think it's a career to be proud off, he fought both the dominant brothers, and gave them rematches, not a lot of contenders doing that these days. Most heavyweight don't reach any great heights because the Klitschkos are so domminant but i still think he was slightly underrated and under appreciated.

Should have been a light heavy or a cruiser but he did himself proud I think. Good technical skills and half a decent brain with a shedload of courage. A fair opponent for any of the top men in the division. I don't think hes underrated because he was a bit of an also ran at contender level despite winning the title. 4 top fights and he lost every one of them. I think he was useful fighter who achieved more in the heavy division than should have been possible for a man of his size and lack of power.

Strange how Lewis gets credit for beating an injured VK whilst behind on the cards and Byrd seemingly gets none.

Byrd was a natural CW, but took the risk of fighting at HW because it was simply a much more lucrative division. If he had fought at 200lbs I can't think of a fighter that would have troubled him over the last 15 years, maybe David Haye. Also had a great amateur career, although I think he was KO'd by Calzaghe in his last fight.

A fine boxer - easy to say he should have stayed at 190 / 200 lb his whole career, but he's probably earned more from his few Heavyweight title bouts than he would have done for twenty of the same at Cruiser. That said, those above are correct; had he stayed at Cruiserweight he'd have reigned with one body or another for an eternity.

You can't class it as anything other than a good career though, so I don't think he'll have too many regrets. I hope he enjoys retirement.

Lewis caused the damage and having a face covered in blood due to very cuts isn't really an injury.

In a comparison of each man's wins before Haye v Wladimir, he was listed as the best win by either of them and I don't think anybody argued with that.

Quite slippery and tricky from the looks of him and was making Ike look pretty daft at times before getting closed down and eating a horrible left hand. Larry Merchant's commentary of that fight was awful, he said he didn't like Byrd because it's called the "manly art of boxing" and there's nothing manly about the way Byrd fights. Lampley swiftly pointed out he was fighting a man who outweighed him by 36 pounds.

Byrd v Sanders would've been interesting.

I hoped Floyd has slapped Merchant. The guy is a banker. That's an outrageous comment to make.

I always used to think of Chris Byrd as a "Pain in the 4rse" heavyweight, because he never really had the power to compete with the big hitters, yet was slippery enough to deal with most and win convincingly.

I beleive a lot of boxing writers were split on Chris because of his elusivity; he was never a top drawer fighter as a result - he just made half decent fighters look ordinary which can be unpleasant to watch. His achievements were pretty impressive but nobody liked him for it. He really shoulld have been a cruiser.

He had to be negative. He simply didn't have the strength or fire-power at HW to be offensive. One thing I remember about Byrd fights is his wife/girlfriend screaming through every round.

Similar to Floyd Patterson. Both medal winners at Olympics at Middleweight but both decided to jump to Heavy almost straight away. I think Byrd could have been a successful Light-Heavy, would probably have given Roy Jones his sternest test at that weight.

i hear byrd will be starting his own boxing show on the web as he hates the way commentators with no boxing experience sometime rubbish certain performance, i think larry merchant is one of the culprits.

He seems a very intelligent person who comes across as very knowledgeable in interviews.