Chris Byrd was born as the youngest of eight on August 15, 1970 into a Flint, Michigan boxing family. He started learning to box at the tender age of 5 at his Dad’s school, the Joe Byrd Boxing Academy. He started boxing competitively in at the age of 10, and won more than 275 fights through his junior and full amateur career. He won the US Amateur Championships at Light Welterweight and the Middleweight every year between 1989 and 1992, but was always stymied in international competition until he broke out at the 1992 Canada Cup, where he won Gold. That was followed by a place on the 1992 Olympic Boxing Team (the same team as Oscar de la Hoya) and winning the Middleweight Silver Medal at in Barcelona. He turned pro in January 1993 before a hometown crowd.
Byrd’s decision to turn pro was marked by an unusual caveat: he was soon campaigning as a heavyweight. Standing a mere 6 feet with a 74″ reach, and having fought at the Olympics as a middleweight, Byrd was a natural for the supper middleweight or light heavyweight divisions. Instead, he went to the gym, started lifting weights and eating like a horse, and bulked up. A normal weight for Byrd was about 215 lbs, which made him an even smaller heavyweight than Evander Holyfield. Boxing fans and sportswriters spent much of the early part of his career deriding him for being a “blown-up middleweight.”
Byrd’s size meant that for a heavyweight he didn’t have much pop in his punches, and would usually be fighting at a height, reach, and strength disadvantage. What Byrd did have was quickness, sharp reflexes, and truly elusive upper body movement. Joe Byrd, Sr’s basement had a ring in it where his kids would practice. The ropes were pinned to the basement walls, and since a miss there was very expensive on the hands, Chris quickly learned to make his brothers miss on the ropes. His slick bobbing, slipping, and weaving along the ropes, coupled with lightning fast hands, came to characterize his boxing style. Of course, the same people who said he was too small summed his boxing up with one word: boring.
Road to Contention
Boring or not, by 1995 Byrd was a regular on the USA Networks now defunct program, Tuesday Night Fights, and boxing his way past a phalanx of the division’s seasoned journeymen: Arthur Williams, Phil Jackson, Jeff Wooden, former cruiserweight champ Uriah Grant, Lionel Butler, Levi Billups, gatekeeper Bert Cooper, and the massive Jimmy Thunder. In 1998 he boxed the ears off of undefeated fringe contender Cuban Elieser Castillo, and then dominated journeyman Russ Puritty in a skillful display.
26-0, Byrd was matched with the great enigma of the late 1990s heavyweigh division, Nigerian Ike “The President” Ibeabuchi. Ibeabuchi had just shocked the world by edging hard-punching prospect David Tua in a record-setting barnburner. Byrd at that point was stalled, because even if he lost a fight there was the very real possibility that he would make the winner look awful in the process. He was the single most ducked heavyweight prospect of the time. Offered a chance to fight the dangerous Ibeabuchi on HBO, Byrd snatched his ticket out of career oblivion.
The fight started well for Byrd, as he made Ibeabuchi (who outweighed him by 32 pounds) miss and pay. However, Ibeabuchi cut off the ring on Byrd in the 3rd, and did something no one else had done before: he ignored Byrd’s punches to land his own. Although Byrd’s head proved as elusive as ever, Ibeabuchi landed some truly thundering body shots. The 4th Round was close, but in the 5th Byrd found himself cornered again by Ibeabuchi. Working his head movement and counter-punching from the ropes, he caught a strong uppercut that dropped him. Byrd got up, only to be caught and crushed by a massive lefthook. The critics cheered, and it looked like Byrd’s career was over.
The Klitschkos
After the shattering loss to Ibeabuchi, Byrd did something that was also going to come to define his career: grit his teeth and go back to work. No longer so dangerous looking, Byrd was offered a chance to fight Vitali Klitschko on short notice for the WBO heavyweight title in April 2000. He jumped at the chance. Outweighing Byrd by 34 pounds, and outreaching him by six inches, Klitschko was thoroughly in control through the first half of the fight. However, chasing Byrd and missing him was taking its toll on the older Klitschko brother, who was tiring and then tore the rotator cuff on his shoulder. Sensing Klitschko was losing his momentum, Byrd came on and forced the action, and was turning the tide when “Dr. Ironfist” quit on his stool.
Now the WBO champion, Byrd found he would have to immediately face the other Klitschko brother, Wladimir. It was a bad match-up for Byrd, who was now tangling with the more athletic of the brothers. Furthermore, Wladimir was strongly motivated to avenge his brother. Byrd was knocked down twice en route to a lopsided points loss.
IBF Champion
After the Klitschkos, Byrd re-established his position by beating fringe contender Maurice Harris, and followed that with a solid win over David Tua in an elimination match for the a shot at the vacant IBF title. That took him to a December 2002 showdown with aging legend Evander Holyfield, who was easily outboxed. Byrd seized the IBF Heavyweight Championship, and with it the widely-mocked little guy soon established himself as one of the leading heavyweights in the world.
Byrd defended his title by outpointing fringe contender Fres Oquiendo; drawing with the unstable “Foul Pole” Andrew Golota; and defeating the “Black Rhino” Jameel McCline, who outweighed him by 56 pounds. In all, Byrd enjoyed a four defense, 2 1/2 year reign as champion. His consistency set him apart from the other heavyweight contenders who came in the wake of Lennox Lewis’s retirement.
By April 2006, Byrd’s new challenger was Wladimir Klitschko. Where many another heavyweight of the time would have stalled (as Nikolai Vaulev routinely does today) or simply vacated the title and refused to fight him (as Riddick Bowe, Mike Tyson, and George Foreman did before him), Byrd bravely got back in the ring with the talented and much bigger man. Although valiant, he was outmatched. The 35 year old Byrd was knocked out in the 7th.
Curtains
Byrd attempted a comeback after his third defeat, but was stopped in October2007 in the 11th Round by rising Russian contender, Alexander Povetkin. That led him to try to revive his career by dropping in weight. Dropping 40 pounds, an emaciated and desperate Byrd tried to campaign as a light heavyweight, but was utterly drained and lethargic, and easily defeated by 16-2-2 Shaun George.
Byrd announced his retirement after the humiliating George loss, but then reversed himself won an easy victory at cruiserweight in March 2009. The current status of his career – retired? active? light heavy or cruiserweight? – remains murky
Sources: http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news?slug=ki-byrd052108&prov;=yhoo&type;=lgns; boxrec.com; live fight footage; The Ring; International Boxing Digest
