ATLANTIC, NJ (IB - December 14, 2002) – Well fans, the
outcome of this fight
offered few surprises in the way of strategies. Going into this bout, we all knew
that Byrd’s style was to be elusive and employ the pecking style of jabs and
movement to off set the harder punching Evander Holyfield. This is exactly what
happened as Chris “Rapid Fire” Byrd (36-2, 20 KOs) won a unanimous decision over
the game challenge of Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield (38-6-2, 25 KOs) and
captured the IBF Heavyweight Championship belt. Two of the three judges at
ringside scored the bout 117-111 and the 3rd judge scored it 116-112 all in
favor of Chris Byrd.This fight began with Holyfield trying to press the attack while Byrd set the stage with his pecking style of controlling the fight with his right jab. It was in the 3rd round that Byrd began to complain to the referee about Holyfield head butting him.
The first half of the fight resulted in the elusive Byrd being able to keep Evander off balance and keeping him to a low output of punching. Again, it was Byrd being the elusive fighter and sticking the jab while Holyfield searched for ways to cut the ring off and throw the more powerful punches at Byrd.
What was ironic in this fight was that at the end of the 6th round, Evander stood in his corner during the one-minute rest period as opposed to sitting down. This was not customary for Evander Holyfield. This trend continued throughout the remainder of the fight. Without offering any excuses, it does make you wonder, what was wrong with Evander Holyfield this night?
With Holyfield still unable to find a way to effectively slow Byrd down from his bicycle and pecking style of boxing, Holyfield tried to switch to fighting southpaw in the 8th round. As we found out during the post-fight press conference, this sent a message to Byrd that he was frustrating Holyfield with his boxing style. “I knew he had to be frustrated. I have never seen him fight southpaw in his whole life. I kind of started laughing a little bit because I knew I was getting into his head with my style of fighting. ”
The most exciting exchange of punches took place in the 11th round when Byrd
actually did square up with Holyfield and traded punches. It was Holyfield that
got the better of the exchange, however it was hats off to Byrd to withstand the
exchange without showing any signs of actually being hurt. The 12th and final
round was also exciting with Holyfield trying to make that last effort to take
Chris out. But on this night, Chris was not to be denied. In the end, it came
down to the judges awarding the busier fighter for his efforts. According to
compubox statistics, Byrd threw 747 punches to Holyfield’s 344 which more than
doubled the output of Evander. The biggest disparity was in the jab category.
Byrd landed 154 out of 525 (29%) to Holyfield’s 3 out of 37 (8%). Even though
Holyfield landed 99 power punches to Byrd’s 98, the dominance of the jab is what
led the judges to their decisions.Afterwards, Holyfield offered, “I did not get the decision but I will not quit. I will not stop until I become the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the world.” He went on to also state that, “I hurt my left arm in the 1st round. By the 4th or 5th round, I strained my back by trying to hit him so hard with my right hand. I still would not quit. I tried to bait him into a toe-to-toe fight but that didn’t happen. I will be back.”
In the end, let’s not take away from Byrd the outstanding performance that he turned in tonight. Going into this fight, the key for victory for Chris was to control the fight with his hand speed and elusiveness, and not to make any mistakes. He did that, and therefore he was the victor.
After the fight, I spoke to Joe Byrd, Chris’ father and trainer and here is his take on the fight.
Q: Mr. Byrd, what did it feel like to see a dream come true for your son, especially against a legend like Evander Holyfield?
A: "Evander is definitely a legend. We really didn’t want to fight Evander because we were so close and Evander has been with the Olympics and has been around with the amateurs for a long time. We come to be tight you know. But the only chance we had is that he gave it to us. That’s what you call a great champion. He didn’t have to do that.”
Q: Does Chris feel like he just beat one of his heroes?
A: “Yeah, that’s what it is. Evander doesn’t really be trying to use his head. That’s his style. When a man has a style, his head is just there. That’s his style of getting inside. I use to teach my fighters to put your head on the shoulder and nothing between your head. But he moves his head back and shoots uppercuts and that’s what he does. But people think he puts his head there and tries to butt people. But that’s not it. Evander wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Q: How early into the fight did you realize the game plan that you set appeared to be working?
A: “I figured by the time we get him in the 6th –8th round then by spinning him, his legs would start to get tired. I knew his upper body wasn’t going to get tired so we decided to work on his legs. That’s hard on a fighter when he gets up to 40 years old. I know that because I have been there. That’s when arthritis starts setting in the knees”
Q: Did you pick up on the fact that after the 6th round, Holyfield was not sitting down in the corner?
A: “I picked up on that. I said, we now have him in deep water. I said if he sits down, he can’t get up. It’s your knees that have to get you up off that stool.”
Q: Usually after the fight, fighters come over and congratulate each other. In this fight, Holyfield came over and he and Chris actually prayed together. How did that make you feel?
A: “Both of them are a child of God. Evander has been there. I would like to see him become the 5-time champion, but we wanted to get the 1-time champion. Like Evander had said, if anybody were to beat him, he would like for Chris to be the one to beat him and that is what happened.”
What’s next for Chris is a shot at the WBA title by taking on the winner of Roy Jones Jr. vs. John Ruiz, which takes place in March 03.
As for Holyfield, he stated that he would be back as well. In order for him to be successful at the top-level of the heavyweight division, it would be nice to see his punching output increase to a level similar to his past successes. Without that, he runs the risk of putting his fights in the hands of the judges where he relinquishes control of the outcome.
Apparently, still at age 40, he can compete on the top level of the current heavyweights in the business today. So for those that keep asking why doesn’t he just retire? It’s not in his plans so we may as well get ready to see him fight again.
You have just gone InsideBoxing.com
Ron Brashear can be contacted at brashear@insideboxing.com, ron@brasheargear.com