Chris Byrd's win over Vitali is legit

[BKM-2010]

I watched the fight again and his upperbody movement and footwork made Vitali miss more than he did in any other fight. Klitschko over-extended throughout the fight and this is why eventually his shoulder got injured and he quit.

If you've ever sparred against someone who was making you miss repeatedly, I mean really missing when you expect your punches to land, the risk of injury increases quite a bit. And when you're the enormous size of Vitali the risk is even higher. Vitali is an accurate puncher, he's not used to missing so many punches so his body found it hard to react.

Byrd's brilliance despite trailling on the cards made Vitali overuse his physical limits and eventually his body gave out. He doesn't get enough credit for this win and Klitschko's loss unfairly brushed off as a 'fluke injury'. Thoughts?

[BostonGuy]

I always thought it was a good legit win for Chris Byrd. I'll have to rewatch it to refresh my memory but I think Byrd, not only was making Vitali miss, but landing good punishing shots of his own. I would've loved to have seen a rematch

[Ray Corso]

One man decided he couldn't go on with the fight the other man wins.
It's a tko or retirement any way you want to look at it the out come is legit!
The ref didn't decide any thing the judges were eliminated one of the fighters stated "no mas"! He quit, fight over.
Ray

[The Old LefHook]

Chris Byrd was in an elite club of brilliant pure boxers able to compete at the highest level without a punch. He seldom gets enough credit for his artistry.

[Weltschmerz]

Vitali was ahead on all 3 score cards. He would likely have won had he been able to continue.

[Anthony342]

But he didn't as Vitali was definitely NOT too legit to quit.

[boxingnut712]

Why would this not be a legit win? Vitali Quit. Chris Byrd wins.

[BKM-2010]

Why would this not be a legit win? Vitali Quit. Chris Byrd wins.

Because a lot of people believe in the perception of "Vitali lost because he got injured" instead of reality which is more like "Vitali got injured because he lost to Byrd who injured him indirectly". The former is something that discredits Byrd.

[ShoulderRoll]

The fact that Byrd was able to have the success he did at heavyweight speaks volumes about his talent (or maybe about the dismal state of the division.)

He really had no business being there but still managed to carve out a nice career.

[Eff Pandas]

I'm a huge Chris Byrd fan (used to watch his 165lb amateur fights on that TBS Olympic Gold, or w/e it was called, show back in the day), but I still feel this W is a marginal fluke type situation. I mean its ultimately legit cuz clearly Klitschko quit, but its hard to give too much credit when the key to you winning was making a guy miss more than it involved you hitting him. It'd feel much less fluke-ish & more bragable to me as a Byrd fan if Byrd was winning the fight or at least it was competitive up til the stoppage which I don't recall being the case (think I mighta given Byrd 2 rounds max & probably more like 1 iirc).

And I mean sure you can compare it to a guy who's swinging for the fences all night while getting beat up who finally lands & KO's his opponent late in a fight, but the main component of winning a boxing match was on the table the whole fight (ie the guys fists). This fight was won on elusiveness basically which just sounds odd to say, but I believe it to be true. And while elusiveness is key, or should be key, to any elite fighters success, its not typically the way anyone wins any fight...like ever, in their entire careers or all their opponents careers lol.

And in some ways just due to how seldom anything like this happens you can suggest Byrd is a huge badass & he deserves massive accolades for it. Its like some Willie Pep-like way to not just win a round, but win a fight. But just due to how rare anything like this is I rarely use it in a Byrd conversation or debate without a disclaimer similar to ones I use when talking about Lewis/Holyfield I or Pacquiao/Bradley I just to avoid a whole other side debate.