Chris Byrd's win over Vitali is legit

[Elroy1]

The Byrd loss was about as fluke as you can get!

OF the Klitschko brothers 5 combined losses, 3 were absolute flukes of the highest order on the basis that they were unrepeatable (the K bros would have won a rematch under any circumstances) and the result of non-boxing conditions.

- LEnnox Lewis caused cuts with unco side swiping whilst totally overwhelmed, the fight stopped with Lennox unable to even breathe, ready to be KOed.

- Byrd fight stopped by Vitali by career finishing if continued majoir shoulder injury, pre-existing.

Both fights totally dominated by Vitali otherwise.

- Brewster fight won purely on medical grounds, no other opinons necessary.

There are other scenario's for other famous losses, like Rahman/Holyfield for 1 example.

These are part of the nut bag mythology, the part which serves to discredit great boxers against other great boxers for the purpose of supporing the broader nut bag mythology (OTNB).

Another way to look at it is "Weak NB" or modern nutbaggery. And "Strong NB" or "Old Time Nutbaggery OTNB".

#Boycott Nutbaggey

[Eff Pandas]

- LEnnox Lewis caused cuts with unco side swiping whilst totally overwhelmed, the fight stopped with Lennox unable to even breathe, ready to be KOed.

- Byrd fight stopped by Vitali by career finishing if continued majoir shoulder injury, pre-existing.

Both fights totally dominated by Vitali otherwise.

Thats nuts concerning the Lewis fight. It was 4-2 Vitali with Lennox coming on in the 2nd half of the fight virtually across the board between judges, writers & fans. Definitely not total domination. Vitali was winning, but not THAT dominate & he was losing momentum. It was a well fought fight & very gallant performance by Vitali, but no need to try to rewrite history.

I'd agree it was fluke-ish doe. He got cut up like I never seen him cut up before or after. This was definitely a more common version of fluke doe too. Cats get stopped on cuts a whole lot more often than they get stopped over injuries sustained from missing too many punches.

[Pugilist_Spec]

The win was absolutely legitimate as backed up by the punch stats and Vitali's comments in the post-fight interview.

It's about time we address this myth that Vitali was easily dominating and quit because of some career-ending injury because that is NOT what happened:

Byrd objectively won 3-4 rounds
Byrd landed 124 punches in comparison to Vitali's 132, 8 punch difference!!!
Vitali was fading and Byrd was getting his second wind
Vitali admitted to Merchant that the injury was not the reason he quit
He admitted he had trouble dealing with a southpaw
He said that he thought he couldn't win enough points
He never stopped using either hand
He was back in the ring the same year!!!


Byrd outboxed Vitali, frustrated him and made him quit. Unlike Elroy's nonsenical gibberish, the above points are ALL FACTS!!!! aside from the first one, which is a reasonable and objective conclusion based on empirical evidence!!!

Stopped by a SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT.

And they have the audacity to criticize the "cruiserweights" of old.

[RubenSonny]

He was really pouring it on in the last round, Vitality never reacted well when being hit.

[beez721]

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?

vitali looked horrible but he was still in control until he quit. byrd deserves credit tho for hanging in there and eluding most of vits bombs. vitali would improve markedly in subsequent fights. wlad did much better with byrd shortly after that fight. wlad is much more sharper and accurate with his punches than vitali ever was. not sure why so many people think vit was superior. he had the better chin and more variety but wlad was better in every other department. chris byd agrees with me

[beez721]

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

byrd didnt land anything signinficant. thats the only reason vit was well ahead because he didnt land a whole lot either. was an ugly fight

[BKM-2010]

I'd agree it was fluke-ish doe. He got cut up like I never seen him cut up before or after.

And why do you think that is though? Just like with his loss to Byrd, I'm guessing vitali was just 'unluckily injured' and his opponents had nothing to do with it. These are convenient excuses.

No, Vitali's face was destroyed by Lewis because he got hit harder and more often than ever in his life.

Vitali wrecked his shoulder against Byrd because he over-extended and missed more punches than ever in his life.

And in his third toughest opponent, Sanders, he got stunned badly and some even say knocked down which is debatable.

Notice a pattern what happens with Vitali's performances the better his opponents are. When he's not looking like superman against a Danny Williams or past it Sam Peter, he starts to struggle.

[BKM-2010]

The win was absolutely legitimate as backed up by the punch stats and Vitali's comments in the post-fight interview.

It's about time we address this myth that Vitali was easily dominating and quit because of some career-ending injury because that is NOT what happened:

Byrd objectively won 3-4 rounds
Byrd landed 124 punches in comparison to Vitali's 132, 8 punch difference!!!
Vitali was fading and Byrd was getting his second wind
Vitali admitted to Merchant that the injury was not the reason he quit
He admitted he had trouble dealing with a southpaw
He said that he thought he couldn't win enough points
He never stopped using either hand
He was back in the ring the same year!!!


Byrd outboxed Vitali, frustrated him and made him quit. Unlike Elroy's nonsenical gibberish, the above points are ALL FACTS!!!! aside from the first one, which is a reasonable and objective conclusion based on empirical evidence!!!

Stopped by a SUPER-MIDDLEWEIGHT.

And they have the audacity to criticize the "cruiserweights" of old.

Notice that I haven't gone into the fact that Vitali quit.

I don't usually judge fighters who know their bodies better and want to preserve it, but one must wonder if Vitali's decision was heavily influenced by discouragement of Byrd making him miss and frustrated.

His shoulder was injured and he was still missing his punches over and over, the punch stats were close and Byrd was likely going to take over against a one-armed Vitali who couldn't even muster up anything against Byrd when he had two working arms.

3 more rounds and one arm were left. Does it look better to quit while ahead, or lose on points with an injury? One must wonder as Vitali certainly did himself.

[Eff Pandas]

And why do you think that is though? Just like with his loss to Byrd, I'm guessing vitali was just 'unluckily injured' and his opponents had nothing to do with it. These are convenient excuses.

I'm not making excuses for Vitali, he was obviously getting hit vs Lewis. Hell I'm usually considered a guy ****ting on the Klitschko's ffs, but the reality is his face got F#CKED UP in a fluke-ish sorta way.

Guys get cuts & swelling & all sorts of marginal to major injuries when taking punches, but they don't get the sorta effed up situation Vitali had usually. Its not much different than that giant swelling Hasim Rahman had. Were both getting hit? Well sure, but they'd been hit in dozens & dozens of fights before that & never received the injuries they got in those fights & most fighters don't get those types of injuries.

Love or hate Vitali (or Rahman) & I think a reasonable person can see that wasn't typical stuff. And hey this is boxing things like that happen & it is what it is, but lets not act like it wasn't some fluke-ish type ****.

[BKM-2010]

I'm not making excuses for Vitali, he was obviously getting hit vs Lewis. Hell I'm usually considered a guy ****ting on the Klitschko's ffs, but the reality is his face got F#CKED UP in a fluke-ish sorta way.

Guys get cuts & swelling & all sorts of marginal to major injuries when taking punches, but they don't get the sorta effed up situation Vitali had usually. Its not much different than that giant swelling Hasim Rahman had. Were both getting hit? Well sure, but they'd been hit in dozens & dozens of fights before that & never received the injuries they got in those fights & most fighters don't get those types of injuries.

Love or hate Vitali (or Rahman) & I think a reasonable person can see that wasn't typical stuff. And hey this is boxing things like that happen & it is what it is, but lets not act like it wasn't some fluke-ish type ****.

Fluke-ish? That is simply not true, you say you are not making excuses for Vitali and then you do exactly that.

Vitali did not have one big cut as many mistakenly believe, he had several around his eye which almost blinded him for life, several on his cheekbone, another one below that, and his lips were cut and swollen and his nose was bleeding too. 60 stitches. This was caused by a long series of power punches he absorbed. Watch this video which shows almost all of the power punches he absorbed, listen to the thuds:


What this means is that Vitali has weak skin but we never saw it because nobody else could hit him hard and often enough to test it. Lewis tested it brutally while he was one of the hardest punchers ever and at a career high weight, there was some serious force in those shots. Vitali's granite chin allowed him to take it, but his facial skin was not as strong as his chin.

There was only one other guy who was able to do some damage to Vitali's face which was Sanders and low and behold, Vitali was bleeding like Myle in that fight too.

In both of his losses, his body gave out due to his opponents taking advantage of it.