Chris Byrd moving down to Light Heavyweight!

[NeXt In Line]

Former IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd shocked Boxinggtalk when he informed us that he will now join Bernard Hopkis, Antonio Tarver, Joe Calzaghe, Chad Dawson, Glen Johnson and Roy Jones Jr amongst the elite at light heavyweight. Byrd says he's walking around at 180 pounds right now and didn't do anything but run to lose the weight. "Light heavyweight is a very exciting division and I'm coming to bring more excitement. It's on now, so I want all of them to be put on notice!" Full interview with Byrd to follow Monday morning. Remember where you heard it first! (10:25 PM EST)

Source: B-talk

[Silencers]

I'm interested to see what he can do at that weight.

[Jim Jeffries]

I like Chris Byrd. I was wondering why he didn't give cruiser a shot, but hey even better at light heavy. That should shake the division up a bit.

[Gareth Ivanovic]

I'm interested to see what he can do at that weight.

Yeah if he can actually get down to that weight I wonder if he can beat some of those guys. Only bad thing is that he adds another old face to that division.

[Jim Jeffries]

Yeah if he can actually get down to that weight I wonder if he can beat some of those guys. Only bad thing is that he adds another old face to that division.

I hate fat, old, guys fighting at HW. But if Chris can get in the shape of his life and make 175, more power to him. At 37, I don't think he's that old, he had just lost some of the quickness and relfexes that allowed him to compete at HW. I believe he could still be a good, competitive fighter at LHW. If Bernard loses, he's probably going to retire, Calzaghe's going to retire soon, Tarver ditto, Johnson ditto. Why not Byrd, he's younger than all of these guys except Joe?

[Knicksman20]

If he gets down to to that weight comfortably he'll be stronger than most at the division.

[tredh]

Yeah if he can actually get down to that weight I wonder if he can beat some of those guys. Only bad thing is that he adds another old face to that division.

Exactly I like Byrd but he is old. I wonder what he has left. I guess we will see.

[Gareth Ivanovic]

I hate fat, old, guys fighting at HW. But if Chris can get in the shape of his life and make 175, more power to him. At 37, I don't think he's that old, he had just lost some of the quickness and relfexes that allowed him to compete at HW. I believe he could still be a good, competitive fighter at LHW. If Bernard loses, he's probably going to retire, Calzaghe's going to retire soon, Tarver ditto, Johnson ditto. Why not Byrd, he's younger than all of these guys except Joe?

His quickness and reflexes did help him compete at HW, but moving down those guys are faster, even if they are older. We'll see how he does though as he could possibly beat some of those guys.

[Tobi.G]

If he gets down to to that weight comfortably he'll be stronger than most at the division.

I think thats the reason Byrd wants to move down to Lightheavy cause theire are some other old big names and he wants to fight them.
Byrd says hes also down to 180, i think thats suprising cause he looked fit in his last heavyweight fights. I knew he was never a naturall heavyweight but now at 37 years he goes down to lightheavy, i think thats verry interesting! Most guys get heavier as they get older, Byrd gets lighter! At 175 maybe his punches are strong enough to do some damage but he wont have such an big speed advantage as against heavyweights. I think he has to change his style a bit to be succesfull at this weight. And it will be verry hard for other lightheavies to stop him!

[Xyei]

I'm interested to see what he can do at that weight.

Me too. I think he is more suited for that weight anyway. He always seemed like a small HW to me.