Heavyweight Transitional Era: When Ruiz & Chris Byrd were Title holders

**Mikhnienko** · 10-31-2010, 09:41 PM

Originally posted by cupocity303

And when the WBO Heavyweight Title was being passed around amongst Brewster, Lyakovich, Briggs and Ibragimov. And Vitali kind of faded away and retired after multiple postponements/reschedules against Hasim Rahman.

The consensus in Boxing Land in general was that since Lennox Lewis retired, there was no clear cut champion. James Toney, Samuel Peter and then later Nikolai Valuev were all players.

HBO put up a all-Heavyweight card looking for the next great heavyweight, featuring a undefeated Dominick Guinn Vs Michael Grand in a showcase fight. (And we all know what happened to him in the last few years, he is up on 7 losses now, losing just yesterday again).

They also featured two undefeated heavyweights in the Co-Main Event in Juan Carlos Gomez (who was 36-0 at that time) Vs a 18-0 Sinan Samil Sam. Unfortunately Gomez wounded up getting KO'd in one round in his vary next fight and HBO never aired one of his fights again.

And of course they were hyping White Hope from Buffalo, Ny Joe Messi to death in showcase fight after showcase fight until a B-level Monte Barret gave him brain damage.

Wladimir Klitschko was still in recover mode after the Sanders and Brewster fights. He had a shaky fight against Davaryl "Touch of Sleep" Williams on showtime I remember, where he wounded up getting knocked down but won by a 5th round technical decision. (Sidenote: Touch of Sleep was also the same guy that two fights prior was being used as a showcase opponent for Joe Messi as previously mentioned). His stamina was still the center of the story. It was in this TRANSITIONAL ERA where he also was the WBO and IBF mandatory and had a choice between WBO Brewster rematch or IBF's Chris Byrd rematch, and of course he ended up choosing Byrd.

But of course it's different now as we have one dominant Ring Magazine and Unified Title Champion in Wlad and a comebacking WBC champ in Vitali.

Just a little revisionist history that came to my head.

Jirov ended Mesi's career not Barrett. Golota beat both Byrd and Ruiz and should have been unified champ.

He would have lost it to Brewster who lost it to Liakhovich who lost it to Briggs who lost it to Ibragimov who lost it to Klychko : )

**cupocity303** · 10-31-2010, 09:45 PM

Originally posted by Mikhnienko

Jirov ended Mesi's career not Barrett. Golota beat both Byrd and Ruiz and should have been unified champ.

He would have lost it to Brewster who lost it to Liakhovich who lost it to Briggs who lost it to Ibragimov who lost it to Klychko : )

You're right, it was Jirrov. I said that off the top of my head without boxrec-ing it. I did Boxrec Carlos Gomez's record though.

I'll edit that one. Thanks for correcting me.

**cupocity303** · 10-31-2010, 09:48 PM

Originally posted by Mikhnienko

Jirov ended Mesi's career not Barrett. Golota beat both Byrd and Ruiz and should have been unified champ.

He would have lost it to Brewster who lost it to Liakhovich who lost it to Briggs who lost it to Ibragimov who lost it to Klychko : )

You're also right about Golota.

Funny, even Fres Oquendo was a player as he was straight up robbed against Chris Byrd.

These guys are nobodies in todays time.

**cupocity303** · 10-31-2010, 09:51 PM

Even Australian Kali Mehan was somewhat a player as he lost a controversial decision to WBO Champ Brewster in one of the worst fights in heavyweight history.

The story was that the two were good friends and didn't wanna hurt each other.

**Mikhnienko** · 10-31-2010, 10:01 PM

Originally posted by cupocity303

Even Australian Kali Mehan was somewhat a player as he lost a controversial decision to WBO Champ Brewster in one of the worst fights in heavyweight history.

The story was that the two were good friends and didn't wanna hurt each other.

lol what? From what i remember that was a pretty exciting fight with quite a bit of action.

Perhaps you're thinking of Rahman-Barrett or Byrd-Mccline. They were all freinds that had stinkers.

**warp1432** · 10-31-2010, 10:08 PM

Chris Bryd was actually considered pretty good until Wladimir wrecked him.

The heavyweight division last year showed so much promise, but now it seems like so many contenders don't want to fight unless they get a mandatory shot somehow

**cupocity303** · 10-31-2010, 10:44 PM

Originally posted by Mikhnienko

lol what? From what i remember that was a pretty exciting fight with quite a bit of action.

Perhaps you're thinking of Rahman-Barrett or Byrd-Mccline. They were all freinds that had stinkers.

Yes you're right again.

**cupocity303** · 10-31-2010, 10:46 PM

Originally posted by warp1432

Chris Bryd was actually considered pretty good until Wladimir wrecked him.

The heavyweight division last year showed so much promise, but now it seems like so many contenders don't want to fight unless they get a mandatory shot somehow

His entire title reign almost consisted of gift decisions and split decision wins.

I know his technical boxing abilities were talked up but it was always within a angle that he wasn't being himself in fights trying to please the fans with exciting fights and that he needed to get back to pure boxing. WHICH HE NEVER DID.

**Tiozzo** · 10-31-2010, 11:42 PM

Originally posted by cupocity303

And when the WBO Heavyweight Title was being passed around amongst Brewster, Lyakovich, Briggs and Ibragimov. And Vitali kind of faded away and retired after multiple postponements/reschedules against Hasim Rahman.

The consensus in Boxing Land in general was that since Lennox Lewis retired, there was no clear cut champion. James Toney, Samuel Peter and then later Nikolai Valuev were all major players.

HBO put up a all-Heavyweight card looking for the next great heavyweight, featuring a undefeated Dominick Guinn Vs Michael Grant in a showcase fight. (And we all know what happened to Guinn in the last few years, he is up on 7 losses now, losing just yesterday again).

They also featured two undefeated heavyweights in the Co-Main Event in Juan Carlos Gomez (who was 36-0 at that time) Vs a 18-0 Sinan Samil Sam. Unfortunately Gomez wounded up getting KO'd in one round in his vary next fight and HBO never aired one of his fights again.

And of course they were hyping White Hope from Buffalo, Ny Joe Messi to death in showcase fight after showcase fight until a B-level Jirov gave him brain damage.

Wladimir Klitschko was still in recover mode after the Sanders and Brewster fights. He had a shaky fight against Davaryl "Touch of Sleep" Williams on showtime I remember, where he wounded up getting knocked down but won by a 5th round technical decision. (Sidenote: Touch of Sleep was also the same guy that two fights prior was being used as a showcase opponent for Joe Messi as previously mentioned). His stamina was still the center of the story. It was in this TRANSITIONAL ERA where he also was the WBO and IBF mandatory and had a choice between WBO Brewster rematch or IBF's Chris Byrd rematch, and of course he ended up choosing Byrd.

But of course it's different now as we have one dominant Ring Magazine and Unified Title Champion in Wlad and a comebacking WBC champ in Vitali.

Just a little revisionist history that came to my head.

I don't see your point, apart from nuthugging Wlad

Heavyweight Transitional Era: When Ruiz & Chris Byrd were Title holders