CBCSports.ca’s Chris Iorfida pulls no punches on the action inside the squared circle and in the world of pro boxing.
Light as a Byrd
Wednesday, May 14, 2008 | 03:14 PM ET
There has been a long and fascinating history in boxing involving the light heavyweight (175 pound) and heavyweight divisions. For decades, great champions like Billy Conn and Bob Foster were among those who could gain no toehold with boxing's big men, losing by definitive knockout to the likes of Joe Louis and Joe Frazier.
Michael Spinks broke the jinx of light heavies moving up in weight with a pair of controversial decisions over Larry Holmes in the mid-1980s.
In recent years, Roy Jones Jr. and James Toney ended up in the heavyweight division, despite starting their careers as middleweights.
Moving back down in weight has been a very recent phenomenon and one fraught with peril. Which makes what Chris Byrd is trying to accomplish at nearly 38 quite the undertaking.
Jones made a successful one-fight foray into the heavyweight division, beating John Ruiz. Jones only weighed 193 for the bout but paid the price for returning to light heavyweight - although age and diminished reflexes also played a part - as he was knocked senseless by both Antonio Tarver and Glen Johnson.
Tarver himself paid the price not for boxing glory, but for the silver screen. After bulking up to 215 lbs. for a part in the movie Rocky Balboa, he came back down to his regular fighting weight only to be thoroughly outfoxed and boxed by Bernard Hopkins.
Boxing aficionados out there will know that Bob Fitzsimmons went from winning a heavyweight title back down to light heavyweight for another title at the beginning of the 20th century, but the accomplishment was a bit ephemeral in the context of these more recent event.
Although records are a bit spotty, Fitzsimmons pretty much fought within a 20-pound span his entire career and competed as a heavyweight at around 170 pounds to begin with.
Running out of road at heavyweight in 2007 after beatings to Wladimir Klitschko and Alexander Povetkin, most boxing observers assumed the six-foot Byrd would fade into the sunset.
Never a body-beautiful at heavy, where he weighed between 210 and 222 pounds in recent years, Byrd found after a new regimen of running and dieting that he was dropping weight rapidly.
So he's decided to take a fight in the 175-pound light heavyweight division, which at the moment includes top fighters such as Hopkins, Tarver, Chad Dawson, Joe Calzaghe, Glenn and Canadian Adrian Diaconu.
Byrd will debut Friday night against serviceable opponent Shaun George and see how his newly toned body responds, though he hasn't ruled out fighting in the cruiserweight division, with its 200-pound limit.
Friday's fight will put him within shouting distance of where he began his career in the early 90s, after finishing his amateur days as a middleweight.
While boxing purists have long admired Byrd's ability to befuddle heavyweights that dwarfed him in size, a lack of punching power and a necessary safety-first style against the giants often made his bouts tedious affairs.
This seems to be part of what is driving Byrd towards this new challenge.
"I went to heavyweight and I think I proved myself in a heavyweight division where a lot of guys got a lot of credit for not really fighting the best in their division," he recently told Maxboxing.com's Thomas Gerbasi. "And I got no credit for trying to fight everybody and I was very undersized.”
No one expects Byrd (40-4-1, 22 knockouts) to suddenly become a bomber at the lighter weight, but it will be intriguing to see if he has more pop in his punches at 175.
Major league help for Golden Boy
It was news that probably made some fight fans' eyes glaze over, but a not insignificant item nonetheless. Anschutz Entertainment Group, it was announced last week, has made a significant investment in Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, which has quickly become a force in recent years and seems poised to become more prominent, given the advanced ages of promoters Don King and Bob Arum.
AEG owns or operates the Staples Center and Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, London's new O2 Arena and dozens of other facilities. Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said he hopes the AEG's connections with the corporate world will be beneficial for a sport that many companies have shunned in the last two decades because of its too unpredictable and often unsavoury nature.
Boxing will never leave Las Vegas, nor should it, but the more diversified the sport gets in terms of the setting and locale for fights, the better. Too often great undercards to big fights are fought to half-empty floor seats that have been snapped up or given to Vegas whales and big rollers. Promoted right, arena fights often make for a more spirited atmosphere, especially for that second-tier level of title fight that can't quite get Vegas abuzz.
Oscar more red than golden
Speaking of De La Hoya, his return to the ring as a fighter against Steve Forbes as a tuneup for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. was pretty underwhelming. Oscar concentrated so much on offence that he got hit quite a bit in return, leading to redness and puffy eyes.
While it was good to see him expending energy in the late rounds, where he's often been dog tired, the fact is that a high-energy fight is not what's going to give him any hope of beating Mayweather Jr. in a rematch few have asked for. Oscar's only shot against Floyd is to slow things to a halt, jab, parry any return blows with his outstretched gloves, and circle. Think De La Hoya for the first seven rounds against Trinidad and Mosley (the second fight) as well as Bernard Hopkins' style in recent years.
Just about every opponent Mayweather has faced above 140 pounds has played right into his wheelhouse, by more or less aggressively moving forward and then being picked apart by counterpunches. When the opponent has expended all that energy and been dissected, Mayweather starts to pour it on in the late rounds. No one at 147 has made Mayweather fight coming forward from the jump, an unnatural style for him.
So yes, what I'm saying is the only prescription I see for an Oscar victory is a fight even more boring than their first bout. Sorry.
Margarito-Cotto a must see
There are fights that grab the general sports fan attention and those for hardcore boxing guys only and then there are ones somewhere in between. Fitting the latter category is the welterweight scrap between Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito, announced this week to be taking place July 26 at MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas.
Most sports fans have heard of Cotto, less Margarito, but anyone who likes action should pay heed. If you've never seen a fight in Vegas but have wanted to, this might be a reason to go as ticket prices won't be as exorbitant as for someone like De La Hoya or even Manny Pacquiao. More importantly it seems just about impossible for this to be anything but an explosive fight given the fighters' array of power punches to go along with their incredible will.
I was struck last week watching the Marvin Hagler-John Mugabi middleweight fight of 20 years ago. Because of the advent of day-before weigh-ins, where fighters shrink down to the smallest possible version of themselves and then quickly regain water weight, guys like Margarito and Cotto are as big as Hagler and Mugabi were back then despite nominally fighting two weight classes below those oldtimers. I've seen Margarito in Vegas in between fights and pegged him at about 170 pounds, and there was no puffiness about him at all.
Heck, maybe he'll one day fight Chris Byrd.
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About the Author
Chris Iorfida has been writing about professional and amateur sports since joining CBC Sports in 2002. Previously he worked as a producer for the Team Sports Radio Network and has also written for national publications Strategy, Chart and Exclaim.
A passionate boxing observer since 1982, a crazy year for the sport, Chris has never missed a major bout and has travelled to Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York and of course in Canada to attend fights in person.
Recent Posts
- Path clear for Molitor; big fights on horizon
- Thursday, September 25, 2008
- Margarito's will, chin second to none
- Monday, July 28, 2008
- Cotto-Margarito battle promises to be action-packed
- Thursday, July 24, 2008
- Quebec boxer Alcine faces tough test
- Thursday, July 10, 2008
- Blackhawks fan Diaz tries to knock off one of boxing's best
- Friday, June 27, 2008
- Subscribe to Final Bell
Archives
- September 2008 (1)
- July 2008 (3)
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- May 2008 (3)
- April 2008 (3)
- March 2008 (2)
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- December 2007 (2)
