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October 2001
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CHRIS BYRD STRIKES AGAIN Try as he might, big hitter David Tua just couldn't get to grips with Chris Byrd in their IBF heavyweight title final eliminator. GRAHAM HOUSTON reports from Las Vegas |
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David Tua and Chris Byrd in their IBF heavyweight title final eliminator
- Get Big Pic In what turned out to be a classic example of styles making fights, the style
of Chris Byrd was all wrong for David Tua in their International Boxing
Federation heavyweight elimination match in Las Vegas on 18 August. Byrd, the tricky - but also tough - southpaw from Flint, Michigan, outboxed
and outsmarted the heavier-handed Tua for 12 rounds to win a well-deserved,
unanimous decision. This was not just a demonstration of the art of hitting and not being hit. It
was also a display of grit, determination and inner strength by the betting
underdog. Tua, the 29-year-old from New Zealand by way of Samoa, did his best to put
pressure on Byrd in every round. He dished out some heavy hits to the body, the
sort of punches that weakened Hasim Rahman and led to Tua's 10th-round stoppage
of the current champ. But weaken Byrd? A little, yes, but not enough for Tua to be able to take
control of the contest. Byrd admitted afterwards that the body shots (which included some low blows)
had taken a bit out of him, and he slowed down in the last two rounds, which Tua
won on all three judges' scorecards. But at that late stage of the fight, Tua needed to do more than win rounds -
he needed to blast Byrd with big punches. And that, frankly, never looked like
happening. Even in the early rounds, when Tua was expected to be at his most dangerous,
Byrd seemed to be in control of the fight. By the middle rounds, Byrd was
outclassing Tua and almost playing with him. The pro-Byrd crowd of about 3,000 that packed the new Cox Pavilion, next door
to the Thomas & Mack Center south of the famous Las Vegas strip, roared with
delight as the southpaw knocked back Tua's head with straight lefts and, in the
eighth, seemed to hurt the Samoan with left-hand drives to the body. Tua dropped his hands as if mocking Byrd's punching power, and sneered as if
to say: "You can't hurt me." But Byrd was piling up points with his
clean, accurate punching. It was obvious long before the final bell that this wasn't going to be Tua's
night. The crowd chanted "Byrd, Byrd" and the 31-year-old father of
three gave a nod of satisfaction at a job well done. His wife, Tracy, was on her
feet applauding wildly and giving supporters at ringside the thumbs-up sign. This was probably the greatest night of Byrd's boxing life. Many - including
members of Byrd's own camp - had felt that Tua would always have a chance of
winning if he could land just one big left hook. But he never had the
opportunity. Even when Byrd boxed with his back to the ropes, the one thing he was
supposed not to do in this fight, Tua still could not nail him. In fact, Byrd
said afterwards, the only time he was hurt was when Tua caught him in the middle
of the ring "where I was supposed to be" in the last round. But at
this late stage of the fight Tua was swinging desperately and all Byrd had to do
was stay on his feet to capture the unanimous decision of the three Las Vegas
judges, with Paul Smith scoring it 115-113, while Art Lurie and Chuck Giampa
each made it 116-112). I agreed with the 115-113 score in Byrd's favour in a
fight that, to me, was closer than it appeared. Byrd's lawyer, John Hornewer - also a ringside photographer - told me
afterwards: "I was worried he was giving the fight away in the last two
rounds. I thought it was way too close to coast. But he's had that dehydration
thing in the past, it was hot in the ring and I'm not sure how much that
affected him. This guy was hitting him on the hips, but Chris to his credit
didn't let it affect him. I thought 115-113 was about the right score. I'm just
glad we got through it." The first three rounds were all evenly contested. Tua, at 233lbs (16st 9lbs)
the lightest he has been for a fight since he stopped Hasim Rahman in December
1998 - he weighed 224lbs for that one - was throwing more punches than he has
done in recent fights, mostly to the body, but Byrd's deliveries to the head
were eye-catching. Tua won the fifth round on one judge's card, the ninth on two cards, and he
swept the last two rounds, which Byrd in essence gave away by going on the
defensive. But when Byrd won a round it was usually in convincing, dominant fashion,
whereas Tua barely eked out rounds on the strength of body punching and
pressure. Afterwards, Tua's trainer, Joe Goossen, said he believed his man had won, and
that if it hadn't been for Tua there wouldn't have been a fight. But a boxer
does not win rounds by walking in and getting hit, which was often the case with
Tua. Perhaps, as Goossen believes, the judges were not giving Tua enough credit
for his body punches. Even Byrd's father and trainer, Joe Byrd, appeared to feel
that this might have been the case. "The judges saw the punches to the
head," he said graciously. "Next time, we go to the body, he go to the
head, it would be a different fight." The simple fact, though, is that judges have a tendency to reward clear,
solid blows to the head, and Byrd certainly landed plenty of those. Then, there was the matter of Byrd's style. He had Tua bemused and bothered,
round after round. Often, Byrd would merely paw or flick with the right rather than snapping out
the jab, but he was keeping his glove in Tua's face and not allowing the Samoan
to get set to punch. But at other moments Byrd delivered the jab in the
approved, stiff manner and followed with the left hand. Instead of having to punch up at an opponent, as he did when he boxed the
towering Klitschko brothers, Byrd, who at 6ft 1in is not a big heavyweight, was
for once in the ring with an opponent actually shorter than he is, and he was
able to level off his punches to maximum effect against the squat, 5ft 9ins Tua. He may not have been able to hurt him - and Tua, of course, has an oustanding
chin - but I do think that the other man knew he was being hit. Although Byrd, at 214lbs (15st 4lbs), was giving away 19lbs in weight, one
never had the sense that he was in danger of being bullied out of the fight,
because he was so calm and self-possessed that he appeared to be in control of
every situation. John Hornewer said afterwards that his man's audacity in the face of danger
reminded him a little of the way Muhammad Ali would impose his will over
supposedly tougher, more brutish, bangers, and, yes, there was some of this in
the way that Byrd toyed with and tormented Tua. He is so artful, moving his head, rolling with the punches - then popping
away in quick bursts - that his opponents tend to get frustrated and break down
mentally, and I think that to some extent this was happening to Tua. It was noticeable from early in the fight that even when Byrd had his back to
the ropes he seemed able to slip away as it pleased him. More than this, in
those moments when Tua supposedly had Byrd where he wanted him - that is, on the
ropes - the big hitter was not able to do any significant damage, although some
of the digs downstairs had that thudding sound. Byrd indicated in the third that Tua was hitting low but referee Jay Nady
told him not to complain, while also issuing a reprimand to the southpaw for
pawing with an open glove. Tua was cautioned several times about the low blows,
with a particularly stern warning in the sixth, but a point was not deducted. And instead of wearing his opponent down it was Tua who was sucking air in
the middle rounds. I had Byrd winning five rounds in a row from the fourth to the eighth
inclusive, rounds in which Tua couldn't do anything with him. In the sixth, even
Tua had to grin when Byrd spun around him: now he's there, now he isn't. Although I agreed with judges Smith and Giampa that Tua had won the ninth, it
was Byrd who finished the round strongly as he countered off the ropes. And in
the 10th Byrd's left-handers actually had Tua going back. But give Tua credit
for doggedness: he kept coming forward in the last two rounds and seemed to hurt
Byrd for just a moment with an overhand right in the 12th. Of course, he needed
to do far more than that. Afterwards, Byrd said: "A number of people thought David Tua was going
to knock me out but I trained very hard for this fight and stuck to a game plan,
moving and throwing, and I think I surprised a lot of people with my punching
power. I hurt David Tua a few times in the fight - I know I did, with his facial
expressions. I've got a difficult style anyway for the heavyweight division, and
I feel I could challenge anyone right now for the heavyweight title. "If he hit me with any big punches, I'd try to come back with four or
five punches to win the round. Most people think: ÔIf he traps you on the
ropes, he's gonna kill you,' but we knew, me and my father, going in, he's gonna
work the body and then he's gonna try to sneak stuff up top. When I got on the
ropes, he was bending down, throwing those big body shots - wide - so everything
coming from the outside, I could see it, I've got really good eyes, and most of
the time I tried to spin off, get back to the middle of the ring and just box,
and it worked. In the 11th round I started dancing, trying to get my wind back.
I knew he'd be coming and trying to knock me out in the last two rounds. In the
ring, it got really hot and I'm like: ÔOK, just keep moving, keep boxing -
you're ahead.' And in the 12th round I laid on the ropes a little bit more and I
said: ÔI've got this fight, just hang in there until the bell rings.' I knew I
had enough rounds in the bank to win the fight." Tua said: "I thought I did enough to win the fight. I'm just going to
have to go back to the drawing board and come back stronger. He was moving a lot
on the ropes, made a lot of difficult movements, and I did the best I could to
adjust to it. I felt I was well-prepared for this fight. Chris has got some good
power, but it wasn't enough to stop me from coming forward and pressing the
issue to make the fight. "I tried really hard to adjust to him making a lot of awkward movements,
spinning around me and fighting off the ropes - I thought I did pretty good
adjusting to his awkward stuff. If anything I was able to go to the body more
and land the cleaner and bigger shots to the body. "I knew it was a close fight and in the last two rounds I thought I'd
done enough to have it in the bag." Trainer Joe Goossen said: "I thought David pressed the fight the whole
night. He kept on coming. Now, no doubt Chris fought a great fight - we expected
it - but, again, I think if David wasn't in there, there wasn't a lot of action
going on. He was trying to make the fight happen all night long. Chris did a
good job of boxing, he threw very selectively and he did well, but I thought
David did enough to win the fight." Joe Byrd said at the post-fight conference: "I thought my man won -
which he did - but there wasn't a loser in this fight. I say it from my heart, I
still love both of these fighters. I don't care who's out there, the best two
fighters [in the heavyweight division] are sitting right here in front of you
all tonight, and you'll see, they'll meet again." Perhaps they will. But Byrd is so crafty, so unlike other heavyweights, that,
throughout this always entertaining bout, Tua had the look of a man trying to
solve an imponderable puzzle. One has to doubt if he can ever find the solution. |
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