LITTLE BIG BOSS

Remember penny candy and double-features at the movies? Remember when schoolchildren respected their teachers? Remember when the only way to achieve reasonable reception on your television set was to fiddle with the rabbit-eared antenna? Remember when a heavyweight title belt was a symbol of something majestic? 

Those days, considered golden by anyone old enough to recall them, have been replaced by an era during which world championship belts are rescued from a garbage can or traded for cash and cars. And if you doubt this premise, consider that on 14 December, at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Chris Byrd unanimously outpointed Evander Holyfield in a bout for the vacant IBF heavyweight title. 

The fight sold about 5,000 tickets. Three weeks prior, at the same arena, Arturo Gatti-Micky Ward II, a non-title, non-heavyweight 10-rounder, played to more than 12,000, with promoters selling out the house faster than a seven-year-old boy opens his largest Christmas present. 

Even with Lennox Lewis warm and comfy in semi-retirement, there is, of course, only one heavyweight champion. I don't mean to minimise the accomplishment of Byrd, who dismissed the 40-year-old Real Dealwith an ease that escaped Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz. But even Byrd says: Until I beat Lennox, I won't get the recognition of being champion.Before defeating Holyfield, Byrd had established position to fight Lewis, rising to mandatory contender of the IBF. 

But Lewis chose to pass on the bout, claiming it wasn't marketable. His decision cost him the belt, which in essence he sold to Don King, who promotes both Byrd and Holyfield. The price was $1 million and a new motor vehicle. Sentimental sort, that Lennox. Lennox could be undisputed champ now,Byrd told me two days into the new year. There wouldn't be any question or doubt if he'd fight John Ruiz [WBA boss] or me. True champs do that.True champs also do what they want. Why? Because they can, as illustrated by the manoeuvrings and manipulations of Johnson, Dempsey, Patterson, Ali, Holmes, and other heavyweight champs of the past. 

Despite Byrd's optimism (I'm worthy; I beat Holyfield more easily than Lennox didn't), a showdown with Lewis isn't any closer to materialising. Instead, Lewis is looking toward the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir. Call it Ocean's Eleven II. (Or it is III?) Just Byrd's luck: Lewis has decided to pick on somebody his own size.That Byrd is among the five best heavyweights in the world, and as such qualifies for a shot at Lewis, is not in doubt. 

The southpaw has beaten Vitali Klitschko, David Tua, and Holyfield. A bigger, and perhaps better, question: In a world ruled today by Lewis and tomorrow by Wlad Klitschko (who soundly bested Byrd in October 2000), will Byrd ever really matter? He's a quick and slick and wonderfully elusive, albeit featherfisted, fighter. 

But why should we believe a highly skilled big heavyweight will ever lose to a highly skilled small one? For Holyfield, the 32-year-old Byrd, who stands 6ft 1in, scaled 214 pounds. Like the price of a security Martha Stewart is about to sell, that number is inflated. Remember, Byrd won a 1992 Olympic silver medal at 168 pounds. And while he's added beef as he's matured, two weeks before facing Holyfield, he dipped under 200. While most heavyweights struggle to stay in shape. Byrd fights like hell to add pounds. In 1993, he turned pro at super middleweight. 

His second bout came at light-heavyweight, and his third at cruiserweight. In June 94, he weighed 200 for a second-round stoppage of one Gerard O'Neil, and there was no turning back. His career-high was 222 for a ‘99 KO of Val Smith. 

For that one, Byrd presumably weighed in wearing lead underwear and cement-lined boxing boots. When I first started,he recalled, I was a scared fighter. I'd go to weigh-ins and think to myself: Man, those 168-pounders are too strong.' I was really thinking about dropping down to middleweight, even junior middleweight. If you had told me then that I'd eventually be fighting heavyweights, I would've said: Man, you're crazy!' One day I was watching heavyweights on TV Ñ I don't remember who they were Ñ and I said: Hey, I can beat these guys.' I had never lifted weights in my life and all of a sudden I was drinking protein shakes.In a perfect world, what would Byrd's perfect fighting weight be? His answer: 204 pounds. That might've worked when Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano, or even Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, were seated on the throne. But today? That's the poundage of a cruiserweight who trains on kebabs and cold beer. To his credit, Byrd doesn't whine and moan about his size. 

Nor does he agree with those who believe there should be two heavyweight divisions, with a 220-pound limit separating the Byrds and Holyfields from the Lewises, Klitschkos, etc. (In the Byrd fight, Holyfield outweighed his opponent, only the second time that's happened in the former champion's 28-bout career as a heavyweight.) I came to the heavyweight division to fight heavyweights Ñ unlimited,Byrd said. 

And unlimited they've been. Byrd's two losses came against Ike Ibeabuchi (KO by 5), who was 6ft 2ins, 244lbs, and Wlad Klitschko, 6ft 6ins, 238. He was far behind on points vs Vitali, 6ft 7ins, 244lbs, when the Ukrainian giant retired with a shoulder injury before the start of the 10th round. Those fights are three separate cases,said Eric Bottjer, who as matchmaker for Cedric Kushner made several of Byrd's bouts. The Ibeabuchi fight was competitive, and Ike was the best heavyweight around. 

He might've beaten Lennox at the time. The Vitali fight, I didn't agree with the judges' scoring. I thought it was close. I thought Chris was winning the fight from the fifth round on, with the other guy starting to fall apart. As for Wlad, I was at the fight, and Klitschko made Byrd look bad, which is usually Chris's game. Chris is always gonna have trouble with guys like Wlad because they're good fighters. If Wlad had been just big, Chris would've beaten him. It's all about the skill level. It remains to be seen whether this is the dawn of a new era, where if you're not a 6ft 5ins, 240-pound heavyweight, you can't compete. 

Watching Wlad Klitschko and Jameel McCline, I was imagining either one of them fighting the Evander Holyfield of 10 years ago. Holyfield, Mike Tyson, those guys loved to trade punches and compete. They would've beaten Klitschko at this point.In matching Byrd with the Klitschkos, it's easy to presume his disadvantage lies in size, strength, reach, and punching power. But he points out another factor. Guys like that, especially the Europeans, are hard for me to fight because of their stance and styles,Byrd said. 

I try to make my opponent think about every punch he throws. But they make me change up and fight more aggressively. It's an uncomfortable style. Interestingly, Byrd insists the 5ft 10ins Tua, and not the Klitschkos or Ibeabuchi (who almost beheaded him with an uppercut), is the biggest puncher he's faced. Tua can knock you out with any punch he throws,Byrd said. He's the hardest hitter by a wide margin.Not that Byrd got hit enough to really know.In AC, Byrd, 214bs, Las Vegas, Nevada, via Flint, Michigan, didn't need to concern himself with the power of Holyfield, 220lbs, Atlanta, Georgia. 

That's because Holy landed a few hooks to the body and virtually nothing else. As if his age and Byrd's style weren't severe enough handicaps, Holyfield tore the rotator cuff in his left shoulder. (He said the injury occurred in the first round.) He averaged less than 30 blows per round and landed at a paltry connect rate of 30 percent. He scored more punches,Holyfield acknowledged, whether he was effective or not.Early in the bout, HBO analyst George Foreman suggested Byrd's punches were illegal because he wasn't making a fist. 

Regardless, he began to dominate in round two, picking and poking and spinning, all the while landing jabs and one-twos and lefts to the body. For his part, Holyfield, 38-6-2 (25 KOs), landed one jab over the first five rounds. Holyfield threw only 27 punches in the fifth round and again in the ninth. In the eighth, he briefly turned southpaw and Byrd, 36-2 (20 KOs), smiled as if to say: Old man, you're really desperate now!Holyfield's best rounds were the last two. He scored with a big right uppercut in the 11th and forced his way inside in the 12th. 

His tepid rally was inconsequential, however, as Eugene Grant and Steve Weisfeld scored 117-111 and John Stewart 116-112. Afterwards, there was no talk of retirement. The shoulder injury aside, Holyfield says he remains determined to regain the undisputed heavyweight title. Popular opinion says he remains determined to become the poster boy for legends who fight too long. The irony is that while he arguably remains one of the 10 best heavyweights in the world (it was only seven months ago that he defeated Rahman), he unnecessarily risks his future health every time he answers the bell. Such is the fate of the ultimate warrior. 

Byrd's future is a happier subject. He'll be ringside when (and if) Roy Jones challenges Ruiz in March, with the hopes of fighting the winner in a partial unification bout. If Ruiz wins, I think he'll fight me,Byrd said. If Roy wins, I don't think he'll fight me. Roy is a very small guy. I can match him in everything and I'm bigger.In the meantime, Rahman will be rematched with Tua in an elimination bout to establish Byrd's mandatory challenger. (In 1998, Tua stopped Rahman in the 10th round, connecting with the turning-point punch after the bell ending round nine.) But it isn't Tua, Rahman, or Ruiz that Byrd wants, which brings us full-circle. 

For me,Byrd said, a fight with Lennox would be my steppingstone to Wlad. I'm not gonna make excuses [for his loss to Klitschko], but it would be different this time. Now I'm confident against anybody. Then I was confident enough to compete, but not necessarily to win. Now I'm confident enough to beat any heavyweight in the world.But is he big enough? One thing's for sure: The size of Byrd's heart will never be questioned. In that regard, he's no different from the fighter he beat on the Boardwalk.