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| December 16, 2002 | Monday | Shawwal 11, 1423 |
Byrd outboxes Holyfield to win title
ATLANTIC CITY (New Jersey), Dec 15: American Chris Byrd captured the vacant International Boxing Federation heavyweight title here Saturday, taking a unanimous 12-round decision from Evander Holyfield.
All three judges had Byrd winning on their scorecards, 116-112, 117-111, 117-111.
“I beat him to the punch,” said Byrd. “I have had so many naysayers. I wanted to show the world that I can trade punches with these guys. Evander has been in with some of the best there is.”
Holyfield earned 5 million dollars while Byrd received 2 million dollars.
The 32-year-old southpaw Byrd raised his record to 36-2 with 20 KOs. Byrd used his jab effectively in the one-sided fight.
“I got a little dehydrated in the later rounds. He wasn’t hitting me with a lot of clean punches so he wasn’t hurting me.”
The 40-year-old Holyfield looked every bit his age against the younger Byrd.
Holyfield’s record fell to 38-6-2. He spent the later rounds looking for the knockout punch against Byrd. Each time he went to his corner his handlers pleaded with him to throw more punches.
“I wasn’t able to get close enough to him to be effective. He scored more punches which kept me off balance,” said Holyfield, who failed in his bid to become the first five-time heavyweight champion.
Byrd won a title left vacant by Lennox Lewis who decided to surrender the belt to promoter Don King for one million dollars.
Lewis was at ringside to do colour commentary on the King-promoted fight.
Asked if this performance gave Byrd a better chance of fighting Lewis for the World Boxing Council heavyweight crown, Lewis replied, “absolutely. I thought Chris Byrd did a great job. He showed his youth he showed he has a unique style.
“Evander has never seen a style like that so it was a difficult for him at the beginning of the fight. He looked tired.”—AFP
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