Chris Byrd's Return to the Ring: Half of Him at Least

This weekend, ESPN's Friday Night Fights headliner pits former world heavyweight champion Chris Byrd against Shaun George.  The real significance of this fight reads clearly in the first byline of any promotional material produced for the bout - "Chris Byrd to take on Shaun George in a light heavyweight bout."   Light Heavyweight.  For the last decade, Byrd has  regularly  tipped the scales at over 210 lbs (photo to left).  This Friday he will be fighting at 173 lbs (only 12 lbs more than me!)

After two recent losses to Russian heavyweights, Alexander Povetkin and Wlad Klitschko, Byrd made the decision to move down to Cruiser-weight for two reasons,  he felt it was closer to his natural weight and he relished the chance to fight in a division with more action (can't blame him with the current dismal state of the heavyweight division).  

Once he got started on the proper dietary plan and workout regiment, the pounds started flying off.  He dropped to 180 lbs. so fast that he made the decision to move all the way down to light heavyweight (where the real action and money is). Byrd is now walking around at a somewhat unrecognizable, svelte 172 pounds and looks oddly skinny (video of skinny Byrd).  He is definitely not to be confused with a fighter who blows up to 195 lbs until a month before the fight and then scrambles into crash mode . 

The southpaw has always been a good boxer, (with key wins over Evander Holyfield, Vitali Klitschko and David Tua) and this newly shaped frame should provide some speed and endurance in his campaign at light heavy.  However, I don't think anything can prepare him for the jump from fighting slow moving mud-men in the heavyweight division to the fast-handed and explosive fighters at light heavyweight. 

His fight this weekend is more or less to get his feet wet in the division.  After this bout (which he should win), he will look to set his sights on the top of the talent-rich division.  Byrd hopes to be thrown into the mix of top fighters at light heavy like Dawson, Tarver, Johnson, Jones, Hopkins, and Calzaghe.  

If  Byrd's goal was big purses and high visibility, then he made the right move. However, he may find himself regretting this decision when he realizes that unlike the sluggish and talentless heavy weight divsion, he will run into a variety of some rather stiff competition in his new class.

New video of Byrd's move just released by ESPN at 2:00 pm