Chris Byrd

Christopher Cornelius Byrd (born August 15, 1970) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2009.

He is also a three-time national amateur champion, winning the light middleweight title in 1989, and the middleweight title in 1991 and 1992.

Chris Byrd was the youngest of eight children growing up in Flint, Michigan.

He began boxing at age 5, training in his father (Joe Sr.)'s Joe Byrd Boxing Academy.

His father continued to train and manage Byrd as a professional.

Byrd attended Flint Northwestern High School.

Byrd began competing in the ring at age 10, since then he had 285 amateur fights in various weight classes, compiled an impressive record of 275 wins, 10 losses.

He was a three-time U.S. amateur champion (1989, 1991, and 1992).

He was on the 1991 U.S. National boxing Team that became the first (and only) U.S. team to score a tie against the heralded Cuban team.

As an amateur, Byrd represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics and won a silver medal in the middleweight division.

Byrd won the silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona summer Olympics as a middleweight, losing to Cuba's Ariel Hernández in the final.

Byrd turned professional on January 28, 1993, knocking out 10 of his first 13 opponents.

Byrd moved up to heavyweight three fights into his professional career.

Byrd remained undefeated for his first 26 fights, knocking off then-notable opponents like Phil Jackson, Lionel Butler, Uriah Grant, Bert Cooper, Craig Peterson, Frankie Swindell, Jimmy Thunder, undefeated Eliecer Castillo and Ross Puritty.

He was ranked by BoxRec in the world's top 10 heavyweight from 1998 to 2004, reaching his highest ranking of No.3 in 2000.

However, in 1999, Byrd's undefeated record came to a dead end when he fought undefeated Ike Ibeabuchi.

With 48 seconds left in the fifth round, a left-handed bolo punch followed with a right hook sent Byrd to the canvas, face first.

He is a two-time world heavyweight champion, having first won the WBO title in 2000 after an upset corner stoppage over then-undefeated Vitali Klitschko.

In his first title defense later that year, he lost to Vitali's brother Wladimir Klitschko.

During the last week of March 2000, Byrd was offered the chance to be the replacement (for Donovan Ruddock) against undefeated champion Vitali Klitschko in Berlin, Germany (Klitschko's adopted home country) for the WBO Heavyweight Title.

He therefore had only seven days to prepare for the fight (not the customary 6–12 weeks).

Byrd was trailing after nine rounds by scores of 88–83 (on two cards) and 89–82 (on one card), i.e. losing seven or eight of those rounds.

However, Byrd was arguably Vitali's most difficult opponent as he landed clean shots and made him miss regularly, resulting Klitschko severely injured his shoulder and being unable to continue after the ninth round.

The injury that Klitschko suffered was a torn shoulder rotator cuff, which required major surgery and a 7-month lay-off.

Despite trailing on all three of the judges' scorecards, Byrd walked away the winner by a technical knockout due to the injury to Klitschko.

While most consider this a fluke win for Byrd, nobody (including Lennox Lewis) gave Vitali a more difficult fight before that and since.

Vitali landed at a much lower percentage and while he threw more, Byrd almost landed as many punches as him.

Six months later, Byrd was back in Germany to defend the title against Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali's younger, more agile brother.

Twelve rounds later, Byrd had lost a lopsided unanimous decision and the WBO belt after being knocked down twice.

Byrd returned to the U.S., signed with Don King and beat Maurice Harris to win the United States Boxing Association heavyweight belt in Madison Square Garden.

He was now a top-five contender for the IBF title.

After winning his next match (a title defense against New Zealand's top contender David Tua) Byrd eventually received his mandatory shot at the vacant IBF world Heavyweight Championship against Evander Holyfield in Atlantic City.

In 2002, Byrd defeated Evander Holyfield to win the IBF heavyweight title for his second reign as world champion.

On December 14, 2002, Byrd won a unanimous decision and the IBF title.

Byrd has successfully defended the IBF belt against: Fres Oquendo in 2003, a highly entertaining draw with Andrew Golota and a decision win over friend Jameel McCline in 2004, and DaVarryl Williamson in 2005.

Byrd's fight with Golota did 75,000 buys on pay-per-view.

He made four successful defenses until losing his title again to Wladimir Klitschko in a 2006 rematch.

On April 22, 2006, Byrd faced Wladimir Klitschko for the second time.

Byrd was making his fifth defense of his IBF title and the fight was also sanctioned by the International Boxing Organization for its title, which had been vacated upon the retirement of Lennox Lewis.

The fight took place at SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany.