Unfortunately, in a boxing cohort it is extremely rare to meet truly original fighters. But still there are those now, and also were before. And one of these nuggets is the American Chris Byrd. His life is worth considering in more detail.
The birth of a future champion
Chris Bird was born on August 15, 1970. In his family, he was the eighth child. The guy's father was the owner of his own boxing school, in which Chris began his brilliant sports career. I want to say that the young man loved boxing with all his heart. At the age of 10, he began to actively travel to amateur level competitions. By the way, the amateur ring brought the fighter 275 victories.
Three times he won the US Championship, won the Canada Cup. In 1992, as a member of his country's Olympic team, he won a silver medal at the Olympics-92, losing to the assertive Ariel Hernandez in the final bout.
Transition to professional sports
The first fight in the pro ring Chris Byrd spent January 28, 1993, defeating Harry Smith. The fight was held in the super middleweight category. It is noteworthy that Chris’s coach throughout his career was his father, Joe Bird. The fighter himself still believes that he owes his career success to two promoters: Dave La Sage and Greg Kebke. It was they who organized most of his first matches, in which he had never been defeated. Among the boxers defeated by him there are such titans of world boxing, such as: Vitali Klitschko, David Tua, Evander Hollyfield and many others. Thanks to his tenacity and talent, Byrd was the IBF and WBO World Champion. Defended his title from Pole Andrzej Golota and Puerto Rican Fres Oquendo. Chris Byrd received the most serious defeats from Wladimir Klitschko and Ike Ibeabuchi. The last nugget from Michigan lost by technical knockout in the fifth round. It happened in March 1999. This defeat was the first in Byrd's career.
But the most annoying loss for Chris happened in May 2008. The fight was held in light heavyweight, for which Bird had to drive as many as twenty kilograms of his own weight. The opponent in the ring was Sean George. Unfortunately, in the 9th round, after a series of shots, the bout was stopped by the referee, as he considered that Bird was not able to continue the fight further.
Today
Chris Bird, whose photo flew around all the world's leading print media, completed his performances in the square of the ring more than six years ago. However, this does not mean that he was on the sidelines of world sport. Time has shown that the American turned out to be a very sensible coach, and in addition to everything, has his own channel on the Youtube resource, where he is engaged in the analysis of modern boxing.
In 2014, Chris becomes the trainer of
Shannon Briggs, an odious fighter who is an ex-world champion and current pursuer of the Ukrainian heavyweight tyrant Vladimir Klitschko. Note that such cooperation can be very fruitful, since Byrd Chris knows firsthand about all the features of the battle with the reigning champion. The former pro-boxing star spends her free time with her family.