Reno, Nev. – Chris Byrd and Denver native DaVarryl Williamson fought like good friends who didn’t want to hurt each other. The result was a title fight that did nothing to help the image of an already beleaguered heavyweight division.
Byrd won a unanimous decision Saturday night over Williamson to retain the IBF version of the title in a fight so bad it was booed every round by the crowd and drew warnings from the referee.
The two close friends had sparred countless rounds with each other over the years, and the familiarity of styles combined with a seeming desire not to hit the other very hard made for a fight that went 12 long rounds.
Byrd won 116-112 on two scorecards and 115-113 on a third, in a decision that many in the crowd didn’t hear because they were still booing the fighters.
“Everyone has bad fights,” Byrd said. “The last couple of fights I tried to put on a good performance. But I’m a counter puncher and he just sticks and moves.”
Byrd, locked in a contract dispute with promoter Don King, was fighting for the first time in nearly a year and only for the fourth time since winning his version of the heavyweight title in December 2002.
He hadn’t wanted to fight Williamson in the first place because the two are close friends, and seemed unwilling to risk much to chase the backpedaling challenger around the ring.
“DaVarryl has great height and reach. I can’t just run in there and hit DaVarryl because he hits too hard,” Byrd said.
Williamson had somehow risen to the position of mandatory challenger in the IBF despite losing two of his past six fights, one of them by first-round knockout to Joe Mesi.
The organization’s ranking ability had to be called into question after Williamson spent most of the fight running from the light-punching Byrd.
“I tried to throw more punches,” Williamson said. “He’s an excellent counter puncher.”
Byrd and Williamson spent the early rounds posing, drawing boos from the crowd as they eyed each other warily but did little in the way of punching.
Things got so bad that referee Vic Drakulich stopped the fight in the second round to warn both boxers to begin fighting, and began the fourth by telling them the same thing.
In the main event, fighting for the first time since being stripped of his WBA title for testing positive for steroids, James Toney dominated Dominick Guinn over 12 rounds to set himself up for another possible heavyweight title shot.
Toney and Guinn gave the crowd some more excitement, but Toney counterpunched so effectively that the bout wasn’t really in doubt after the opening rounds. Toney, often fighting off the ropes, landed crisp shots to the body and the head that Guinn had no answer for.
Two judges scored the fight 119-109, while a third had it 117-111. The Associated Press scored it 118-110.
It was the first fight for Toney (69-4-2) since he was stripped of the title he won from John Ruiz on April 30, only to lose it a few days later because of a positive steroids test he attributed to medication he took following surgery months earlier.
The former 168-pound champion, who weighed 235 pounds to Guinn’s 221, showed he can be a player in the division though he was never able to really hurt Guinn (25-3-1).
