It was the slug-fest that boxing fans love, but former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd hated. He even wound up being knocked down in the first round with a four-punch flurry and twice more in the ninth by Shaun George. Our weigh in to ringside photos to the ferocious knockdown from ace lensman Tom Donoghue tell the story of how Chris, fighting in the 175-pound division for the first time in his 15-year career just shouldn’t have dropped so much weight as he got older.

Byrd separated his shoulder on the first knockdown in the ninth and was taken to ahospital following the fight.

One boxing writer called our Planet Hollywood Resort ESPN TV broadcast from our Cox Pavilion at the Thomas & Mack Center a demolition! From the opening bell the Brooklyn-New York born Shaun George simply overwhelmed our hometown resident and Chris got the beating of his life in the ninth round before telling referee Jay Nady to stop it. In the understatement of the century George said: “Everyone underestimated me. I showed everybody I can fight; I did a good job of finishing tonight.”

Byrd was rumoured to have dropped as much as 35 pounds for the 175-pound-limit fight. “I didn’t have anything from the moment the first bell rang,” Byrd said. “I couldn’t believe how fast he was. He was too fast for me.”

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