HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING Rising star Chris Byrd drubs struggling Evander Holyfield

Byrd threw almost 500 more jabs in the 12-round fight.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -- No one's ever questioned Evander Holyfield's heart. It's his eroding skills, slow reflexes and stubborn optimism that have become so glaring as he moves into middle age.
They were all on display -- painfully so -- on Saturday night in a 12-round drubbing at the hands of rising star Chris Byrd.
Byrd won the vacant IBF title and a likely shot at the WBA belt and left the 40-year-old Holyfield bowing his head, making excuses and vowing to keep fighting.
"I did not get the decision, but I will not quit," Holyfield said. "I will be back."
Yes, Holyfield said, Byrd is an elusive fighter. No, the slippery lefty wouldn't be baited into a toe-to-toe slugfest.
Unfounded optimism
But if only Holyfield hadn't hurt his left arm in the first, or strained his back in the fourth or fifth, he believes, things might have gone differently.
Not likely. The four-time former champion was outpunched, outclassed and outmaneuvered from the moment the bell rang Saturday night, chasing the 32-year-old Byrd all over the ring and missing on wild-swinging punches at every turn.
In one sequence in the second round, Holyfield took two lefts to the head from Byrd (36-2) and then swung at his head, badly missing when Byrd ducked. Then Byrd popped up and peppered Holyfield's face with three consecutive jabs and followed them with a left to the torso.
In the third, after ducking another Holyfield haymaker, Byrd wagged his tongue at Holyfield, taunting him.
Anemic offense
So it went. The punch statistics told the story, although anyone who watched on TV or from the crowd of 8,543 at Boardwalk Hall already knew it: Holyfield's offense was anemic.
He threw 37 jabs and landed only three, compared with 525 and 154 for Byrd, according to CompuBox. Overall, Byrd connected on 252 punches, to 102 for Holyfield.
Holyfield's most effective weapon, the head butt, connected with Byrd's face in the third, prompting a warning from referee Randy Neumann. But it didn't cause an early exit for an opponent, like his head butts against Hasim Rahman in his last fight here, a June 8 technical decision for Holyfield.
"He uses his head a lot, I'll tell you that much," said Byrd, who thwarted Holyfield's bid to become the only fighter other than George Foreman to win a piece of the heavyweight title in his 40s. Byrd has his sights set on the winner of the March 1 WBA title fight between John Ruiz and Roy Jones Jr., who is moving up from light heavyweight.