There were 4 times in his fight against Golota where Byrd got punched with a right hook to the ribs from Golota and he'd put his hands on the canvas. I saw same effect happen to Samson Po'Hua a long time ago when Golota would connect with a right hook to the body. I know that a few of those instances may have been from Golota leaning on him, but I think at least 1 of them was a straight knockdown.
Also I think Byrd was way too frustrated, he wasted his time sticking out his tounge and shaking his head instead of fighting, and he also tried getting the ref to DQ him.
how did he try to get dq'ed?
If 2 of those 4 knockdowns would have been scored, Golota would have won.
Wie schade!!
Samurai, Byrd actually stopped the fight a couple times to complain to the ref about being punched on the back of the head when in fact he was being hit on the top of the head, no real brain stem punches occured in the fight. If you get to watch the fight you'll see that Golota was totally focused on Byrd, meanwhile Byrd kept nodding his head to the audience, sticking his tounge out at golota, Glaring and complaining to the ref and also complaining to his corner.
I had money on Golata. I am glad thegreek.com gave me the push... What a crap decision.
I have to say that Gator was totally right in picking Golota from the begining. I really thought Golota would get frustrated against Byrd but it seems his fouling is more of a reponse to fear than frustration. When he gets hurt, he panics, and that's why he goes nuts (no pun intended). If you can't hurt him with a big punch, he'll walk you down.
I watched it again and scored it 5-5-2 this time(I had Golota up by a point or two the first time). If Golota had jabbed more, that could have been the difference. I also noticed that he did not throw the uppercut like Sam Colonna told him to. I guess he got too focused on hooking when Byrd was on the ropes.
Byrd did block a lot of shots IMO and if you watch it again there were spots where Byrd controlled the fight in the center of the ring. I think a draw was fair.
I agree that the scoring was spot on, but I think at least one of those times byrd keeled over should have been called a knockdown.
I think those kneel overs were attempts to make it look like Golota was pulling and leaning more than he was.He went down like that once when he had'nt even been hit and they clinched.Maybe buying a few more seconds without holding the clinch which looks worse.Not drfending Byrd just seemed like his own doing for whatever reason more so than being hurt.