INSIDE THE BYRD "NEST"

"If a family lives in harmony, all of its affairs will prosper." So says an ancient Chinese proverb. Or was it Chris Byrd?

April 13, 2006 - by Nat Gottlieb

There have been countless family-owned businesses. Many worked well, many didn't. But the highly unusual one found inside the Byrd "Nest" runs nearly to perfection. Byrd (39-2, 20 KOs) is the IBF heavyweight champion, and he might very well need perfection on April 22 when he defends his title in Germany in a rematch against Wladimir Klitschko (45-3, 40 KOs) on HBO's "World Championship Boxing." There won't be many Chris Byrd fans in the SAP Arena in Mannheim, but he definitely will not be alone.

While waiting for the opening bell, if Klitschko happens to glance over at his opponent's corner, he won't need a blow to the head to make him see five Byrds. They're there.

Working the Byrd "Nest" will be lead trainer father Joe Byrd Sr. His assistant trainer is Chris' mom, Rose. Backing them up are brothers Patrick and Joe Jr. Not since Alfred Hitchcock filled a tree outside a school house with birds, has there been so many hanging in one place.

And there's more! In a ringside seat is Chris' wife Tracy, who is his business manager. Next to her will be daughter Jordan, 13 (moral support), and 11-year-old son Justin, who gets to play the coolest role of all. When Byrd makes the traditional robed walk from the locker room down the aisle to the ring, alongside him - as he has been doing since he was five - will be Justin, strutting proudly before a sellout crowd of 14,000.

How long has this family affair been going on? Byrd is 35. The youngest of eight kids, he started training at five, along with ALL of his brothers and sisters (it was mandatory) in a makeshift basement ring in Joe and Rose's house. So for 30 years, suffice it to say Chris has not been able to turn around without bumping into a Byrd. He wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm a family man," Byrd said. (Never would have guessed) "I love having them all around. My family is my life, along with God."

Byrd, who has not lost a fight since Klitschko took his WBO belt away from him in a unanimous decision in 2000, doesn't use his family just because he's fond of them. He also believes adamantly they are the best team a boxer can have. If he didn't think that before, after he won a silver medal in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona with his father as a coach on Team USA, he was sure of it then. "I went from the basement to the Olympics, that's something," Byrd said, and wasn't being metaphorical. He literally did. (More about the basement later)

Right after the Olympics, Byrd turned pro and was not terribly surprised that despite his silver medal, promoters shied away. "I knew a lot of promoters were going to want to kick my family out of the corner and replace them with people with so-called more experience,' Byrd said. "They were worried my family wouldn't be hard enough on me. But one thing about my family which people might not realize is that they're all honest with me. Nobody says, 'Yes Chris, this, and yes Chris that.' They tell me, 'Chris, you're getting your butt whupped. They won't tell me I'm doing great when I'm not."

As Byrd himself said of Klitschko after their showdown was announced, "Since the last time we fought he's been up and down, up and down...literally. I want to test his heart. I can take it.''

Especially mother Rose.

"My mother is brutal in the corner," Byrd said. "I come over, she says, 'You don't let nobody whup you! You trained so hard for this and you better give me a fight!' I say, 'But I'm tired.' She says, 'You aint tired, you got a family to support. I don't care if you get knocked out, you go out there and fight! I didn't raise no punk!' Nobody gets to hear all this except me, because she whispers it in my ear."

Most fathers who train their kids tend to treat them as sons, and therefore at times will try to pull rank, which is why many father-son teams split up. Not Chris and Joe Sr. Sonny set daddy straight early.

"My father started out as my manager and trainer," Byrd said. "My dad's the greatest coach in the universe, but he knows nothing about business. Don King would eat him up. So around 1987 I told him I didn't want him to manage me. He took it as a pride issue, but I told him it was not about pride, it's about my career. Since then I manage myself with the help of my lawyer, John Hornewer. Dad respected my decision, but he didn't like it for a while. Eventually he saw it made sense."

Everything you need to know about Chris Byrd the boxer traces back to his early days in Joe and Rose's basement. Short of sparring in a prison cell, you won't find a more confined -- and confining -- space than the "ring" in the Byrd basement.

Up to 1983, Chris and 20-30 other Detroit kids trained in a large size basement of the Lowell School. When the city decided to close the school, Papa Joe wasted no time building another gym so that his kids wouldn't miss training and ruin the worth ethic he and Rose so diligently imposed on them. One day was all it took, in fact.

Disciples of the famous Kronk gym like to say it was a pain factory. Chris can relate to that. His family gym wasn't even a gym, just a ring - and it wasn't even a ring in the purest sense. Call it the forerunner of "cage fighting." On the floor, Joe threw a carpet down for "padding." (Better not get knocked down kids). On one side, Joe put up a rope. Call that rope symbolic. The other three "sides" of this 8 by 8 foot space were not rope but concrete walls with carpets hanging on them for "padding." Don't know how thick those carpets were, but Papa Joe's lesson was loud and clear: Don't get hit, don't miss.

"People wonder why I fight on the ropes against boxers who are a lot bigger than me," said the 6', 210 pound Byrd. "It's because I learned to fight on the 'ropes' in that ring. You can't be a coward and back away, because you'd whack into the wall. If you missed a punch by the 'ropes' you hit the wall. That's why you don't see me missing many punches today."

Byrd also developed a great work ethic in his family basement, which by the way Joe kept at a comfortable 115 degrees. "With my mom and dad's eyes on me at all time, and my older brothers all watching in that tiny space, there was no where to hide," Chris said. "And you HAD to train every day. If your gym is located somewhere else, and there is a tornado warning or a snow storm, you couldn't get to the gym. You got the day off. Not so with me. If I came home at 10 p.m. and hadn't trained, there was my dad at the door holding a pair of gloves. I used to hate it (ring) all the time. But it gave all of us a great work ethic."

Another place Byrd could have a legitimate reason to hate is any arena in Germany. On April 1, 2004, Byrd beat Wladimir's brother Vitali, then WBO champ, when the fight was stopped between the 9th and 10th rounds because of a Klitschko shoulder injury. Byrd was well behind on all judges cards at the time and was on his way to losing before the always fragile Vitali got hurt.

Six months later Byrd found himself back in Germany to defend his belt against brother Wladimir, a towering 6-6, 238-pounder who was 34-1 at the time. Byrd lost virtually every round and took a severe pounding. In the second round he suffered a tear in the cornea of his left eye, which hindered his trademark elusive style and made him an easy target. His other eye started to swell, and by the final bell it was closed. Klitschko knocked Byrd down in the 9th and 11th rounds, but he got right up each time. After the knockdown in the 9th, Byrd was hopelessly behind on the scorecards, but he told his corner he would not quit. When he hit canvas in the 11th, his father wanted to throw in the towel, but Joe Jr. wouldn't let him.

"I not the type of guy who's going to quit," said Byrd, who has only been stopped once in his career, a 5th round TKO by Ike Ibeabuchi in 1999. "When I get in the ring with a big guy, I have no fear. He (opponent) is going to know if he drops me, I'm going to get up and keep fighting him. They know they better knock me out early, because if I'm still fighting in the 7th and 8th round, I'll be getting stronger while they'll be tiring."

While 210-215 is light for a heavyweight, Byrd, unlike James Toney, could and literally does eat all day and night and doesn't gain weight. "I have to eat five or six big meals a day when training just to stay at 210 pounds," Byrd said. Cruiserweight would be perfect for him, but he has repeatedly refused to even consider it. "I like the mentality of being a small heavyweight, that's why I don't become a cruiserweight. There's no challenge in fighting guys my size," Byrd said.

The challenge of taking on bigger men is a vital part of Chris Byrd's makeup. "I see myself as a giant killer, David and Goliath," Byrd said. "David had five stones, but he only took one to kill the giant. My stone is my fist. I get an adrenaline rush when I step in the ring and see how big my opponent is. I say, 'wow, this is going to be fun.' After I beat Wladimir Klitschko, I'm going to fight that seven-foot guy (WBA champ Nicolay Valuev). Now that would be an adrenaline rush!"

Despite his size disadvantage, Byrd defies expectation and prefers to get up close and personal with his opponents, going toe to toe or laying on the ropes. This is partly due to his old basement training, and partly because of a car tire.

When ever Byrd gets a sparring partner who likes to move around a lot, Papa Joe puts an empty tire in the center of the ring, makes each guy put a foot in, and then they box like that, not allowed to step out. "That's why I fight flat-footed. I've used the technique four times since I was champ," Byrd said.

The final ingredient in the mix that is Chris Byrd is his fierce competitiveness. How competitive is he? Shortly before he fought Andrew Golota to a draw on April 17, 2004, Byrd was added to the roster of top boxers in a fight video game. During an interview with the product makers, he was asked, "So many of the legends (of boxing) are in the game. Would you rather fight as them or yourself to try and knock them out?" Byrd responded: "I'll use myself to fight them, but if I can't whup them as myself, I'll find someone else to whup them with. I hate to lose."

While training for this fight, Byrd inevitably gets asked, "If Wladimir beat you so easily the first time, why should this bout be any different? What else can you do?"

"People don't realize I've gotten better the last five years, and he's just gotten older," Byrd said. Since that loss, Byrd has won eight straight with one draw, and defended his title successfully five times. Klitschko has won 10 times, but was stopped twice, first by Corrie Sanders, then by current WBO champ Lamon Brewster.

"There's also the King thing being over," Byrd said, referring to his former promoter Don King. King signed Byrd to a five-year contract, guaranteeing him $2.5 per fight. Byrd never saw close to that kind of money, having to fight tooth and nail for every dollar.

"Eventually it wore me down," Byrd said, "both mentally and physically. I got to the point where I told my wife I wanted to retire." His wife wouldn't let him, so they filed a $4 million suit against King. Before the trial, King released Byrd from his contract last August.

"I had a very winnable case, but I chose to take a release instead of going to trial. If I won the suit, I'd still be with King. I'd rather have no more headaches than $4 million," Byrd said.

Taking his family with him to every fight could have one drawback: by walking to the ring with his father, Justin has caught the boxing bug. "I won't stop him if he wants to be a boxer. But the business is horrible, so fake," Byrd said. "I don't want him to experience that. I know he'll be a good fighter, though, because he's better than I was at his age," Byrd said.

When he retires, the devout Christian will be doing ministry around the world and in this country. "This summer I'm going to Africa on a mission and speak to thousands of people in Zambia. I'd also love to be a (fight) commentator because I'm a good talker and love the sport."

Will Byrd and his loved ones miss the family fight outings? "Not really. When it's over, we'll look back and say, 'Man, we had a great time! We had a great ride, didn't we! It's been special for the whole family," Byrd said.

As the proverb said, his family has indeed lived in harmony and prospered. That's a very special thing, indeed.