By Tom Donelson

Photo © Ed Mulholland/FightWireImages.com

Former IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd is back in the hunt.  Well, sort of.  Last month, Chris Byrd made his return to the ring for the first time since being knocked out by Wladimir Klitschko almost a year earlier. The event, held at Clifford Park in the Bahamas, saw Byrd outbox opponent Paul Marinaccio with ease. He almost looked like the same Byrd that took David Tua to school several years ago. Slipping punches and striking Marinaccio with slick combinations almost at will. Byrd, age-36, looked more like a 26-year-old. 

But, before his fans get too excited, Marinaccio is a C-level fighter at best.  His record of 22-2 look impressive on the outside, but most of his victories occurred in the Carolinas and not against top competition. His previous step up in class against the light-punching Timor Ibragimov, ended in a knockout loss. Byrd simply treated Marinaccio as a punching bag who simply did not have the skills to keep up. The seventh round TKO of Marinaccio was Byrd's first stoppage win since 2002.

Chris Byrd is a unique individual in the fight game. This is a boxing boy scout when compared to most of the fighters in the sport.  He never threatened to eat another fighter's children or rip out an opponent's heart out. Nor does he taunt his opponents before or after a fight.

In a boxing era where most heavyweights often weigh closer to 250-pounds and stand taller than some of NBA's best centers, Byrd usually weighs under 215-pounds and stands at six-foot. 

He never possessed a power punch like a Mike Tyson that sent shivers down an opponent's spine. What he did have was hand speed, defensive wizardry and a tough chin that allowed him to take a bigger man's punch.  You factor in his tactical skills and the overall package goes a long way to explain why he was able to beat far bigger fighters and hold the IBF title for so long. The fans never fully appreciated his boxing skills because there were very few knockouts during Chris Byrd's heavyweight tenure and plenty of chess matches being played in the ring.

Unlike a lot of other boxers with very little power, Byrd never ran from a fight. He stood his ground and counter-punched with some of the biggest bangers to compete in the current era of the heavyweight division. Sometimes he came out on top, as he did against Jameel McCline, David Tua and Vitali Klitschko. And sometimes the strategy ended in disastrous defeats, as seen in his knockout losses to Ike Ibeabuchi and Wladimir Klitschko.

For nearly a decade, he was one of the best fighters in the heavyweight division. 

He recently spoke of fighting towards another shot at the heavyweight title and there have been discussions held in the past for a possible drop in weight to pursue the cruiserweight title. Following his recent win, Byrd told ESPN's Teddy Atlas that at the moment he is fighting for fun and feels that he already accomplished his goal in the sport by becoming a heavyweight champion. Based on Byrd's message, it's hard to really discern what he truly wants.  

Byrd's biggest dilemma is that the best fighter in the heavyweight division is still Wladimir Klitschko and as he told Teddy Atlas, Klitschko is his kryptonite. 

Byrd has admitted to others and more importantly himself, that Klitschko has the perfect style to beat him and there is not much that he can do to achieve victory if they met for a third time. So maybe the path for Byrd is to move down in weight and challenge the best in the cruiserweight division like O'Neil Bell or Jean-Marc Mormeck.

Even if he drops down in weight to finish up his career as a cruiserweight, success at the weight is not written in stone. No longer the speedy fighter of old, Byrd is at a point in his career where speed is starting to leave him and he begins to stand more flat-footed with less reflex action. Speed and his quick defense maneuvering, are two of the biggest reasons why he stayed near the top of the division for so long. Ever since the cruiserweight limit was raised to 200-pounds, some fighters come to ring resembling small heavyweights.

Byrd defied the heavyweight division's stamp of being a "big man's game" for many years. It took a long time, but it was time, and not the lack of size, that finally caught up to Chris Byrd.