GL: It's been a while since we've had you on Boxingtalk, what's the latest and greatest with Chris Byrd? "Nothing much, just chilling. Hoping to get a fight pretty soon, but not at cruiserweight like everyone thinks. I'm going down to light heavyweight Greg!"

GL: When did you come to this conclusion?

Chris Byrd: "It was going to be at cruiserweight and I can still fight at cruiserweight, but as I'm training and working out, I think I'm too small for cruiserweight. After I started losing weight when I came home after I fought Povetkin, I came home at 200. I'm always training and running and I was weighing 190 and I still had fat on my body. Next thing you know I'm at 182, so I said to myself, I might as well fight at light heavy. I can fight at cruiser for sure, but I might as well go back home where I started and try my hand at light heavy.

"That's the ticket for me. Today I'm weighing 180 and I'm not even really in the gym. I haven't sparred since I fought my last fight. I'm going to get all of this fat off of my body and campaign at light heavy."

GL: So it's not going to be a struggle to make the weight.

CB: "Not at all, because all I'm doing is running. I lose weight when I spar and I haven't sparred yet. I could back down to 168 is if I wanted to, but I think light heavyweight is a good fit for me. I got my body back and I got no fat on my body no more. I wasn't a guy who used any illegal substances so I didn't put on any muscle mass. I'm not a muscular guy, so mine was mostly fight. I ate my way to become a heavyweight, but I was never a true heavyweight. Eveytime I fought nobody knows what I really weighed when I got into the ring. Before I fought Wladimir Klitschko I came in at 197 and then I got the flu after that for three days and I was sick and my weight went even lower.

"Fighting these big guys I got into the ring and I didn't want to fight at the smaller weight at the time because it wasn't really hot. I thought heavyweight would be the ultimate challenge because those guys are big and they hit hard, but now I got a new challenge. I'm going to lose the weight, I'm already down around the weight so I might as well challenge every single guy out there.

"Tarver is claiming he's the man. Put it up, I'm here to run things. Chad Dawson is a bad boy too, but I'm here now and I'm here to make matches."

GL: So are you trying to say the light heavyweights have problems?

CB: "All day long. I'm going to be a true light heavyweight and people aren't going to believe it because I've been heavyweight my whole career. If you saw me right now you'd either think I'm sick or heavily in training."

GL: We'll keep it short for now Byrdman, looking forward to having you back on Boxingtalk a lot more often. Closing thoughts?

CB: "I'm challenging all the light heavyweights out there. I'm going to issue that challenge right now, how many of them are going to accept it though? Becoming a light heavyweight champion is going to be huge for me. I don't think anybody in history ever went back down, who goes from heavyweight for more than one night and moves right back down? It's never happened."

M

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