Joe Byrd's Boxing Academy

[Chris Nagel]

First I'd like to briefly introduce Joe Byrd Sr. Some of you may know him as father of former heavyweight champ Chris Byrd. Joe was a former pro fighter himself (see Joe Byrd - Boxer). Now age 77, he's been coaching boxing for almost 50 years.

Just scratching the surface, I found out that he was a sparring partner for Bob Foster for the Joe Frazier bout. Yesterday, I asked him about a Sugar Ray Robinson fight poster on the wall, he said he fought an exhibition with him back in '66. He's been in the ring with many fighters. It just goes to show that many interesting in-the-ring encounters are off the books, and you won't have any idea until you talk to them.



P.S. I took a photo of that fight poster earlier today, see attached photo.