CHRIS BYRD vs SHAUN GEORGE

In what will be his last year in boxing, former heavyweight champion Chris Byrd is going to make another championship run — but as a light-heavyweight. He starts the quest on Friday Night Fights in a 10-rounder against Brooklyn’s Shaun George.

Byrd’s lawyer and longtime adviser John Hornewer tells me that the Las Vegas-domiciled southpaw feels the new, lighter weight has given him a new lease on life. “A well-known fighter asked me the other day: ‘Why is Chris still fighting, does he have money problems?’ ” Hornewer said on Wednesday. “I told him: ‘No, he has competitive problems.’ I’m excited to see how he will look at this weight.”

Byrd weighed just under 212 pounds when he was worn down and stopped by Alexander Povetkin in Germany last October but Hornewer said: “It isn’t like Roy Jones, who lost all that weight quickly before he fought Antonio Tarver. Chris has been losing weight gradually. He’s been at 173 for the last few weeks. He looks so lean that he said people who’ve known him for years walked right by him — they didn’t even recognise him. Chris will be 38 in August and it will be the last birthday he will have as an active boxer — that’s the timetable we’re on — and he wants to be a champion again before he leaves.”

The 10-rounder is made at the light-heavy limit of 175 pounds — “We wanted it to be at 175 so that no one will have any doubts about whether Chris can make the weight,” Hornewer said.

Despite Byrd’s age he is a huge favourite over the 29-year-old George, who has also come down in weight, having boxed as a cruiserweight for a couple of years before deciding he was better-suited boxing at his original weight of light-heavy: George has won three bouts in a row at 175 pounds.

Looking at the fighters’ records, there seems a significant difference in class. Byrd has fought at a far higher level and is vastly more experienced.

While Byrd has wins over top-tier heavyweights, George was knocked out in one round by Matt Godfrey, who has never been considered a hard hitter, and was floored and outpointed by the southpaw Alexander Gurov in Russia. The fact that Byrd has shed 40 pounds shows how determined he is about once more grabbing glory.

Still, I thought that George looked sharp when he outpointed southpaw Richard Hall on Friday Night Fights last May, although he did seem to get a bit tired towards the end of the eight-rounder. He hit Hall with some classy shots and seemed to have him hurt in the middle rounds. It was the best that I have seen George look in some time, maybe ever.

Richard Hall isn’t Chris Byrd, of course, but George’s performance against the seasoned and somewhat dangerous Jamaican southpaw suggests that the Brooklyn boxer does have a chance on Friday.

This is a huge fight for George. If he loses he remains just a journeyman. If George upsets the odds, though, he will be nicely positioned in the light-heavy division: beating Chris Byrd would raise George’s profile considerably.

The task looks too much for George, but he knows that this is a last chance to make an impact and I expect him to go out and try to seize the moment. Byrd will be boxing at his lightest weight in 15 years and we cannot be sure how he will perform at 175 pounds.

Of course, Byrd should win. He has the experience and the expertise, he is the house fighter on the Banner Promotions show and he’s on home ground in Las Vegas — and George has not been brought in to spoil the comeback.

I am expecting a decision win for Byrd but I do not think that George is by any means in a hopeless position. He has been to training camp in Phoenix and told Tim Smith of The New York Daily News that he has been sparring with southpaws Antonio Tarver and Vassiliy Jirov. He sounds confident and ready.

If George isn’t intimidated by Byrd’s past achievements, and just goes out and fights his fight, I think that even if he doesn’t win he can do better than generally expected. The more I think about it, the less I am expecting an easy night for Byrd.

RESULT: George KO9.