Rate Ron Lyle's power against ATG heavy handed heavyweights

[IronDanHamza]

How do you feel he does from 2000>Present.

I'm sure he could pick up a title.

I have no doubt in my mind Ron Lyle could win a version of the 3,000 belts they have an offer this day and age in the ****ty HW era we have had to endure over the last 10 years.

[joseph5620]

How do you feel he does from 2000>Present.

I'm sure he could pick up a title.

I think Lyle would have beaten Lamon Brewster, John Ruiz and Sam Peter. In that sense he definitely would have picked up a title.

[nomadman]

Lyle was a powerful man, but he lacked the speed or snap on his punches that other big punching heavyweights have/had.

You don't necessarily need speed and snap to be a powerful puncher, as Foreman and Liston attest to, and Lyle was certainly quicker handed than both. What he didn't possess, I think, is their solidity. His whole upper body was rooted on a rather flimsy foundation.

[nomadman]

How do you feel he does from 2000>Present.

I'm sure he could pick up a title.

I agree with the other poster that he could certainly beat Brewster, Peter, Ruiz, Rahman or any of the weaker title holders in that time, but he'd be smashed up by Lennox or either of the Klitschkos. I'd also pick guys like Byrd and Chambers to outbox him. Sanders would be an interesting fight. I think it'd be a tear-up.

[Wild Blue Yonda]

I think Lyle is pretty underrated as a power puncher, or rather I should say that he tends to be overlooked when discussions about who hits the hardest invariably come up. I'm not sure why, maybe because he never really had any signature KOs over great opponents; off the top of my head only Mathis and Shavers might be considered name opponents, but then again Shavers wasn't that hard to KO and that was a life and death battle with Lyle nearly laid out on the canvas. At any rate, Lyle was a very hard puncher, and a dangerous fight for anyone at that time. Against Foreman he was literally launching himself at George at the start of every round, and was really putting his weight into his shots. I lost count of the times he had Foreman out on his feet and nearly out of the fight.

Saying that, I still have a hard time imagining Lyle as being the hardest puncher Foreman ever faced. IMO, and taking all their fights into account, Cooney, Morrison, and Briggs were the harder hitters, despite not actually knocking him down. Why is a little controversial. I actually believe that the older Foreman was more resilient to damage than the younger one, due to having a much thicker neck and mass around his shoulders cushioning the blows. He also learnt to take the edge off punches with his mummy-like arms out defensive style where the young Foreman would take them much flusher. In all other physical aspects of course, the younger Foreman trumps him, but, I don't know, the older Foreman just seemed to have an indestructability about him which I don't think a perceived weakness of eras can entirely account for.

**Side point, but I've always thought Lyle had an unusual body for a puncher. He was extremely developed in the upper body, his shoulders and traps were enormous in comparison to the rest of him, especially his relatively thin legs. Sorta like Lamon Brewster, another underrated puncher. It's an odd physique, maybe ok for an amateur bodybuilding compeition in the 70s but not exactly prime boxer material. I think it would be interesting to analyse the effect his best punches had on opponents throughout a fight, since I'm a big proponent in believing that there's more than one way to deliver a stopping blow, and a fighter might find himself having the perfect punching style to seriously hurt a normally iron-chinned fighter.

How do you envision a fight with Tyson, circa-1991, turning out? How would Foreman react to Tyson's speed & power?

[nomadman]

How do you envision a fight with Tyson, circa-1991, turning out? How would Foreman react to Tyson's speed & power?

That's a tough question. Foreman seemed to shrug off Morrison's left hooks like they were nothing, and I rate Morrison's and Tyson lefts as more or less the same in terms of power, speed, snap etc. Tyson though, also had murderous power in his right and in his uppercut, two punches Tommy wasn't especially known for, as well as a much better chin that would have enabled him to step into the pocket more (something Tommy seemed afraid to do). I can see Tyson catching Foreman with a sharp overhand right (possibly a counter), stun him, and follow up with a barrage of blows to end the fight sometime in the mid to late rounds, similar to what Evander nearly did. More realistically, I think he wins a clear decision, with George hurt several times in the contest but frustrating Mike with smothering attempts that stifle his best shots.