Both tough men and hard punchers. Both outboxed by phenomenal boxers of their day, Charles and Walcott for Ray and Ali and Quarry for Lyle. I believe Ray was slightly smaller than Lyle at 6'2 210 lbs (I believe) compared to Lyle at 6'3 220 lbs. Who takes it?
Look another dumb thread by you. You aren't even smart enough to look up the stupid you say. Elmer Ray started his career weighing 188 and weighed as low as 180. So you are just going to pick the heaviest he weighed and say that was his prime weight? Ron Lyle lost to Jerry Quarry a 200 pounder, Ali who weighed 224, Jimmy Young who weighed 201. George Foreman who was 225. Those were his prime loses. Elmer on the other hand was knocked out by Fast Black a 178 pound fighter in 2 rounds John Lewis a 182 pounder and lost various other fights in his prime to small guys and small guys who weren't even that good in some cases
An interesting match up. Both guys came to the world stage late, and could perhaps have been a lot better given earlier opportunities. I think that Ray has the better results, but not by such a margin that we would favor him on that alone. I suspect that Lyle had the better power, but both could hit , and both could be stopped. I suspect that Ray might have been a slightly better technician, but I don't have the footage to back this up. Pick em fight I guess.
If it comes down to who beat the better fighters then Elmer Ray takes this hands down. I have never understood why The modern obsession for muscular punchers of yesteryear has excluded Elmer Ray from most debates. He's ten times the fighter of Cleveland Williams and other mythical beasts.
any particular reason you chose Williams out of the dozens of fighters you could have named? I do actually agree with you though. In the end, we just don't enough about him to say, but my impression of him is that at his best he would have been far too good for someone like Lyle, who has a very, very limited knockout ledger where top fighters are concerned. One ranked guy I think, off the top of my head. Not big money, but i'd be happy to lay money on Ray here as a guess.
Elmer is quite unlucky. Put him in with say a Carnera when he was champ and Elmer probably wears a strap.
Haha. Just seems like I am eternally haunted by his image... Your absolutely right. It would be great to see footage of Ray just to get a handle on him once and for all. I can't decide if the period where Ray was as good as both Charles and Walcott ended only because they improved or if it was only because he declined.
