Cleveland Williams vs Ron Lyle primes

Yeah, perhaps. Earnie could become quite overexcited and wild in his follow ups.

Shavers certainly laid enough leather on Lyle otherwise to make me think IF he was going to KO Ron, it would’ve/should’ve happened anyway.

People talk of Shavers god given raw power - but that left hook/uppercut was beautifully executed, right on the chin, it doesn’t get any better than that - and Earnie was almost going backward when he threw it.

Shavers punching technique is somewhat underrated imo.

Some might’ve assumed that Lyle wouldn’t have gotten back up from that - but arise he did.

Did they allow counting after the bell (excluding final bell) for that fight? I don’t know.

PS - it seems K’s “Cleveland Williams” Alert is still working fine.

 

If only his brain and sarcasm radar were working as well.

 

Yeah for sure IMO. Lyle was in terrible condition. He actually did well to recover even with the rest period. It was actually a left hook too from memory.

 

Cleveland Williams did very well against men who’s last name was Daniels..

 

Wasn't Lyle a washed up 37 or 38 yr old then. Come on

 

Yeah Ron was pretty shot. He was actually 40 years old and in two of his more recent fights was beaten in two rounds by trial horse Lynn Ball and then decked twice to a draw by Scott Ledoux. As much as I like Gerry Cooney the Lyle fight didn’t count for squat

 

Lyle by KO, simply a stronger man with better chin, two-handed power, and with that prison toughness he has, he would beat Williams by KO.

 

I feel like Lyle gets overrated and Williams gets underrated.

Williams didn’t have bad stamina or a weak chin as many think is the case.

Look at the context of his stoppage losses and you’ll see it’s not down to a weak chin.

His stamina is also, at the very least, decent. He went late with Terrell and stopped him.

His prime form is Stopping Terrell late in the fight, who does know how to wear out opponents.

He got knocked out by Liston, but did take some solid punches before going down and stunned Liston himself.

He drew against Machen, with 2 judges scoring it a draw and one scoring it to Williams.

Williams was unfortunate in the sense that there weren’t many fighters for him to prove himself against so we know his definite level, there was guys he was well above, and then there was Liston.

The only competitive fight that’s actually on camera where we can somewhat see his level is the Terrell fight. The Machen fight isn’t on camera. We didn’t see him on camera against many styles at that same level.

So people judge him off of his losses past his prime, which is unfair. But in his prime, there’s nothing to suggest he was chinny or had poor stamina.

What we can see is that he had great punch selection in offence and was explosive. He was a great finisher, went to the body well with the left hook and followed up well. He also set up attacks well from the outside by hooking off of the jab, and he could lead with that hook to the head or to the body, and then could catch you in the trades with the speed and short punches.

We already know that Lyle had poor stamina and he was slower than Williams. The power was similar, the only thing is that Lyle did have a lot more fights on film at that top level, that’s what makes it a hard pick.

Williams’ chin wasn’t shown to be bad, but we don’t know if it was solid or average, since we haven’t seen prime Williams clocked enough on film, whereas Lyle’s chin stood up to a lot, it stood up to Shavers’ best and plenty of Foreman’s. He also took a lot from Ali without going down.

If I had to guess, I’d say Williams chin = slightly above average, whereas Lyle’s chin = solid/very good, Williams is much more explosive and has better stamina.

I could see Williams beating Lyle to the punch in the exchanges, and outboxing him and stopping him late, but I could also see Lyle catching Williams with something he doesn’t recover from, since I’d guess Lyle can take more of what Williams has, and Williams was a bit straight up at times, but like I said, I don’t necessarily think Williams has a weak chin.

I wouldn’t be surprised with either result.

 

Excellent post.

 

I would take Lyle

 

Williams, easier than probably most folks here think.