Who Would Have Stood More Chance Of Beating "The Smoke ''?

Lyle if he can land like he did on Foreman and yet somehow become a physcopathic finisher impervious to return fire. In other words adopt George Foremans's mentality.

 

Ron beats him

 

Agreeing with consensus. Lyle has a punchers chance,
Young has no chance.....

 

Styles do indeed make fights but think about it Ron Lyle lost to Jerry Quarry on points on Feb 9 1973, then Jerry went on later in the year, Dec 14 1973 and kayoed Earnie Shavers in round 1. Frazier early in his career withstood brutal blows by Oscar Bonavena and Jerry Quarry but went on to win both fights.

 

"Block stuff with his face". Lol! That phrase never gets old..coach yells " What the hell are you doing out there?"
Fighter replies " Im beating up his fist with my face." Lol!

 

I’ll go with Lyle as having the better chance. Jimmy would be a pain in his ass though

 

Young would have started playing peek a boo with Frazier, sticking his head through the ropes.

 

I never thought of Jimmy Young as being a “great” fighter. But he was known for making “ great “ fighters look unimpressive. He was awkward. Durable. Fast. Elusive. He was boring to watch a lot of the time and judges didn’t seem to like his style either, hence some of the decisions he got the short end of. But I don’t know if anyone ever looked “good” beating Jimmy Young.

 

Maybe Earnie Shavers did but I see what you are saying, Ali looked terrible, but Young outpointed Lyle quite easily. Then came Foreman, then Norton.

 

Agreed. And we have to consider that Young had a record of 7-3 when he fought shavers the first time who at that point was already a contender

 

Agreed.

 

Young made his reputation as being a sparring partner out of Joe's gym. Tough way to make a living.

 

People often call Shavers limited, but he sparked out Jimmy Young a very good crafty defensive boxer, and fought him to a draw in their 2nd fight. So he had to have some ability to do that.

I was also quite impressed how Shavers paced himself vs Ali, considering Shavers was known for his lack of stamina, for me I was more impressed by that than all of his early KOs.

 

Good point, For Muhammad Ali a fighter was not going to get a quick knockout, the same could be said for Larry Holmes. I think the majority of people can't help remembering what Jerry Quarry did to Earnie Shavers on Dec 14 1973, KO 1. And judging from Shavers power one would think that he could have taken Quarry out as George Chuvalo had done 4 years earlier, TKO 9. But to be honest, Shavers did run out of gas against elite fighters like Ali and Holmes, his downfall. George Foreman was the same way, he sent opponents packing early but he could be drowned by boxers as George got dragged into deep waters like Ali and Young did to him, George was seen lumbering around, too muscle bound.