There's a point in Tyson's career where he'd make very short work of any version of Lyle. Between 1986-1989 Tyson would ko Lyle with in 5-6 rds max. However After Tyson's prison stint, when he became much more of a simple walk in puncher, than the slick boxer puncher he was in the mid 80's Lyle's chances increase expotentially . In a battle bewtween two big punchers, Lyle was much more mentally tough, and in a battle of wills I can envision Tyson getting frustrated and intentionally getting himself DQ'ed as he did with Holyfield 2nd fight. Or wilting and ko'ed . One thing that we learned about Lyle in his fight with Foreman, he will get off the floor and fight on. We never saw that with Tyson.
That's definitely a scenario, him getting dqd, especially the post prison years. Tyson seemed less and less physically or mentally to want to go in to later rounds as he aged, so yes if Lyle still around after the fifth? Anything can happen.
Post prison Tyson. He was severely degraded from his prime. Prime Lyle who almost kod George Foreman in 1976 could beat post prison Tyson who squared up and was very easy to hit.
To be fair, Lyle was very easy to hit, and while Tyson obviously wasn't the same fighter he was pre-prison, he was still far better defensively (and in every other metric) than Lyle. I think you'd have to go all the way to Tyson's return in '98 to find a version of Tyson, Lyle could beat.
I favor the Seldon version of Tyson over Lyle still. Too much speed and power left. He would be hittting Lyle a lot Botha/Golota version of Tyson would be a 50/50 fight. Even with shot legs, Tyson could still flatten Lyle. Williams/McBride version of Tyson I am sure Lyle would beat every time.
I pretty much agree with this characterization. The late but good version of Tyson you mention that took Golata and Bowe really are 50/50. Tyson might have to take a Ruddok style beating to win but he’s ten years past doing that. So it’s probably the most interesting. Tyson early in his comeback was still pretty dangerous and I think would be willing to take lumps to build towards a payday.