Watching Ruddock vs Tyson 2 and I genuinely think Ruddock would stop Lyle. He hung tough with Tyson for 12 rounds, so he showed chin and stamina. I think it would be an even fight between Lyle and Ruddock with perhaps Lyle dropping Ruddock. But as Lyle tires, Ruddock wins by KO
The smash was more powerful than anything in Lyle's repertoire. He also had superior boxing skills, and superior endurance (in spite of his asthma attacks). Lyle perhaps had the better heart but that's not gonna matter here. Lyle is way to open. Ruddock admittedly wasn't exactly Ali when it came to defense, but he's much faster and is gonna get there first. Of course if we're talking about ESB Lyle, disregard everything I said. Ruddock is knocked out at the staredown.
I agree with this 100 percent. History has been rewritten to make Ruddock look like a scrub. But in the early 90s, he was regarded as a dangerous contender who had a realistic chance of being heavyweight champion.
Jake, when two big bangers like this get together, anything can happen. So, although I lean towards Lyle, I won't dispute your opinion on this. The only thing that gave me pause was your mention of, "But as Lyle tires..." I don't know where that has infiltrated Lyle's history but he was actually a real solid performer with great fundamentals and good stamina. Unless you're looking at the Lyle maybe from the Ledoux fight where he was about 38 years old, I don't see it. His prime would have been around '74 where it all came together and he was going 12 rounds with Bonavena and Ellis. That alone tells you his stamina was sound. But that brought up a statistical question with me on comparison. Razor went 12 rounds once in his career and went 10 rounds four times. That's it. Compare that with Lyle going 12 rounds five times, 11 rounds once and 10 rounds twelve times. For me, that says a lot. Not to knock Razor too much here but the question on stamina should lie with him. When he was trained by George Chuvalo (check out the Weaver fight) he showed he could box. However, once he realized he had a left uppercut, all his fundamentals went out the window. Now, the smash was a formidable weapon right up there with the Ken Norton/Tim Witherspoon overhand right, the Joe Frazier left hook, Ingo's Bingo and the Suzy-Q. But once he fell in love with the power and dumped his fundamentals, he really became a one-trick-pony, albeit a feared one. Sorry, I'm getting wordy here.
When Lyle was taking hard punches from Foreman, he gassed out. He also seemed to gas out vs Ali. Ruddock and Lyle wouldn't have to look for each other and this would promise to be an entertaining fight. But I would favor Razor Ruddock
This would be a lot of fun but Razor will find him with The Smash and put him to sleep. Like another poster said Ruddock was legit feared after sleeping Smith, Dokes and hanging tough with Tyson. Lyle ate Quarry’s hook all night, he’ll eventually eat too many of Razor’s and go to sleep while possibly being ahead on the cards.
