Would Lyle as a possible contender in the 1950s be seen as a bad matchup for Marciano? A guy to be avoided? Or just a tough fight for the Rock but winnable? Thought's?
If Rocky's face holds together I can see him grinding Lyle down for a late stoppage/points win. But Lyle was big, powerful and could potentially light Rocky up from a distance. And Rocky didn't fight too many big guys. A disciplined Lyle, boxing at range could do well, bust up Rocky and force a cuts stoppage. However, if he gets sucked into a brawl then the odds are more favourable to Rocky. I think the result rests on whether Lyle can stick to a gameplan or not.
Lyle could almost certainly do some damage to Rocky. A toe to toe fight between them could turn out something like Foreman v Lyle. He's a live underdog here imo.
A great style clash. Lyle’s the bigger man at 6’3”, 220, with legit power in both hands and a solid jab. If he kept Rocky at range, he could do damage and maybe even drop him. But Marciano’s pressure, stamina, and ability to break guys down was next level. He wasn’t looking to win a round here or there — he was looking to wear you out and hurt you every second. Lyle could hurt Rocky, but keeping him off for 12–15 rounds is another story. Lyle's na shot at possibly catching him early if they fought ten times. But most nights, Rocky walks through the fire, takes over in the later rounds, and grinds out a stoppage.
Because Lyle is not Norton. I would have Ron as the prohibitive favorite over Marciano, and by stoppage.
Style's make fights, Rocky's style here is to go right at a bigger, stronger harder punching heavyweight. Marciano losing this is a distinct possibility
I mean, yeah. Rocky is a tad underrated skill-wise, but the attributes that allow him to hold himself at a championship level long enough for the occasional flash of brilliance to show were ultimately grit and stamina, and Lyle was a killer puncher with do-or-die mentality, solid if fundamental skillset, and numerous displays of how he fares when under more physical pressure (Ali and Young were an extremely cerebral test he could not pass.) Trading leather with Shavers and getting up from that left hook to get the stoppage, decisioning Bonavena for what it's worth, while past-it roughing Bugner hard enough that he remembered it as nearly being killed, hurting the comeback Foreman to head and body like he's never been hurt before (and through the following decades George named him the hardest puncher he's ever faced; when Cooney nailed Foreman with those left hooks, George said he feared it was going into the Lyle bout territory, recalling the viciousness of the fight over a decade later.) Lyle could be outthought, but for Marciano to outfight him would be a tall order. A well placed Suzie-Q could absolutely hurt Ron, but it's not like he wasn't in the ring with numerous killers (two of the hardest punchers of his era, often deified to the rare pantheon of the hardest punchers to ever lace them) with varied punch selection, including one hailed for his overhand right.
Good post and very valid points. I'm not one of those that overrated Lyle, claiming he's a killer. But in this particular fight, against this particular fighter, he' could seriously do some damage. Of course we also have the hard punching Marciano, he's not going to just stand there and let Lyle tee off on him . So yes, anything could happen.
I would depend largely on how the match was fought. With Marciano naturally coming forward at Lyle it’s hard to imagine this being a boxing match and not a slugfest. Lyle didn’t usually start trading matches but when met with them he was usually ready to oblige. With the kinds of power shots that would be exchanged in such a fight I suppose anything could happen. Both men might visit the canvas.
I'll offer an unpopular opinion here and say Lyle stops Rocky in the late rounds. I watched Lyle take the biggest punches from Shaverss, Foreman, and other hitters and keep coming. He was an underrated inside fighter with a devastating uppercut, one that would eventually find Rocky's chin. Rocky would have to fight an inside fight, but Lyle was big, strong and could scrap on the inside. I can't see any advantages for Rocky unless he can wear him down to the body and win with stamina. I don't see that happening. Lyle by late round stoppage.
Ron Lyle was not stupid. He was a pretty intelligent guy, albeit one with more than his share of ex-con suspicion and volatility. I had the interesting experience of sitting with him in a Denver apartment and viewing with him the fights with Ali and Foreman. On that afternoon in 1995, Ron admitted he had made a stupid mistake when he broke up with his manager Bill Daniels. Known as the "father of cable television", Daniels was an exceptionally generous and successful businessman who happened to love boxing. Through his political contacts he got Lyle sprung from prison and supported him and provided him a good trainer and everything he needed as he rose up the heavyweight ladder -- and without him Lyle would never have fought Ali for the title. But Ron had selfish people in his ear telling him Daniels was taking advantage of him. He listened to them, told Daniels he wanted to end their partnership. Daniels later said, "Ron Lyle broke my heart." In the ensuing years Daniels became so successful in business that when he retired from his company, he wrote bonus checks to every one of his employees, making them rich. By then, Lyle was scraping by in Las Vegas as a security guard.