"Ali-Lyle" of '75 & "Holmes-Snipes" of '81 is eerily similar. WORD!

I can't go along with this. Aside from the knockdown, Holmes really dominated Snipes. Entering round 11, Larry already had a win clinched on Bynum's scorecard, and no worse than a draw on Castellano's ledger. The three point lead Eddie Woods had him ahead by was also a cozy margin with five rounds left. There were nearly two minutes left in round 11 when Rudy Ortega called it off. But if the referee had simply folded his arms and comfortably reclined into a corner to watch it play out. Larry would have taken that round 10-7, or even 10-6.

Ron Lyle and Chickie Ferrara planned and executed a brilliantly conservative strategy, keeping Ali away from the ropes, in mid ring, outfoxing Muhammad to the early lead. After 10, Ron was leading by 49-43, 46-45, and tied on a third, 46-46. But the seams were splitting, and Lyle was about to crack.

 

Mr Bill knows his stuff but I'm abit puzzled by this post. As Duodenum wrote other then the same round stoppages the bouts weren't similar at all. I saw both bouts live and at the time thought the Lyle stoppage was too quick while the Snipes was about right,,,later viewing had me thinking Lyle was way more stunned then I had thought though. Ron fought an intellegent fight and Ali didn't see a need to open up or the points piling up against him apparently while Larry increasingly dominated Mr Snipes. Also am I the only one who thought Snipes right hand stunned Larry more then Shavers did? Snipes was kind of a big mouthed punk but the punk really hurt Larry.

 

Yes, an unwary Holmes did seem more stunned by Snipes than he was by Shavers. Renaldo's power looked completely nonexistent against Cummings, Mustafa Muhammad (who never took a backwards step) and Coetzee. Everybody knew Shavers could drop Larry going into their rematch. Snipes wasn't thought to be much more dangerous than Zanon, and his only really notable burst of power following that challenge was a first round knockdown of Berbick.

Ali's long right stunned Lyle near the outset of round 11, knocking him from mid ring back to the ropes. When Ron had been similarly staggered by Jerry Quarry's hook, he recovered fairly quickly. This was different. Muhammad set himself up for target practice, then battered the foundering challenger clockwise, from one neutral corner to Lyle's corner, then the other neutral corner, giving referee Ferd Hernandez the cut signal before resuming his attack for a few seconds until the halt was called. All told, I counted 46 consecutive punches thrown by Ali. At no time during this final assault did Ron even make a pretense at attempting to punch back. Yes, he immediately protested the stoppage vehemently, but he hadn't clinched or made an effort to compete. He looked like a hornet's nest had been dropped on his head. There were nearly two minutes left in the round.

Muhammad was coming off his collapse inducing championship round surge against Wepner. No matter what Lyle and Chickie Ferrara might have fantasized, Ali was not going to gas if the referee hadn't stepped in. Right before the key punch, Cosell observed how the sweat was pouring off of the older Lyle's legs, but not Muhammad's. The cracks in the dam were already leaking.


Snipes was also stopped with nearly two minutes left in round 11. Larry wasn't ready for it to end. He wanted payback for that knockdown. Unlike Lyle though, Renaldo had seemingly went comatose, frozen in a corner, a very different response from how Holmes reacted in crisis. Following that bout, he was screaming why it wasn't stopped when he decked Larry? Well, maybe that was his own stupid fault for standing over Holmes with his arms raised, forcing Rudy Ortega to escort him to a neutral corner. It was precisely at the moment Ortega's back was turned to do this that Holmes fell face forward into the opposite corner upon getting up. If a skittish referee had seen that, maybe a halt would have been called. Snipes blew the opportunity of a lifetime with foolishly premature celebratory antics. (The next day, everybody I knew who saw it was slamming Snipes, not Holmes, for what had happened, specifically the sheer idiocy of that triumphant gesture.)

 

The main thing that the two fights have in common,is that both Ali and Holmes took Lyle and Snipes lightly.

A myth seems to have sprung up in recent years about Ron's performance against Muhammad. While Lyle,indeed,put up a competent show,it was n't like he was outclassing Muhammad or battering him from pillar to post. Muhammad was in a lazy mood during the early stages of the bout,so Ron was bagging points through workrate,pure and simple.

If Ali had concentrated on business from the first round on,he'd probably have pitched a shutout,and would have ended the contest a lot earlier.



Renaldo Snipes was a lot tougher than Holmes expected. Full credit to Larry recovering from that right hand.

 

Holmes dominated Snipes and won every minute if the fight before and after the careless knockdown. Kudos to Snipes for pulling it off but Larry got sloppy as he was winning the fight so easily and got hit with a big shot from a big puncher ...

Ali fought a pathetic fight against Lyle ... it was a disgrace ... he then woke up and managed to tag Lyle who simply froze ... despite taking much bigger shots v.s. Foreman, Shavers and Quarry ... the fight was a complete disgrace.

 

The approaches both challengers took were not similar at all..Lyle was far more purposeful and measured than was Snipes...though he ultimately lost, he fought intelligently and with a certain amount of caution, taking advantage of Ali's posing and occasional clowning. Snipes had no such mentality and his kd was his only moment of effectiveness.