I see a 75-76 ron lyle giving joe louis a dangerous fight

He beat plenty of good fighters too. I'd have it 4-1.

 

One obvious problem with the eras argument is that we have numerous cases of fighters losing to older guys from earlier eras. We don't have to speculate in many instances because they actually proved in the ring they could beat fighters of later eras by actually you know, beating them.

Some examples include Chuvalo beating Quarry when he was probably well past his best.
Eddie Machen beating Jerry Quarry despite being well past his prime
Floyd Patterson beating Bonavena at age 37 in 1972 despite being more than a decade removed from his peak and arguably getting robbed against Jimmy Ellis.

Eddie Machen and Chuvalo actually lost in turn to Bob Baker and Harold Johnson who were from the same era as Marciano.

 

Sharkey-Schmelling is another good example of a top fighter from an earlier era beating one of the best guys of the subsequent era.

 

There was only 3 years age difference between Sharkey and Schmeling.I don't think either proved superiority over the other at any stage.Sharkey was top ten ranked from 1925-32.

 

Dempsey-Sharkey was what I meant, given that Dempsey beat Sharkey we have proof that fighters from the late 1910s early 1920s could beat those from the following era. Dempsey's prime was circa 1918-1923 while Sharkey's was 1926-1932 so about 10 years apart.

The problem for Foreman is that the big guys he was fighting were journeymen types not at all analogous to the skilled big men of today. Foreman also doesn't have great defense and Joshua should be able to land on him without much difficulty. Joshua would seem to be well above anyone Foreman faced as a puncher so we can't be at all confident Foreman would take his shots especially given that he was dropped by lighter hitters.

Also Joshua has been as heavy as 254 if were using Foreman's heaviest weights from the 70s it seems fair to also use Joshua's heaviest weight which is 22 1/2 pounds above Foreman's highest in the 70s.

 

The guys Foreman was facing in the 70s were much closer in weight to todays cruiserweights than the top heavyweights, perhaps Foreman vs Usyk or Gassiev is a better matchup size-wise.

 

Who knows? Might have been very interesting fights.

 

Anyway I am skeptical at the notion that Lyle is going to be harder to beat in Louis era than his own era. People have provided considerable criticism of guys from that era like Baer and Galento but Loughran, Schmelling, Walcott, Conn, etc seem reasonably skilled. It would be interesting to hear a breakdown of their skills relative to guys Lyle fought.

 

You're like a grumpy old man

 

If by Tyson you mean Mike Tyson, he destroys with a devastating vengeance today. What I wouldn't give for a time machine that could bring Mike Tyson and Kevin Rooney circa 1986 to 2018

 

I wonder if Tyson could boil down to cruiserweight, it would be interesting to see if he could beat Gassiev.

 

Foreman and Lyle both chopped down Jack O' Halloran, who was very much like the Klitschko's in both size and physique (if not skill).

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He was very athletic and even had fast hands, but looks very stiff as well.