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

I said perhaps. Foreman rated Lyle as the hardest hitter he faced. Some of Louis' opponents rated other people as being harder punchers than Louis. Just a thought.

 

Why is that so unlikely? Common opponents of Foreman and Lyle rated them about even.

 

I am very willing to entertain the idea that Lyle punched harder than Louis, but surely we must credit Louis as being the finer finisher.

 

These "who hit harder" arguments probably aren't resolvable anyway. Once you're a puncher, there's only so much extra granularity the Classic forum can get into.

Also, at a certain point, how much does it matter? The hardest hitter of all time is likely some guy we've never heard of. DaVarryl Williamson may well have hit harder than Foreman, for all we know, but he wasn't a puncher on Big George's level.

 

Absolutely. The combination of finishing ability, hand speed, technique, and timing make Louis far more dangerous than Lyle and that's precisely why I favored him to win. Even if Lyle managed to land a bomb, he probably wouldn't be able to finish him off as Louis has good recuperative powers and Lyle wasn't a very great finisher. Louis wins 8/10.

 

It’s possible that Ron Lyle might have hung in there for a while with Joe Louis. He ultimately gets stopped but may give a good account of himself. He rose off the canvas to beat Earnie Shavers and gave George Foreman fits so yeah he wasn’t unaccustomed to battling world class punchers

 

I just don't see it in the results

 

I often wonder, out of all the guys who never got into boxing, could there be someone out there who just naturally hits as hard as a George Foreman or Earnie Shavers? Like some guy who works at Costco or the Post Office.

 

There is undoubtedly someone who never boxed, but would have hit harder than those guys if he'd been trained. I doubt boxing recruitment is 100% efficient.

 

This post should be the end of this discussion, it couldn't be more true.

 

Thanks my friend.

 

But mr. magoo, Jimmy Young who could not hit, he could not crack an egg, defeated Ron Lyle twice. Jerry Quarry who was past his peak years, defeated Lyle. Joe Louis is not going to be intimidated by a muscle bounded fighter who knocked down an ego deflated George Foreman, who has zero stamina to speak of.

 

Okay then…. Louis KO 1 Ron Lyle

 

Laid out flat. Ha Ha.

 

This was my early response to this thread, and I stand by it.