Man, I wouldn't bet on this one. I want to say that since Quarry was able to beat Lyle, Frazier could do it to. But Lyle had the power, chin and body type to beat Frazier. I'll call this a toss up.
I would go with Frazier ,his workrate would put Lyle on the defensive ,I think.Lyle has the potential to win this but I dont think he would, Frazier's determination and pressure take a dec,but he might have a couple of shaky moments along the way.
Frazier wins, but it is a match up with intrigue, with Lyle being the bigger stronger man, kinda like Foreman. Difference is Lyle is kinda like Foreman but not Foreman and Frazier is an alltime great. Another interesting fight would have been Lyle vs Norton.
Frazier seemed to stay clear of the up and coming contenders of the 70's. The only one he took on, except for Foreman, was Bugner and he could hardly have been seen as a threat by the Frazier camp. When making his comeback after losing to Foreman and then Ali he choose guys he'd already beaten like Ellis and Quarry. Don't exactly know the reasoning behind this, but taking on Bugner and rematching Quarry and Ellis must have been seen as pretty safe bets. I can see why they wouldn't want anything to do with Lyle after what happened against Foreman. Quarry had beat Lyle and Shavers and been beaten by Frazier himself, so he was kind of perfect. Taking on Ellis in 1975 was really the safest name opponent he could meet at that time. But anyway, personally I've never heard if Lyle was someone the Frazier camp was avoiding or if the fight just didn't happen. Would be interesting to know. If I was Frazier manager I would definitely see Lyle as a high risk/low reward opponent during 1973-1975. The same with Shavers.
I think Joe pulls out an eighth round stoppage, but Ron is going to give him fits, and it will be a war all the way, a nip-and-tuck situation.
Lyle is another one whom I'd have made favourite to have beaten Joe,if the fight had occured in 1976. Because Frazier was ready to be taken,imo,by virtually any top contender after Ali stopped him in Manila. Before Manila,Frazier would obviously have been favourite to stop Ron by the time the middle rounds were over.
lyle is not foreman but this is a good fight to watch. I would expect frazier to win since he beat bugner and hurt him whilst bugner took lyle to a split decision. Frazier also KOd quarry and ellis eitherside of the foreman loss and lyle did not.
Joe Frazier may be at a stylistic disadvantage here, but he's just in another class from Lyle. He's on another level. He'd break Lyle down and stop him, suffering some shaky moments along the way. Does anyone else find it amusing that if Ron Lyle's last name was Butt his name would be Ron Butt? Interestingly, were his last name to Butt, I'd probably pick him over Frazier. :think
other than lose a lot, what did lyle do to make him in any way favoured or highly competitive in this?
I agree, with previous posters, Frazier has some scary moments in the first 3 or 4 rounds, but that left hand starts gettin to Ronnie. And Frazier's body work would break down Lyle after too long no doubt.
Quarry beat Lyle before he peaked. Lyle turned 30 in February of 1971. In April of 1971 he had his first pro fight. He boxed in prison and he had a brief amateur career (14 months). He won his first 19 fights, 17 by KO. He had knocked out Vincente Rondon KO2, Buster Mathis KO2, and Larry Middleton KO3 prior to his fight with Jerry Quarry in February of 1973. Lyle had KO wins in the 7th and 9th rounds. He also had won a 10 round decision but most of his fights up to this point had been stopped inside of 4 rounds. Quarry won 7 or 8 out of 12 rounds IMO. Lyle had never been past the 10th round. It was Quarry's 55th pro fight. After Quarry, Lyle would peak. He fought- Gregorio Peralta W10 and D10, Jose L. Garcia KO3, Juergen Blin KO3, a rematch with Larry Middelton W10, Oscar Bonavena W12, Jimmy Ellis W12, Boone Kirkman KO8, Jimmy Young L10 and L12, Muhammad Ali LKOby11, Ernie Shavers KO6, George Foreman LKOby5, Joe Bugner W12, Stan Ward W10, Scott LeDoux W10, and others. The top 4 HW fighters of the 70's not named Ali, Holmes, Foreman, Frazier, and Norton were- Young, Lyle, Quarry, and Shavers... I know many would put Quarry above Lyle but IMO Lyle would become better than Quarry. Here's why- Vs. top fighters Lyle did better IMO. Lyle gave Ali fits before being stopped and many felt the fight was stopped too early. Ali beat Quarry with ease x2. Lyle dropped Foreman twice before being stopped. Lyle was outpointed by Young twice but Quarry never fought Young. Lyle never fought Frazier but Quarry did x2... and was beaten badly by him x2.
