Lyle is a "nice" guy and would not push Frazier around like Foreman did. If Frazier gets on top of you, then you are in trouble. Lyle probably gives Frazier a flash knockdown early, but loses by TKO late.
By 1976 Frazier was a part time fighter just looking for superfights, he had paid his dues in the 1967-72 as the premier HW who cleaned house so by 76' he was living off that earlier period. Its not the same frazier at all. However, the record shows joe dealt with Bugner a lot better than lyle did. faded Frazier was no longer great but still good. old joe would deserve the edge.
Here is what Joe Bugner had to say about Ron Lyle in an interview posted in Fightnews.com ... Ron Lyle nearly killed me. I am not kidding, he nearly killed me. The fight was at twelve noon in Las Vegas (nearly all my fights were during midday in the USA to coincide with the television broadcast back in Europe.) To cut a long story short, Ron Lyle was an ex-jail bird and learned boxing in jail. When I met him he said, You got no chance of beating me because I am going to kill you. Here I was at 27 years in the hard world of boxing. The fight went the full twelve rounds. After the bout, I called my brother Bill and told him I could not breathe. I had blood coming out of me. He rang the doctor who called an ambulance and rushed me to the Las Vegas emergency Hospital and they discovered I was bleeding internally. They put me into an ice tank. It took me six months to recover from that fight. Ron Lyle was a punishing fighter and so fu**ing big. He was bigger than me. He kept telling me during the fight, I am going kill you mother fu**er. I sacked my manager after the fight after a ten year relationship. He wanted to go to a party after the fight rather than look after my welfare. I had paid him 25% of my purse.
Lyle was certainly an intimidating man who himself was intimidated of no one, since he was convicted of second degree murder and had nearly been murdered himself in prison. He got right in Foreman's face as well. While he had a tough reputation, in interviews he has always seemed quite personable.
That's what was so scary about him ... it was no act. He was a real bad ass ... so was Shavers ... ever hear the Holmes story about Earnie and their poker game ?
It's in Larry's book ... they were all sparring partners at some Don King camp in the mid 70's and used to play cards at night .. one night confusion over a large pot took place and Earnie stood up, grabbed the money and held up his fist and said "The money is mine, anyone wants it , come and get it." Larry wrote no one said a word, not larry, none of the other guys (all of whom were fighters in their own right) ... no one wanted to take on Shavers ... IN addition, in a recent book interview Earnie straight up tells about deciding to become a hitman, a contract killer, before he took to fighting .. he siad that was what many of the guys he grew up with went into ... he said it very matter of fact, no drama ...
This is a real interesting story I had never heard before. Bugner had weaknesses but he was a big strong guy with a concrete chin who fought many great so if he says Lyle was a monster, he is to be believed. I saw that fight on TV. I remember Joe had nasty looking welts all over his torso by the time the fight ended. No wonder he was in such distress afterwards.
