One fight that did n't take place during the golden era of heavyweights. I can envisage two very different endings here. If Lyle can hurt Norton early on,Kenny will tense up and lose via ko within 2/3 rounds. However if Lyle fails to dominate early,Norton will maintain his confidence level and take it by clear points verdict.
At one point, I would have picked Lyle due to Ken's tendency to falter against big punchers. Now I'm not so sure anymore. In order to beat Ken Norton, You typically had to fall into one of two categories: A. An all time great boxer like Ali or Holmes B. A puncher with world class power like Foreman or Shavers. Lyle never really fell into either of these categories. Yes, he could certainly crack, but how many world class fighters did he KO? Not very many. The only named opponent that he really knocked out was Earnie Shavers who's durability was no better than Norton's and who lacked in far more areas. Norton fought the type of style that I don't think we ever really saw Lyle go up against, and while his chin was suspect, it mainly failed him against punchers of legendary proportions ( something Lyle isn't. ) I'm inclined to taking Ken by a decision.
Lyle had world class power. I think he just didn't opt to use it as much after seeing it didn't work against Quarry. The Lyle of the Foreman fight would probably knock Norton out.
I don't think that his power was anything on the level of a Shavers, Cooney or Foreman - Two of which fought Norton when he was between 36-38 years of age. Outside of Shavers, and perhaps Mathis ( neither were known for their durability ), who did Lyle KO of note? Before we make this conviction, we have to look at a few factors. First of all Norton had absolutely nothing in common with Foreman stylistically. George showed no defense in that fight, and fought a match that was atypical of his usual approach. Secondly, Lyle faced Foreman after George was returning from a 16 month layoff and a devastating loss. My thinking is, that if Lyle had been in the ring on the night that Foreman Ko'd Frazier or Norton, the same or similar outcome would occurred.
I didn't imply at all that Norton was similar to Foreman. My reasoning is that in a slugfest, Lyle and Foreman would be similar. Since you seem to like to rank power, I'll say that Cooney generated the most power out of the bunch followed by Shavers, and yes Lyle. I believe he generated a little more power than Foreman at that time. Anyway, Foreman stated that the Ali fight made him a better fighter, and that he would not have gotten up if it wasn't for that loss.
I wish this fight had taken place, but Lyle was a pretty good puncher, and we all know how Norton fared against big hitters... terribly.