OK, what am I missing about Ron Lyle?

It's not just Ron Lyle on here, a lot of other fighters get built up way beyond reality.
It just is what it is..

 

Ron Lyle is a unique individual. He died in 2011 and, since then, he has improved substantially as a fighter. Not just anyone can become a better boxer after death than he was when he was alive.

 

I try to rate Lyle about as good as he was in reality. Good, but not good enough to the get the sort of recognition he does today.
Him telling Ali to come to the center of the ring in their match is still one of my favorite boxing moments, but we do have to keep in mind that Ali was playing with him throughout that fight.

 

Lyle had decent power and was a good, tough opponent for anyone. But fighting in the golden HW era of the 70's he was simply not a serious championship caliber type of fighter. Too many ahead of him in the pecking order.

 

I've never seen a fight so misrepresented as Ali Vs Lyle.

Ali was doing nothing the entire fight, in one of the worst shapes of his career (the heaviest he'd ever been in his career at the time), and fooling around. Lyle was ahead on account of being the slightly busier man.

Somehow this narrative has turned into, Lyle dominating Ali, and outboxing him effortlessly when that couldn't be further from the truth.

 

70s Nostolgia.

 

I think he’s overrated in the same way most older fighters are with the passage of time, he gives some elite guys trouble and maybe even beats some, but some mediocre fighters would also beat him, he’d stop Norton but would probably lose to someone like Chris Byrd.

 

"Came out of prison to dominate Ali and bust up Foreman" sounds a lot better than "Ali toyed with him and Foreman knocked him out after being gone from the sport for two years".

 

Put it better than I ever could.

 

I dunno if I'd go as far to say that he'd stop Norton, it'd probably be the other way around.

 

Well ur only as good as who u beat and Lyle had some ok scalps.even if many were out of prime. I’d say better than most but not in the upper echelon. He put on one of the greatest shows ever v a top ten arguably top five HW in Foreman. For that he deserves respect.

I agree I don’t think he was much better or worse than men like Nino, Galento, Bruno etc. Some good wins just outclassed by the upper echelon of talent. But anyone who gets in that ring deserves respect and if men r fans then so be it they earned the respect

 

I’d favour Norton if he got out of the first 4 rounds, but he’s been bombed out a good few times against punchers, slow starting, not an iron chin and not very good in the backfoot, I think he gets taken out within then more often than not, his defense works against the jab and straight punches, but is susceptible to hooks and uppercuts and powerful combinations, a bit of a sitting duck against big punchers.

 

Norton could start out quite quick if he was in the mood, he came straight at Ali, knocked out Bobick in 1, and was definitely a faster starter than Frazier. Lyle also wasn't exactly the greatest pressure fighter, and was only really able to fight on the frontfoot when fighting guys who were just standing in front of him inactive- Whereas Norton in his prime was real good at pushing guys to thr ropes and knocking hard on their body and their head. Lyle may have survived The Acorn, but I don't think he'd make it past Black Hercules.

 

Reasonable minds can disagree about Norton vs Lyle, I’d say. I would’ve been interested to see Lyle had he turned pro at 19 or 20. I realise you can’t rate him on that, & I don’t, but it would have been interesting, is all.