I personally rank Ron Lyle in the top 20/30 heavyweight contenders. Where do you guys rank him, and what do you think of his toughness and punching power? How do you think he would do against The Greats, like Mike Tyson, or Joe Louis?
Some people feel he was one of the hardest punchers of all time, correctly so. George Foreman and I believe Joe Bugner have both claimed Lyle to be the hardest puncher they ever faced. He was just an extremely tough, extremely big mother****er who could crack like hell. Very eloquently spoken, too, despite a long prison sentence.
Ron Lyle was a warrior in the true sense of the word. Lyle/Foreman fight is one of my favorites of all time.
He almost, almost beat Ali but Ali wasn't going to take that **** and turned the gun to win by KO. Lyle was a good fighter and a tough fight for anyone.
That might suggest more about the era than it does Ron Lyle? Maybe the TS is overrating him. Still was up on the cards against Ali. He's no Jerry Quarry though.
Does someone have to be calling him that for him to be overated? Good fighter, but overated as a puncher and a fighter for me. I'm not trying to say he's ****, just that he never really was able to do it at the highest level, either as a puncher or more generally. Not ranked in March of '75, the two fought in September of '75. Maybe he got into the rankings in the interim, but I don't think KO wins over two fighters with a combined record of 23-10 would have done it.
