Imagine being a ranked heavyweight contender coming off a losing world title challenge to Muhammad Ali and then going in with, back-to-back, Earnie Shavers and George Foreman. This is just what Ron Lyle did in 1975/76, and in doing so, Lyle was in a unique position to be able to answer the question that to this day is often asked: who hit harder, Foreman or Shavers?
And before he sadly passed away in November of 2011, Lyle did answer the question. Lyle got up from a heavy knockdown to stop Shavers in September of 1975 before he slugged it out with Foreman in January of the following year, this in his very next fight – the epic, never-to-be-forgotten Foreman-Lyle slugfest celebrating its 49th birthday today. Lyle put Foreman down twice, but he was downed himself before being knocked out in round five.
Both fights, available via YouTube, rank highly among the greatest, most exciting back-and-forth wars in the history of the heavyweight division. Lyle, who could also punch like a mule could kick, tasted Shavers’ venomous power, yet he was able to survive and come back to halt Shavers. Therefore, one could be excused for thinking Lyle would say that Foreman, who stopped him, hit the hardest of the two bangers.
But Lyle actually said, in an interview with Retro Boxing, that Shavers hit harder than “Big George.”
“Foreman was a puncher; he was a good puncher, but the best puncher that I ever faced was Earnie Shavers,” Lyle said. “He had forty-something knockouts in the first round. Some guys don’t have that many fights. So, Shavers’ record pretty much dictated how the fight was going to go, if you stood in front of him, you know.”
And in two great, indeed epic fights/brawls/slugfests, Lyle stood and banged it out with first Shavers and Foreman. Lyle stopped Shavers in the sixth round, but he was taken out by Foreman in the fifth round.
I had the absolute honor of speaking with Ron before he passed, and of course, the subject of Shavers and Foreman and the withering power each legend carried came up. Lyle told me Foreman and Shavers each had a different kind of power in their fists.
“When Foreman hit me, the floor came up to meet me!” Lyle said. “Foreman hit me, and it was like, ‘Boom!’ Shavers, he hit me, and it was more of a shock effect. They both hit incredibly hard, but I do think Shavers hit the hardest.”
Interestingly, Shavers, before he passed away, told this website that Lyle hit him the hardest he was ever hit during his entire career.
Today, on the 49th anniversary of the never-to-be-topped Foreman Vs. Lyle classic of classics, let’s all pay tribute to Ron Lyle, one of the greatest big men never to have won a world title. Foreman, in an interview with Fighting Highlights, said this of Lyle:
“I’m in a fight with Ron Lyle, and I got hit so hard, but it’s like a blank feeling comes over you. And it doesn’t even hurt. You just start going down,” Foreman said. “That was the hardest I’d ever been hit in my life.”
Lyle warred during the golden era, which was the 1970s. Had he been around today, Ron would surely have been a world champion.
