Ron Lyle


Ronald David Lyle was an American professional boxer who competed from 1971 to 1980, and in 1995. He challenged unsuccessfully for the world heavyweight championship, losing to Muhammad Ali in 1975. Known for his punching power, crowd-pleasing fighting style, and his courage and determination in the ring, Lyle defeated Buster Mathis, Oscar Bonavena, Jimmy Ellis, Vicente Rondón, Earnie Shavers, Joe Bugner, Gregorio Peralta and Scott LeDoux, but is best known for his fight against George Foreman in 1976, which was voted Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine.

Early life, family and education

Lyle was born the third of 19 children to William and Nellie Lyle of Dayton, Ohio. In 1954, they moved to Denver, Colorado, where his father had a job as a sandblaster at Buckley Air Force Base. Nellie had been a missionary. The family resided in housing projects on Denver's northeast side.
Lyle associated with street gangs in his Whittier neighborhood. He dropped out of Manual High School at age 17 after the school basketball coach told him he would not be on the team.

Prison and introduction to boxing

At age 19, he was involved in the shooting death of a 21-year-old gang rival. Lyle argued he was being attacked with a lead pipe and was not the one who pulled the trigger, but he was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 to 25 years in the Colorado State Penitentiary. He nearly died on an operating table there after being stabbed by another inmate, but survived after 36 blood transfusions. In solitary confinement for 90 days afterward, he began doing push-ups, sit-ups, squats, and other exercises, and he trained regularly from then on.
While in prison, Lyle, then age 26 and known as Ronnie, enlisted the African-American self-help group Black Cultural Development Society and coached the prison's football team, The Wildcats, leading them to a championship among the inter-prison teams. He also played baseball and basketball on the prison's teams, the Cañon City Rockbusters.
He first attended a prison boxing event on July 4, 1962, as a spectator, where he decided he could compete as well. His prison boxing debut came in 1964. Lyle credited Lt. Cliff Mattax, the prison's athletic director for developing his interest in boxing. When Mattax first approached Lyle and tried to befriend him, he wasn't welcomed, "Man, you're a screw and I'm a convict. I came here by myself and I'll leave the same way." After recovering from the stab wound, he changed his mind. "It was the turning point of my life. Mattax was white, and he wore a badge, but he really cared. He believed in me and my ability. Right then I decided to be a success," Lyle said later. Mattax in turn said, "I don't like to take any credit for what happened, but Ron turned into a real gentleman."
He watched boxing on TV and said, "I can do better than that," and soon the prison was bringing in boxers for him to fight. "They had fight cards in prison. I sat around watching them for a while and finally said to myself, 'I can do that,'" Lyle said. In his first match for the prison boxing team, Lyle was said to have been defeated by Texas Johnson. He never lost a prison boxing match again. According to Colorado State's Warden Wayne K. Patterson, Lyle was a "natural born athlete."

Amateur career

During the remainder of his sentence, he had around twenty-five unaccounted amateur fights, losing only once, and winning six heavyweight titles for inmates. By 1969 Lyle was eligible for parole, but twice he was turned down. He was told that a professional boxing career was not a suitable parole plan. Fortunately, his fame had spread to Denver, where the Denver Rocks boxing team had just joined the short-lived International Boxing League. Bill Daniels, a cable television executive, president of American Basketball Association and owner of the Denver Rocks boxing team and the Utah Stars basketball team, offered Lyle an official job as a welder with a firm he owned, and on November 9, 1969, Lyle was released from prison on parole. He was released on parole on November 22, 1969, after serving 7½ years. The next morning, he arrived at the Rocks' Gym in Denver to try out with the Rocks. He made the team, and in the succeeding fifteen months, before turning pro, he won a number of tournaments. He was later given a full pardon by the Governor John Arthur Love.
"I asked around about the Rocks. They told me they already had a heavyweight. I figured I could whip him so I stuck around." They were trained by the well-known boxing veteran Bobby Lewis. Less than a month later, Lyle made his amateur debut with the team, avenged an earlier Rocks' heavyweight loss and became the team's heavyweight at 215 pounds. Lyle's first amateur victory was a third-round knockout over Fred Houpe. He was the 1970 National AAU Heavyweight Champion, the 1970 North American Amateur Heavyweight Champion, and the 1970 International Boxing League Heavyweight Champion. After capturing the NAA title, Lyle became a member of the United States National Boxing Team, as he was still on parole he was given permission to leave the US, and dispatched on a boxing journey across Europe, visiting Italy, Yugoslavia, and Romania and meeting top local heavyweights in the process. He lost by decision to Romanian Ion Alexe, but pounded Soviet Armenian heavyweight Kamo Saroyan against the ropes in a match broadcast by ABC television's Wide World of Sports, preparing for which he quit his regular job and dispatched of Duane Bobick, which took the latter's corner five minutes to bring him back into consciousness. No American before Lyle knocked out a Soviet heavyweight. Fighting Bobick to make it to the national team, Lyle was behind on judges' scorecards, and when he fought Saroyan, he again was behind on points, which nonetheless didn't stop him from knocking out both. On January 25, 1971, Lyle fought his last fight as an amateur, knocking out the Pacific Northwest Golden Gloves heavyweight champion Jim Wahlberg. Meanwhile, two world's top-ranked heavyweights, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, were preparing themselves for the Fight of the Century. In February, Lyle visited both rival camps. First he went to Miami Beach, Florida, where the Ali's training camp was based, to spar several rounds with Ali. Then he went to Catskill, New York, to the Frazier's camp, but Yancey Durham, Frazier's manager, did not approve Lyle as a sparring partner, instead he went against one of Frazier's previously selected sparring partners, a professional boxer from Chicago

Highlights

IBL Denver–Chicago match-up, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, December 1969:
  • Defeated Fred Houpe KO 3
IBL Eastern–Western Division match-up, Memorial Auditorium, Louisville, Kentucky, January 1970:
IBL Denver–Milwaukee match-up, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, January 1970:
Denver Golden Gloves, 1970:
*
Colorado State Golden Gloves, February 1970:
*
Regional Golden Gloves, Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 1970:
  • 1/2: Defeated Charles Schoolmeyer KO 1
  • Finals: Defeated Charles Banks KO 1
National Golden Gloves, Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, March 1970:
  • 1/16: Defeated Lerdy Sargent KO 1
  • 1/8: Defeated Alan Kit Boursse TKO 3
  • 1/4: Defeated Nick Wells by decision
  • 1/2: Lost to William Thompson by decision
IBL Detroit–Denver, Community Arts Building, State Fairgrounds, Detroit, Michigan, April 1970:
  • Lost to Bill Hurt by decision
IBL Denver–Miami match-up, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, April 1970:
  • Defeated ?
National Championships, Trenton, New Jersey, April–May 1970:
  • 1/2: Defeated Duane Bobick KO 2
  • Finals: Defeated Mike Montgomery by decision
IBL Denver–Milwaukee match-up, 1970:
  • Defeated Larry Penigar by split decision 2–1
North American Championships, Vancouver, Canada, June 1970:
IBL Denver–Louisville match-up, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, June 1970:
  • Defeated Tommy Garrett
IBL Championships, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, June 1970:
  • Defeated Billy Freeman by split decision 3–2
Italy–USA Duals, Palazzo dello Sport, Rome, Italy, June 1970:
  • Defeated Amedeo Laureti KO 1
Yugoslavia–USA Duals, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, July 1970:
  • Defeated Anton Vukušić
Romania–USA Duals, Bucharest, Romania, July 1970:
  • Lost to Ion Alexe by decision
Rocky Mountain Golden Gloves, Derks Field, Salt Lake City, Utah, July 1970:
*
IBL Denver–Mexico Exhibition, State Fair Grounds, Pueblo, Colorado, August 1970:
  • Defeated Pete Chiano TKO 1
  • Defeated Pedro Vega
National Team Selection Eliminator, Fort Carson, Colorado, January 1971:
  • Finals: Defeated Duane Bobick KO 2
USA–USSR Duals, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, January 1971:
  • Defeated Kamo Saroyan TKO 2
IBL Denver–Seattle match-up, Auditorium Arena, Denver, Colorado, January 1971:
  • Defeated Jim Wahlberg KO
His amateur career outside of prison lasted only 14 months, during which he compiled a record of 25–4 with 17 knockouts at national and international contests. During his amateur days he was never knocked down or cut. Lyle was an obvious choice for the 1971 Pan American Games and the 1972 Olympics, but as he stepped into the pro ranks, Duane Bobick, whom he knocked out twice, was set to represent the United States.
On February 24, 1971, Lyle, age 30, signed a professional boxing contract with Bill Daniels. "Daniels told me ‘You fight this Russian in January and we'll turn you pro.’ This was the door that had to be opened, whuppin' the Russian. So I quit my job and trained for six months. I wasn't going to get beat because I wasn't in shape," Lyle recalled. Daniels, in turn, said of Lyle that, "The reason Ron has adjusted is that he's got a talent, something he knows he's good at and can dedicate himself to."
After he turned pro, Lyle visited his fellow inmates in prison the day before or after each and every professional fight.