Holmes

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Ron Lyle

Ronald "Ron" Lyle (February 12, 1941 – November 26, 2011) was an American professional boxer. He was known for his power punching, and for pleasing crowds with his courage and determination inside the ring. Lyle holds notable wins over Buster Mathis, Oscar Bonavena, Jimmy Ellis, Earnie Shavers, Joe Bugner and Scott LeDoux.

Early life

Lyle was one of 19 children born to William and Nellie Lyle of Denver, Colorado. He grew up on the Northeast side of the city, a predominantly African American area, in public housing projects.

During his time in Denver, Lyle was known to have associated with violent gangs. At 19, after dropping out of Manual High School, Lyle was convicted of second-degree murder in the shooting death of 21-year-old gang rival Douglas Byrd. Lyle argued he was being attacked with a lead pipe and was not the one who pulled the trigger.

He was sentenced to 15–25 years in the Colorado State Penitentiary. While in prison, Lyle nearly died on the operating table after being stabbed by an inmate. He was released after serving 7 1/2 years.

Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes (born November 3, 1949) is an American former professional boxer. He grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania, which gave birth to his boxing nickname, the "Easton Assassin".

Holmes, whose left jab is rated among the best in boxing history, was the WBC heavyweight champion from 1978 to 1983, The Ring magazine champion from 1980 to 1985, and the IBF champion from 1983 to 1985. He made 20 successful title defenses, placing him third all time, behind only Joe Louis at 25 and Wladimir Klitschko at 22. He is also one of only five men—along with Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks and Trevor Berbick—to defeat Muhammad Ali.

Holmes won his first 48 professional bouts, including victories over Earnie Shavers, Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali, Mike Weaver, Gerry Cooney, Tim Witherspoon, Carl Williams and Marvis Frazier, and fell one short of matching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49–0 when he lost to Michael Spinks in 1985. Holmes retired after losing a rematch to Spinks, but made repeated comebacks, and was unsuccessful in three further attempts (against Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and Oliver McCall) to regain the title, the last in 1995. Holmes fought for the final time in 2002 and ended with a career record of 69–6. He is frequently ranked as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time and has been inducted into both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and World Boxing Hall of Fame.

George Foreman

George Edward "Big George" Foreman (born January 10, 1949), is an American former professional boxer. In his boxing career he was a two-time world heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medallist. Outside the sport he went on to become an ordained minister, author and entrepreneur.

After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up boxing and was a gold medalist at the 1968 Olympics. He won the World Heavyweight title with a second-round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1973. He made two successful title defenses before losing to Muhammad Ali in "The Rumble in the Jungle" in 1974. He was unable to secure another title shot, and retired following a loss to Jimmy Young in 1977. Following what he referred to as a religious epiphany, Foreman became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later, he announced a comeback and, in November 1994, at age 45, he regained the Heavyweight Championship by knocking out 27-year-old Michael Moorer. Foreman is the oldest Heavyweight Champion in history, and second oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins. He retired in 1997 at the age of 48, with a final record of 76–5, including 68 knockouts.

Gerry Cooney

Gerry Cooney (born August 24, 1956) is a retired American professional heavyweight boxer from Huntington, New York. Despite relative inexperience, his exciting wins and size, aided by expert promotion, propelled Cooney into a lucrative bout with world heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in 1982. Cooney performed credibly before his corner retired him in round 13, and was regarded as having made a brave and determined effort. A view of him as tactically naive in defense was reinforced when former light-heavyweight Michael Spinks defeated Cooney in five rounds. In his final bout, he demonstrated his exceptionally hard punch by staggering powerful George Foreman, but was unable to capitalize on it; again showing himself deficient at basic self-protection, Cooney suffered a devastating second round knockout that ended his career.

Life before boxing

Born into a blue collar Irish-Catholic family on Long Island, Cooney was encouraged to become a professional fighter by his father. His brother Tommy Cooney was also a boxer, and reached the finals of the New York Golden Gloves Sub-Novice Heavyweight division.