Lyle Vs Ellis- July 16th, 1974 Denver
Ron Lyle was the pride of Denver and had a fine record of 28-1-1 going into this fight. He had just beaten tough fighters Oscar Bonavena and Larry Middleton over 12 round decisions and was near the top of the heavyweight rankings. Jimmy Ellis was near the end of his career and had just had a draw with Middleton and had lost to Boone Kirkman over 10 rounds. His record was 38-9-1 with 22 Ko's. This fight would be a stepping stone and another feather in the cap of Ron Lyle. For Jimmy Ellis this could be a fight that would put him back on the heavyweight map.

Here's the fight as I saw it.-Green are the round scores as I scored it, red is important text like a cut, great punch or knockdown.

I do not have a tape of this fight, the only one of the 32 fights I haven't seen. I have one report that says it was a 10 round fight and another that says it's a 12 round fight. I would assume it would be a 12 round elimination fight since the last two of Lyle's had been that way. Ron Lyle wins a decision in this fight to continue his move up the rankings towards a title shot and continue Ellis' slide from prominence. Ellis would only fight 3 more fights going 1-2 and Lyle would have many more big fights including a chance at the title against Muhammad Ali.