Olympic legend delivers emphatic Noah Lyles vs Tyreek Hill race verdict with Mike Tyson analogy

Two of the fastest men in the world plan to settle a score later this year.

Olympic sprinter Noah Lyles and NFL star Tyreek Hill will go toe-to-toe on the track after months of trash talk.

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Hill, the Miami Dolphins wide receiver, has made no secret of his belief that he could beat the reigning 100m champion in a race.

"I'm not going to beat him by a lot, but I would beat Noah," he said soon after Paris 2024, where Lyles won gold in one of the most dramatic races in history, crossing the line just 0.005 seconds ahead of rival Kishane Thompson.

That kicked off a war of words between the speedy rivals, who have been taking public jabs at one another in the months since.

Back in February, Lyles and Hill confirmed they are ready to take things to the track, and while a location and distance for the race are yet to be determined, early reports suggested the meet is likely to take place before the US Track Championships in July.

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But according to Michael Johnson, it won't be much of a contest.

The four-time Olympic gold medallist believes that Lyles would win comfortably, likening any actual race to the exhibition boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.

"Let's go back to Tyson and Paul. Here's what happened, right? They tried and failed," Johnson began, during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show.

"They tried to make that some sort of compelling competition. But they tried and failed. I think that people are beyond that.

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"Nobody is going to believe it anymore. We all fell for it, right? At the beginning I was like, 'This is ridiculous.' The closer it got, with a lot of marketing… I was like, 'Okay, I'm buying into it and I'm sitting down and watching it'.

"And then as soon as it started, you're like, 'No, this is ridiculous.'"

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Johnson then went on to suggest a race between Lyles and Hill would be 'just entertainment' and suggested the NFL star would barely be able to touch the top 30-ranked sprinters in the world.

He continued: "Let me tell you: If it's a track meet, if it's 100 meters, that's not a race.

"Tyreek can't beat the 20th, 30th-ranked 100m runner in the world. No more so than a track athlete who's fast can't go over and play receiver and run routes like Tyreek and score touchdowns. That just doesn't happen.

"Now, if you create some sort of special exhibition where you can even it out a little bit - because Tyreek is quick - if it's about quickness, then it might be compelling.

"But come on. We all know this is just entertainment, man. It's not real sport."

Johnson was then asked by host Eisen to predict how comfortably Lyles would beat Hill.

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"Over 100m? I'm gonna say 10 meters. (Lyles) is the fastest man in the world," he concluded.

"Tyreek is not one of the fastest people in the world. He's one of the fastest football players, but he's not one of the fastest people in the world."

Hill has indeed made a career of leaving defenders in the dust on the NFL field, and his speed is nothing to be sniffed at, given he entered the league with a 4.29-second 40-yard dash.

But despite seeing him rip it up on turf, Johnson has no doubts over where the bragging rights lay on the track.

And later this year, Lyles will have a chance to prove him right.