But Duran did fight Hagler for the middleweight title, and was surprisingly effective, which was due in large part to Hagler's occasional confusion regarding his ring generalship, just about the only flaw i attribute to him, whereas there was no such confusion with the ice-cold Monzon, whose ring generalship was superior to Haglers. Monzon would have used every possible physical and mental advantage to batter Duran for a stoppage in 10.
Sonny Liston and Vitally Klitschko would probably work! In some ways guys like that are not the most intimidating fighters however. The guys who are best at it are sometimes more subtle and personal in their approach.
The reason I think size is such an advantage in the bar fight scenario, is that you're not necessarily going to know someone like Duran can kick the **** out of you if you're 6' 200lb. You would only know that afterwards. But a guy like Lewis who would have 5" and 45-50lbs on you, is going to make you pause. Of course if you know who he is, than it would be insanity to actually fight the guy. (That applies to all of these hypotheticals, Lewis, Tyson, Liston, Duran, Benn etc.)
As someone has mentioned earlier,when in the zone pre-fight I always though Lewis was very intimidating.
I think some of it has to do with appearance and some of it has to do with sharing the ring with someone that really wants to kill you and has brutalized others before without too much emotion shown
I'm 52, going by the fighters I seen since I became a fan at 10, I have say Mike Tyson really scared the heck out of some pretty big/decent heavyweights. You could see it in their eyes. George Foreman was intimidating. Frazier in his prime 69-71 was a meat grinder. I liked Bob Foster too. 6'3" with a vicious left hook. Robert Duran at lightweight, mean, tough, fast and could punch. I'm sure more will come to mind as I think about it, but those guys stand out in my mind immediately.
Bob Foster gave the ****s to the majority of lightheavies during his reign of terror,,,,after he staggered Andy Kendal acrosss the ring into the ropes there's a shot of Foster advancing on Andy to finish the show,and Kendall is looking like the grim reaper is on his way.....Vincente Rondon looks absolutely terrified in his fight with Foster, Bob's attitude was "I;ll knock em' cold and I don't care if they ever get up'