Outside Of The Heavyweight s, Which Fighters Had The 'Fear Factor '?

Thomas Hearns is the first that springs to mind.

 

First name i thought of too.

I'd say Wilfredo Gomez was no fun to wait around to fight. Big power, hugely aggressive, dirty and vicious.

Duran at 135 would have been a terror too. He had loads of power at the weight, was verging on unbeatable and was a genuinely mean mother****er there.

Hagler comes to mind, bald, mean talking, relentless in the ring unless you were Duran or SRL, solid power and plenty of output and pressure.

Me personally, I'd find it a bit daunting going against peak Bob Foster for his title. He was knocking people out pretty fast before Anderson took him the duration and he resumed stopping people after that until Ali stopped him. Bob didn't seem the same after that. Also it's not just that he stopped people, it's how he stopped them. At least one looked like he might be dead.

 

Hagler, Hearns, and Duran were the first names that came to mind.

I'd hazard that Monzón could be added to that list, as well.

I've also read before now that one of the most intimidating fighters of old, outside of heavyweight, was Terry McGovern.

 

Monzon was in my thoughts too. He was cold, calculating, methodical. I have Hagler ahead on this front as he was more outwardly mean intimidating, Monzon was quieter tho obviously effective. He stopped plenty of guys, like Hagler.

 

Always thought that Gerald McClellan had an intimidating aura around him.

 

Enough people bought into the Jeff Lacy hype...

 

Iran Barkley. Nigel Benn, Gerald McClellan, Julian Jackson and many many more over the years.

 

I heard Harry Greb was so scary that even films of him died of fright.

 

Yep - Hagler carried that immediate image of 'serious trouble' for sure. You kind of remember the first time you set eyes on him.

With Monzón, as you allude to, it was more a steely nonchalance. His opponents probably experienced a gradual dawning of the "Oh ****!" moment.

 

One of the only boxers who you could say were truly evil, ****ing madness

"Knocking out someone to me is like having sex" absolute lunatic

 

"He would look at you with those dark, hollow, cold eyes, and he would look right through you".

"A mean mother****er, people scared to look at him, the devil"

"this guy hits SO hard...he'll make you miss and then he'll go to the body...his sequence of punches to the body, to the midsection was out of this world"

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I hope i don't have to clarify who is this.

 

Also didn’t help that he would run over flamingos and strap dogs to have them mauled to death by his pit bulls.

 

I wouldn't wish bad on any man on earth, but what happened to him.. he doesn't leave me much room to say anything else but that he had it coming!

 

Sandy Saddler had to be a scary prospect for any featherweight.

James Scott had it — of course, having to go behind bars to fight him at Rahway state prison had something to do with it.

Everyone I’ve known who ever met him says Iran Barkley is one of the nicest people in boxing, but, damn, that dude had to be absolutely frightening to look across the ring at.