I saved up my money for this fight, Tyson vs Seldon, bought the ppv only for it to end with a miss punch. At least Spinks took the hit. Seldon goes down and gets counted out of course on a punch that flew right over him as you said. Either he was scared or Tyson punch SO HARD that even the wind of his miss punch can ko people.
Can’t really prove that intimidation solely won the day but it often seems to contribute. Norton admitted to being nervous and overly tight when he faced Foreman. As far as I know, Norton has never said same re the Shavers and Cooney fights - but it’s possible. Bringing a disguise as Floyd did to hide himself in case of losing is an argument perhaps for an intimidated fighter - he did it for Liston but not sure if he did it otherwise. Supposedly Maxie Baer had to be coerced out of his dressing room to fight Louis. Same was said of Cleveland Williams vs Ali but that was a red herring (not to be confused with a Todd Herring) - Cleve’s reluctance to come out was due their wanting to “attach” his pay cheque to cover alleged, outstanding debt - the culprit might’ve been mngr Hugh Benbow himself. I’m not 100%. The Big Cat should’ve warmed up by flattening Benbow before coming out of his dressing room. Bloody Pat @Saintpat has already put dibs on the emoji award. Why am I not surprised? All good. I’ll take second prize - which I believe is two smiling emojis- the example of which is displayed in CT’s opening post. Looks a bit angry to me tbh.
Technically I don't think Tyson beat Spinks because of intimidation, i.e. I believe he'd have won regardless of whether Spinks was intimiated, but I do think it fairly apparent that Spinks was intimidated. Same for Tyson vs Bruno 2. According to his autobiography, Bruno knew his detached retina meant he shouldn't have been cleared to fight (he claims George Francis managed to sufficiently distract the guy completing the test that it wasn't thorough enough), probably wouldn't ever fight again & couldn't see punches coming from certain angles. Juding by how many times Bruno crossed himself on the ring walk, I think it's a fair assumption that he was inditmated (or at least extremely anxious), though again I don't think that had any impact on who won the fight.
That was part of it. The other part is making Bruno be the road warrior. He was hardly a road warrior and somewhat like hide---needed fights to take place in his backyard and have all the advantages. But the Tyson camp knew this and made Bruno take his act on the road---and it was something he sure always looked different on the ring walks and fighter introductions. you could see the comfort level just was not there.