Fear in boxing...

Interesting thread, and something that we should build more into our fantasy match-ups. We have much discussion of physical attributes without so much inclusion of 'psychological match-ups.'

For example, thinking of HW's some boxers have the fear factor in spades (Liston, Tyson, Foreman?), and some might be considered prone to being intimidated (Patterson, McCall?).

Liston, Foreman and Tyson performed better when their opponents were overwhelmed by fear. Tillis fought Tyson in a relatively relaxed frame of mind, based on his body language. He smiled after the flash knockdown. Equally, Ali was not scared of Foreman. Almost any other HW in history would have been petrified of Foreman in '74...

The elite of the elite, as is true of any sport, respond best in the pressure cauldron. 'Come the moment, come the man' and all that.

 

I'm not sure about that one. I'd probably check the source. Dempsey was very aware of the accusations that he ducked the great black fighters and answered them throughout his life. It was pretty clear that he himself would have fought them all but like most fighters then, deferred to management.

Dempsey is on record as saying that he feared no one except "Ernest Hemingway" and that was only because Hemingway would have went straight at him and Dempsey would have been forced to hurt him badly.

 

Seldon against Tyson,Akinwande against Lewis,both painful to watch ,an older Louis one ,Johnny Paycheck.

 

The source is Dempsey's autobiography.

You might want to take into acount that Dempsey was modest and had a verry high opinion of Sam Langford.

He said that Langford was the greatest fighter that ever lived and helped him out financialy after he went blind.

 

Good enough, but then I'd check the reliability of the source! Jack had a big heart and was a good man, but I wouldn't expect that he would have said that in 1920. When testosterone goes, oftentimes mean attitudes and animal pride go with it. I suspect that Jack was being nice to an great old man who had nothing. Kind of like Foreman talking about how scared he was of Frazier.

 

I would imagine that Foreman probably was scared of Frazier.

 

The source in an autobiography?

 

It was facetious.

 

I reckon a good example of a fighter not overcoming his fear was Milton McCrory vs Curry, the man was frozen and in slow motion, made to look worse of course by the extreme sharpness of Curry at that time.

 

Would or did Marciano have a fear of anyone?