Which fighters were ferocious animals...

Dempsey described himself as an animal, a beast in the ring, yet he was the quintessential sportsman before it began, and after it was over. Duran at his most savage is also a natural choice to start with.

Monzon will probably be the first one thought of as a cold blooded clinical killer, so let's get him out of the way immediately. Louis may well be the second name most of us think of. Early footage of SRR against Angott shows a striking similarity to Hearns at his most devastating. Interestingly, Tommy remained a sportsman at the close of round one against Duran, touching gloves before a dazed and disoriented El Cholo was redirected by his seconds to the proper corner. Against Cuevas, referee Christodoulou commented that Hearns had the meanest expression he'd ever seen on a fighter, which Tommy ascribed to intense concentration. It means a great deal that he embraced the formerly disdained "Hit Man" moniker for the first time in the introductions before Duran.

 

I predict this thread to be dripping with homoeroticism by the 2nd page.

Animal:fenech, Duran, Chang, Fullmer, Kalule

Cold blooded steely eyed reptilian stone killer poker face: Sanchez, Arbachakov, Curry, Tiger, Louis

 

Duran deserves a mention.

 

Mike Tyson & Henry Armstrong! :deal

 

Good call. That face didn't give away much.

 

I always think of Jake Lamotta.

 

I can't believe noone's mentioned him yet, and he's the first that came to mind:

Wilfredo Gomez

 

Since there's a thread about this mythical matchup...
Animal - Nigel Benn
Killer - Julian Jackson

I'd also put Pryor in that "animal" category.
JCC was both depending on which he needed. Probably leaned towards "animal" though.
Hopkins was/is a poker-faced killer.

Fun thread. I'll try to think of more.

 

Malignaggi

 

Jack Dempsey of course was an animalistic killer.

 

You beat me to it..Monzon was the archetypical cold blooded killer..it would have been wonderful if he had the same control over his personal life as he did his in the ring demeanor.

 

Bert Lytell was at a dance club in NYC circa 1947/48. Two guys took a "disliking" to him and jumped on him. In a minute or two they were hollering for help. The police came, a riot squad was called in, and they only got control of Lytell after he lost too much blood after those nightsticks busted his head open and he collapsed.

He was in the hospital for 6 weeks. His manager came in on the day he was released and what does Bert say? "When's my next fight?"

-That rivals those Liston stories -which we know are true.

An animal? That's what his manager said.

Now, managers are known to make up stories like this; but here's the thing -I dug up a newspaper source that confirms that Bert had a "criss- cross on his head" after a melee in NYC. I'm gonna see if I can check archived police reports in one of the boroughs.

Anyway, Bert was a pretty serious cat back in the day.

 

He was also involved in an unfortunate accident against the promising 18 year old Jackie Darthard, who died of injuries after Lytell had knocked him out. No one ever KO'd Lytell in a hundred fights. A tough guy for sure.

 

Darthard went in that ring very confident -over confident in fact. Burt was devestated in the aftermath.