Who of these would you find most intimidating?

If option A were Ali, it would be somewhat intimidating... not because of the trash talk, but just because you know going in how damn good he is, how fast and strong and accurate and how often he made good fighters look like bums. In books like Facing Ali a lot of his opponents even put it that way themselves, or say that by the end of the first round or two they were intimidated by his physical abilities. Aside from that, I probably wouldn't find it intimidating. And for a lot of fighters I think it would just make you more determined to get someone on the ropes and smash them a few times. (Of course that doesn't always work, just ask Foreman ).

Option B kinda depends on the guy. With Duran it would be rather intimidating. There's definitely something scary about the sheer viciousness a guy who, seeing his opponent being taken out of the ring on a stretcher, just sneers and says "Next time I put him in the morgue". Other guys not so much. You can just look at them and know that it's a show, or them overcompensating for something.

Option C is the spookiest and most unnerving. There's something that makes your stomach tighten up a bit when facing a guy who never talks, is looking at you like you're not even human or like he won't feel anything while he rips you apart. This was a part of the Chavez mystique, and it didn't help that the times he did show emotion and anger in torturing Rosario, Comacho and Haugen only made him look worse. Or, as Max Baer once said "Fear is standing in the ring with Joe Louis and knowing he wants to make it an early night".

Option C for me.

 

Option B appealed to me on this one; if I had a pre-fight Mike Tyson screaming into the microphone how he wanted to eat my children, I'd probably **** myself. Full loss of bowels is guaranteed when he spends the first round in the clinches, pinching various body parts, deciding which part of me he is gonna bite off first.

 

Most intimidating of the 3? Probably option C. :scaredas:

 

I would find a fighter with a great punch, speed, skills and aggressiveness the most intimidating, regardless of personality.

 

Any guy with 1 punch KO power who swarms at me with fury and supreme aggression.

Monzon and Louis for the most part took their time methodically picking apart their opponent. Knowing that a guy was going to try and rip me apart from the opening bell would highten the apprehension, just waiting for the storm.

So I voted for B.

Prime Tyson, Jackson, Dempsey and McLellan are the most intimidating to me.

 

Wouldnt it be a bit obvious that you were seeing an act intended to intimidate you though?

I would be verry intimidated, but mainly from the point of view of what this guy would do if the fight was going against him.

 

Option B with Liston in the opposite corner wouldn't be that appetitising either (and that's before the staredown).

 

Good thread...

I was watching Margarito-Cotto and realized something:

Margarito was a nightmare.

Cotto will never beat him. Not after what happened.

I don't mean the typical, loose definition of "nightmare" -but a nightmare of a style that is at once intimidating and very difficult to cope with physically and mentally for most fighters. I saw that Margarito was going to win by about round 5 or 6 and it was because he was showing all of those qualities that I hated to see in my opponents back when I was in the sock market.

I'd hypothesize that those qualities are as folllows:

1. Serious physical strength (did you note how Cotto basically conceded very early who was the dominant physical force in there? And Cotto is usually the physical one.)

2. Physicality and Relentlessness (These types just will ... not ... stop. That does something to you.)

3. Iron Chin (the source of your frustration. You can't keep them off of you because they think your vaunted right hand is a flea.)

4. Stamina (To them, round 12 = round 1. Meanwhile, your lungs are bleeding.)

5. Power (Jason Voorhees had an axe)

Monzon is the prototype. I saw it in Marciano, and most recently in Margarito. Not a whole lot of others. The "Nightmare Style" - That's what I call it.

 

Option C without a doubt.

 

It's interesting that you mention Marciano here, because the Margarito v Cotto fight to me resembled a Marciano fight. Sure, you'll look good in the beginning, but that steamroller is just going to grind you down eventually.

 

I voted for C

I think Ali showed that there's a way to deal with option B. And if you do, you generally own them afterwards (Ali-Liston and Holyfield-Tyson rematches), but how to deal with someone who just won't let up no matter what you do? The Frazier-type is the nightmare here, a C with a bit of B in it.

Of course, when it comes to A, many fighters greatest terror must be to look foolish in the ring. Only coming off like a coward would probably be worse. Someone who, with the crowd behind them, highlights your every mistake and weakness, makes you look like an amateur... Foreman was far more devastated losing to Ali than Patterson was losing to Liston.

 

I would say option C.