Who struck fear into the hearts of men with their aura of invincibility, their anger chip on their shoulder, their knockout streak, their mystique and possibly their huge physicality???
Sorry for not including everybody in the list. Tua, Hearns, Hagler, Duran deserve to be on that list too.
Andrés Selpa, not that I would be afraid of him in a mano a mano fight, but he was not right in the head. He shot a journalist, he shot his wife, he liked to shoot people... he used to fight while high on cocaine, he became a mental patient on a mental house.
I remember reading somewhere that Chris Byrd could not sleep after seeing the shape of David Tuas body at the weigh in. He somehow managed to hurt Tua with a body shot in that fight but he was very precautious!
Sam Langford. Footage is scant but everyone fights him scared. Terry McGovern. The first time Erne dropped him he laughed. Can't imagine Erne thought much of that. He was bullied in that fight despite the size difference. Joe Gans. Loads of mid-level opponents just seemed to fold to him tactically, it was mad. It seemed like people didn't try to beat him sometimes just keep him off. Jack Johnson. People tried all sorts of weird **** with him in the ring. Another one that did it by laughing and talking. Dick Tiger frightened people. Even people who beat him were intimidated by him, the way he threw about strong men and out-punched punchers was just awful. And Harold Johnson. People really didn't like fighting "that animal" as Willie Pastrano put it. Even Moore didn't seem to like it all that much. And people were frightened of/overly respectful of George Dixon in the same way Gans was. These are the lesser-mentioned names i'd like to see accounted for sometimes.
He’s not a stand out or necessarily celebrated for intimidation at all but if I were a fighter, I’d be totally intimidated by prime Holyfield - some guys don’t have to sell it, their reputation and performances in the ring that precede them are sufficiently scary enough. Same goes for Joe Louis who didn’t really “sell” intimidation or strive to imply threat outside of the ring. How could you study Louis’ prior fight films and then not be intimidated at the prospect of facing him yourself? Joe appeared friendly enough with Max Baer but Max was quite scared when he got into the ring with Joe - and for good reason! Not least for the fact that Max presented as a 6’2 1/2”, 210 lb **** blocker, delaying the red blooded Louis in “consummating” his marriage, the ceremony for which was held only hours prior to his fight vs Max.
Along with most of the others already mentioned in the thread, I would include the likes of Julian Jackson Gerald McClellan Michael Moorer (at LightHeavyweight) Artur Beterbiev Naoya Inoue Ike Ibeabuchi
