The Scariest Fighter I Have Ever Seen...

[Cloutov]

Ivan Drago

[caldo2025]

Bowe was tremendous for a short period and it was short for good reason. He took a tremendous amount of punishment in a short period of time. I went back and watched those Holyfield fights and the shots that those two absorbed in those fights were enormous. Now, they are both slurring into microphones. It's sad to see and a prime reason why it's hard to reign for a long period of time in boxing, especially at Heavyweight, when your strategy is to take 2 punches to give 1.

Scariest for me is Tyson by far. The night that I saw him bite Holyfield's ears off (that statement right there should win Tyson the scariest fighter title) we just sat there scared that it was even possible. Sure low blows, rabbit punches, maybe a shot after the bell, were considered outside the rules for dirty boxers. But biting ears off? In front of millions in the biggest fight in years...that's crazy and certainly the scariest thing i've ever seen in the ring on fight night. Tyson wins easy

[Aussiedave]

Mike Tyson.

[Boxerbeetle]

Bowe was tremendous for a short period and it was short for good reason. He took a tremendous amount of punishment in a short period of time. I went back and watched those Holyfield fights and the shots that those two absorbed in those fights were enormous. Now, they are both slurring into microphones. It's sad to see and a prime reason why it's hard to reign for a long period of time in boxing, especially at Heavyweight, when your strategy is to take 2 punches to give 1.

Scariest for me is Tyson by far. The night that I saw him bite Holyfield's ears off (that statement right there should win Tyson the scariest fighter title) we just sat there scared that it was even possible. Sure low blows, rabbit punches, maybe a shot after the bell, were considered outside the rules for dirty boxers. But biting ears off? In front of millions in the biggest fight in years...that's crazy and certainly the scariest thing i've ever seen in the ring on fight night. Tyson wins easy

Really? I just thought it was really funny.

[Carbo]

Has anyone said Roberto Duran? If not, he was clearly the scariest ever. Scarier than Hearns (for my money, the biggest P4P puncher I've seen, when he was at 147), scarier than Tyson, scarier than even the pre-Ali Foreman, who, if you ever watch his fight against Norton, or even him hitting the heavy bag, was one big scary dude.

Here's why Duran was the scariest. First, he was one of the best ever. At 135, he was about as untouchable as it's possible to be. Hell, he stepped up two weight divisions and beat up one of the greatest welterweights of all time. He hit hard; he had an exceptional chin. His skin was beautiful, and never cut. Ray Arcell had taught him how to be far more difficult to hit cleanly than it looked given his style, and furnished him with an array of crafty tricks and traps. Duran, as a fighter, was awesome, and perhaps one of the top ten P4P post war.

So there was that, but then there was his attitude. As generous as he might have been out of the ring, he was as mean as anyone in it and before a fight. He spoke, and stared and looked every inch like a man who had grown up not with a caring family, but on the fierce streets of Panama City and had lost his ability to empathise, sympathise and morallise a long while ago. He seemed heartless, like he would coolly murder someone for a few thousand bucks. And before a fight, he would sneer, say things that might have been trash talk had they not gone way beyond the pale and been delivered with a stony earnestness, he would intimidate like the worst kind of schoolyard bully. And in the ring, he was remoseless. Note the way he finished off Buchanan, when he really didn't have to, with a punch so low and hard that it could have sterilised poor Ken for a decade. Or the time when an opponent was being carried out of the ring on a stretcher, and Duran was asked to comment. "If I'd have hit him right, he'd have been going to the morgue and not the hospital" came the reply.

Finally, it was the way he hit. Hands of Stone was deadly accurate. He wasn't a sharp, one punch knock out winner, but he hit hard, and he hurt. Hurt badly.

So, in short, in fighting Duran, you knew you were going to lose, because he was too good, and his skin and chin meant that there wasn't even a lucky way to win. But worse, where Leonard or Benitez might make a fool of you, and Tyson knock you senseless with one punch, Duran was going to bang you up real bad. Like when he ended Davy Moore's career ten years and 20 pound removed from his peak. And he would be on you from the first bell, cutting down the ring with a surprising alacrity, throwing punches that were alarmingly well selected and did damage every single time they landed. There was no easy fight for any Duran opponent. It was work three minutes of all 15 rounds.

So: you were going to hurt worse than ever before for weeks, probably be pissing blood for a few days, and there was a real possibility that you'd be going to the hospital in a bad state. Finally, Duran loved it. He hated you, and felt no normal human sympathy for you, when you were in the way of his meal ticket.

Duran was scary. Hell -- the m**herf**ker even looked like some scary pirate in his lightweight days, when his cheeks were hollow, and with that hair and the goatee.

[Carbo]

Sonny Liston was an "enforcer" outside of the ring and took that personality into the ring. Until Ali beat Liston he was perceived as invincible.

Funny story about Liston, which I think I read in an article by The Greatest, Hugh McIlvanney. I can't quite remember the specifics, but it's worth passing on.

Liston was indeed a mean and intimidating man, and could sometimes flip from being quietly genial to outright surliness and bullying. On his tour of Britain, he attended a party held in his honour in Glasgow by a high quality Scottish flyweight champion. Aparantly, so well did the mafia leg-breaker heavyweight champion and the Glasgow street tough fly weight get on, that at one stage the latter was sitting on the former's knee, chatting away and drinking.

However, when the Scots flyweight lit a cigar, Liston responded by angrily knocking it out of his mouth, and saying something along the lines of smoking around an athlete being inappropriate. The Glasgow man sprang off his knee, and fronted up to him, saying [I'm paraphrasing] "Ye might be heavyweight champion, but ah've never bin beaten on the streets, so since it's my party, if you don't like the smoke, ye can leave". "Aye," said an even smaller Scot from round the back of the fighter, "and not oot, tha dur, oot tha windae!"

At which point, Mr Liston picked up the cigar, gave it back, apologised, and the party continued in its former jovial spirit.

[Baby Face Finster]

Sonny Liston was an "enforcer" outside of the ring and took that personality into the ring. Until Ali beat Liston he was perceived as invincible.

Funny story about Liston, which I think I read in an article by The Greatest, Hugh McIlvanney. I can't quite remember the specifics, but it's worth passing on.

Liston was indeed a mean and intimidating man, and could sometimes flip from being quietly genial to outright surliness and bullying. On his tour of Britain, he attended a party held in his honour in Glasgow by a high quality Scottish flyweight champion. Aparantly, so well did the mafia leg-breaker heavyweight champion and the Glasgow street tough fly weight get on, that at one stage the latter was sitting on the former's knee, chatting away and drinking.

However, when the Scots flyweight lit a cigar, Liston responded by angrily knocking it out of his mouth, and saying something along the lines of smoking around an athlete being inappropriate. The Glasgow man sprang off his knee, and fronted up to him, saying [I'm paraphrasing] "Ye might be heavyweight champion, but ah've never bin beaten on the streets, so since it's my party, if you don't like the smoke, ye can leave". "Aye," said an even smaller Scot from round the back of the fighter, "and not oot, tha dur, oot tha windae!"

At which point, Mr Liston picked up the cigar, gave it back, apologised, and the party continued in its former jovial spirit.

That's a great story.

Tyson in his prime was the scariest for me.

[Yes We Can]

In the aftermath of the Cotto fight (numero uno) Margarito scared the sh*t outta me.

He was like the terminator, walking through anything and anyone, regardless of how much abuse his body had taken. At that point he is maybe the only fighter i considered and believed that was willing to "die in the ring" as is often said at press conferences. That is his only attribute i remain impressed by....

[littlepug]

Andy Till looked pretty scary

[IRLangmaid25]

Julio Cesar Chavez Snr deserves an honourable mention as he had the look of a icy cool assassin when he was in the ring. Golovkin has the same look too when he is ring. I also think Anthony Joshua is one scary motherfucker as well.

Joshua. He's a big pussy cat!

When he is in the ring he is one scary motherfucker. I think Orlando Salido looks a badass as well.

[Chepppaaa]

Ivan Drago

doe mw too...even so he wasnt real boxer, but the charcter was super scary

[Chepppaaa]

In the aftermath of the Cotto fight (numero uno) Margarito scared the sh*t outta me.

He was like the terminator, walking through anything and anyone, regardless of how much abuse his body had taken. At that point he is maybe the only fighter i considered and believed that was willing to "die in the ring" as is often said at press conferences. That is his only attribute i remain impressed by....

yeah his mental was scary. margarito was realy the kind of guy who was laughing about not seeing anymore with one of his eyes. he realy wasnt scared of anything at all...

[hoagylt]

Jack Dempsey - He was relentless & vicious.

He was one scary sob.

[Syntax Error]

Jack Dempsey - He was relentless & vicious.

He was one scary sob.

Absolutely.

Mike Tyson modelled himself on Jack Dempsey, so that tells you something.

[jewboypgh]

Sonny Liston. I seen him in a Hill District bar when I was a younger man. Almost shit my drawers

[FloydtheDuck]

Gerald McClellan should be mentioned as well

[stevedoc]

IMO, Mike Tyson or Tommy Hearns.

For Any one that is 45/48 or above these two monsters have to be the scariest fighters , great fighters would be scared to death by these two ,even the great Duran was scared of hearns and slinks of Tyson
The like of tua just aren't in the same league

[Rexob]

Nikolai valuev monster.

[tiny_acres]

Nikolai valuev monster.

Scariest looking.That sumbitch is ugly

[jewboypgh]

In recent years that little middleweigh Khtrov that them Tyson people got is a beast!!!!

[ajwesty13]

Nikolai valuev monster.

thats who sprang to mind

[lillywhite14]

The Tyson bite should have made people more scared of Holyfield than of Tyson! Evander fronted up everyone, was never phased and he made the scariest heavyweight of recent times turn into a coward and find a way to lose without taking another prolonged beating.
I'd always worry more about the man singing gospel music, laughing and smiling on the way to the ring before a massive fight than the mean, brooding approach.

[fanman]

The Tyson bite should have made people more scared of Holyfield than of Tyson! Evander fronted up everyone, was never phased and he made the scariest heavyweight of recent times turn into a coward and find a way to lose without taking another prolonged beating.
I'd always worry more about the man singing gospel music, laughing and smiling on the way to the ring before a massive fight than the mean, brooding approach.

Holyfield was f'ing crazy. He had gospel music playing in the background when he was sparring tua. You must be seriously messed up if you think jesus wants you to go around hitting people on the head.

[SenorPipino]

Bonecrusher Smith when he widened his eyes prefight, was a frightening character.
He wasn't as frightening once the fight started, especially when he hugged Tyson like a tree for 12 rounds.