Who of these would you find most intimidating?

[ChrisPontius]

Just talking about the mental aspect.


Option A:
A loud, charismatic shit talker who embarrasses you and is the crowd favorite. Think Muhammad Ali. Like it or not, because he's a big crowd favorite, you might be on the end of a bad decision with everyone cheering for a jab he misses, and meeting a flush left hook/right uppercut you land with silence.

Option B:
An aggressive guy with a psycho personality. Think Roberto Duran or Mike Tyson. The classical bully.

Option C:
A fighter who appears cold and emotionless, and will do whatever it takes to win. A fighting machine with only one goal: to knock you out. Think Joe Louis or Carlos Monzon.

[TommyV]

Option A is the type of guy that would fire my up more, I'd be more determined to knock him out and it wouldn't imtimidate me, it would frustrate me but not intimidate.

Option B is someone that would probably imtimidate me, however I picked Option C. A guy like Miguel Cotto for example. He's never seen smiling, he doesn't speak much but appears entirely focused when he does, and you know he works extremely hard, he's 100% focused and a beast in the ring. That's the type of guy that would imtimidate me.

Option C, closely followed by Option B. Option A isn't someone who would intimidate me.

Good thread btw.

[Muchmoore]

Option A is the type of guy that would fire my up more, I'd be more determined to knock him out and it wouldn't imtimidate me, it would frustrate me but not intimidate.

Option B is someone that would probably imtimidate me, however I picked Option C. A guy like Miguel Cotto for example. He's never seen smiling, he doesn't speak much but appears entirely focused when he does, and you know he works extremely hard, he's 100% focused and a beast in the ring. That's the type of guy that would imtimidate me.

Option C, closely followed by Option B. Option A isn't someone who would intimidate me.

Good thread btw.

Option A doesn't really intimidate anyone in the sense it makes them scared to enter the ring. Most guys fought the fight of their lives against Ali because he was such a shit talker (Frazier, Norton, even Young and Shavers)

[TommyV]

Option A doesn't really intimidate anyone in the sense it makes them scared to enter the ring. Most guys fought the fight of their lives against Ali because he was such a shit talker (Frazier, Norton, even Young and Shavers)

I agree. But like Chris said if the crowd are behind him cheering for every jab that misses then sometimes that can intimidate a fighter.

[McGrain]

C is my answer. Those guys freak me out. Even in non-combativie situations they give me the fear a wee bit.

[Loewe]

Option A would make me angry and motivate me even more. A guy like option B I met already, they are scary but if you stand up against them you have a good chance of putting a bit of insecureness into his heart. Option C is completly scary, these guys are like machines but they are also predictable. It would be between option B and C ant it would be like between AIDS and cancer.

[McGrain]

I'd MUCH rather have cancer than AIDS. That isn't hard at all. Lots of cancer's are cureable and if you beat it your are a hero. AIDS isn't curable, and if you have it your are seen as a scumbag.

I am SURE having cancer would get you laid, as a man, if spun right. Now, imagine trying to get laid with AIDS?

[Loewe]

I'd MUCH rather have cancer than AIDS. That isn't hard at all. Lots of cancer's are cureable and if you beat it your are a hero. AIDS isn't curable, and if you have it your are seen as a scumbag.

I am SURE having cancer would get you laid, as a man, if spun right. Now, imagine trying to get laid with AIDS?

:lol: never seen it that way. Good point.

[McGrain]

Yeah, baby, i got AIDS, it's a slog, I have to fight real hard. Want to come back to mine and listen to some Guns and Roses? No?

[janitor]

I would tend to say option C personaly.

Option A would not bother me because I am myself a glib speaker and would give as good as I got.

With option B I might find some crumb of comfort from the idea that this person was putting up a mask that could hide some inner insecurities.

With option C there is no positive.

[TommyV]

I'd MUCH rather have cancer than AIDS. That isn't hard at all. Lots of cancer's are cureable and if you beat it your are a hero. AIDS isn't curable, and if you have it your are seen as a scumbag.

I am SURE having cancer would get you laid, as a man, if spun right. Now, imagine trying to get laid with AIDS?

:lol: Good point.

[ChrisPontius]

I'd MUCH rather have cancer than AIDS. That isn't hard at all. Lots of cancer's are cureable and if you beat it your are a hero. AIDS isn't curable, and if you have it your are seen as a scumbag.

I am SURE having cancer would get you laid, as a man, if spun right. Now, imagine trying to get laid with AIDS?

........ When i pressed "submit", i just KNEW there was going to be some bastard saying this.

You didn't let me down though, McGrain. :good How is summer in Scotland?

[ChrisPontius]

Option A doesn't really intimidate anyone in the sense it makes them scared to enter the ring. Most guys fought the fight of their lives against Ali because he was such a shit talker (Frazier, Norton, even Young and Shavers)

That's true, but let's not forget that Liston, one of the most intimidating fighters ever, was in fact intimidated by Ali and stated that he didn't want to fight a psycho like him. Similarly, Foreman was "lured" into punching himself out and developed into a likeable, crowd-favorite figure during his comeback because he experienced how hard it is when an entire country is rooting against you.

The shit Terrel and Patterson had to go through isn't something i'd wish on anybody, either. Although you could argue that was more about the dark side of Ali than a specific character trade of "Fighter A".

[MagnificentMatt]

A and B both are people I would just smile at, just how I am, especially if B is purposely using their psycho rep to try and intimidate me...

But someone that doesnt show anything(C), they could make me a little nervous..

[janitor]

That's true, but let's not forget that Liston, one of the most intimidating fighters ever, was in fact intimidated by Ali and stated that he didn't want to fight a psycho like him.

A is going to be more intimidating to a person who cant deal with that sort of thing in day to day life.

Liston day to day would have relied on his physical strength to overcome that sort of thing.

When it came from a physical equal he was a lost little boy.

[McGrain]

........ When i pressed "submit", i just KNEW there was going to be some bastard saying this.

:lol:

You didn't let me down though, McGrain. :good How is summer in Scotland?

Beautiful and very very wet. How is it with you?

[The Wanderer]

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.

[ChrisPontius]

:lol:



Beautiful and very very wet. How is it with you?

Excellent, it sounds like you've just described my girlfriend.

(OK, i had to come back with an easy remark after that...)

[D-MAC]

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 shit 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.

[Holmes' Jab]

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

[prime]

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

[Dostoevsky]

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.

[janitor]

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 shit myself.

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.

[McGrain]

Excellent, it sounds like you've just described my girlfriend.

:lol:

[Holmes' Jab]

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

[Stonehands89]

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.

[fists of fury]

Option C without a doubt.

[fists of fury]

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.

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.

[Bokaj]

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.

[Mendoza]

Just talking about the mental aspect.


Option A:
A loud, charismatic shit talker who embarrasses you and is the crowd favorite. Think Muhammad Ali. Like it or not, because he's a big crowd favorite, you might be on the end of a bad decision with everyone cheering for a jab he misses, and meeting a flush left hook/right uppercut you land with silence.

Option B:
An aggressive guy with a psycho personality. Think Roberto Duran or Mike Tyson. The classical bully.

Option C:
A fighter who appears cold and emotionless, and will do whatever it takes to win. A fighting machine with only one goal: to knock you out. Think Joe Louis or Carlos Monzon.

I would say option C.

[Maxmomer]

Option B would be fucked up because you never know what they're gonna do. They might literally go in and do the best they can to kill you, not just beat you. For all you know they're out to specifically cause long term damage, and if they have the ability to go along with that mentality, that's very frightening. At least with C you know the guy doesn't care, he's just trying to win, not hurt just for the sake of it, it's all business.

[DamonD]

But in terms of in the ring, I'd actually be most worried about losing to Fighter A...the other two, if you fight well then you can win wheras A could get out of jail free...

[BlackWater]

Only a certain type of bully would intimidate me and it would have to be someone like Tyson. Knowing a prime Tyson's skills and what he had accomplished, staring me down would be enough.

[red cobra]

There are ways to cope with A and B, whether one is physically able to execute these ways or not would be the question. The way Ken Norton and Jimmy Young were able to keep Ali from getting under their skin is an example for the antidote to"A". The Buster Douglas and Evander Holyfield examples of "go to hell Mike" refusal to submit to a bully are classic examples of how to deal with "B", as was Leonard's tactics of mocking Duran in the "No mas" fight as well. The "C" situation is another matter entirely. The guy who's stone cold with no emotions is the one who would freak me out. The examples of Monzon and Louis remind me of some old time sci-fi movie monsters or aliens who aren't taken in by anything you try on them, that just have a goal, or a mission to complete that may not necessarily be apparent to you at the time. so i'd find "C" to be the most imtimidating, like dealing with some reptilian creature of something.