Who Were the Scariest Boxers Ever?

Fighting pretty much anybody in the ring is a scary proposition, no matter how good of a boxer you are. Almost every fighter is at least a little nervous, no matter what they say. It stands to reason that the better and more talented your opponent is and the higher the stakes, the more afraid you might be. But beyond talent and stakes, there are some boxers who are far scarier than others. Their mere presence is intimidating. For example, the two greatest pound-for-pound fighters right now are Naoya Inoue and Terence Crawford. They dominate just about everybody they fight and finish with a KO. Yet still, despite their abilities and power, I would not consider either of them scary. They just kind of seem like nice guys. Inoue's nickname is even "The Monster" but I feel like he would help me up and apologize after knocking me down. On the flipside, there are also boxers who project toughness and seem kind of mean but it comes off as false bravado. Someone like Anthony Joshua or Fernando Vargas strikes me that way. Not to say they aren't talented and tough, I just never fully bought their act.

Then there are the guys who are truly scary. Maybe it was still an act in certain cases, but I bought it and would be far more afraid to mix it up with any of them. Thus, just in time for Halloween, here are my Top 5 Scariest Boxers of all-time:

Mike Tyson

Yes, I know. This is the obvious choice and I am a diehard Tyson fan but there are very legitimate, indisputable reasons for being scared of Iron Mike. It started with the ring walk. By the 80s, most every boxer walked into the ring slowly with music playing and wearing a robe. Mike walked in fast with no music and no robe. He was shirtless and after the beginning of his career, just wore plain black shorts and plain black shoes. No trim, no graphics, no tassels. None of that glitz and glamor associated with prizefighting. Nobody looked like Mike either. Just a ball of muscle and almost a cartoon character look. When he was young and focused, there was no more intimidating face in my mind. 

Then, oh yeah, there was his boxing. It wasn't just powerful, it wasn't just fast, it was sudden and explosive in a way that we had not seen before. Or since. He just moved different. Again, like a cartoon. Just watch anything on YouTube showing his highlight knockouts during the 80s when he was the baddest man on the planet and you will see what I mean. Then watch the faces of the guys he drops. There is a look in their eyes I haven't really seen before either. Almost like they realized they made a very wrong turn in their lives and should reconsider not just their choice to fight Tyson but all the choices they have ever made.

Sonny Liston

Often credited as the Tyson before Tyson. Incredibly powerful with an iconic scowl but unlike Tyson, Sonny Liston was a little taller with longer reach. He could knock people out with a jab. Sonny became heavyweight champion by defeating Floyd Patterson in 1962. Patterson refused to even look at him in the weigh-in and brought a disguise to wear after he lost so no one recognized him leaving the arena. This was before the fight even happened. And Floyd Patterson was the champion. Other fighters openly expressed their fear of Sonny Liston and opponents ended up battered physically and mentally, some never fighting again.

Liston's toughness also came from outside of the ring. He was born in rural Arkansas, with no birth certificate, one of 13 children and a highly abusive father. He became a criminal and was arrested 19 times, eventually finding his way to the Missouri State Penitentiary. This was where he learned how to box and quickly rose up the amateur ranks and the pros after being released from prison (on Halloween 1952!). His criminal past and present associations led to him not getting a title shot for some time after he was clearly the #1 contender but I would bet that at least some of that was used as an excuse for fighters ducking this scary dude.

Roberto Duran

There have been plenty of pressure fighters who just keep coming at you, no matter what you do to try and stop them but few had the technical skills and punching power of Roberto "Hands of Stone" Duran. He had mastered the art of grappling and infighting but could also fight on the outside too. He was arguably the greatest lightweight ever, won titles in 4 different weight classes and went through the the 1970s with a record of 71-1. Roberto showed resolve in his career too, winning Comeback Fighter of the Year on two separate occasions, fighting over 5 decades.

So what made him so scary? It was his ferocity and violence, combined with those angry, black eyes that gave him a strong Charles Manson vibe, especially as the fight went on. Pressure fighters generally try to overwhelm their fighters with a volume of punches, as opposed to a single power shot. Duran did this except with the power part and a single punch that could end careers.

Julian Jackson

While not really a household name, Julian "The Hawk" Jackson may have been the hardest puncher, pound-for-pound, that boxing has ever produced. His shots were vicious and much like Mike Tyson's victims of the 80s, Julian Jackson's opponent's looked completely bewildered and maybe even permanently damaged after getting hit. Though he fought in the middleweight and light middleweight divisions, he had a lanky, athletic build that made him look like a perfect killing machine.

The secret to his power was often his footwork. He would position his feet in a perfect spot to get  maximum speed, torque, and explosiveness out of his punches, usually at an ideal angle. He also threw every single one like he knew it was going to land. You might wonder if most boxers do that but a lot of them don't. They often pull their punches a little bit so that if they do miss, they are not off-balance or out of position. This might be a smart strategy at times, but it does take away from your power, and Julian was able to use his superior athleticism and once again, his underrated footwork, to bail himself out when he missed. In his first 50 fights, he was 48-2 with an incredible 45 knockouts, one of the highest percentages ever. But even those insane numbers don't tell the story. Check out some of his legendary knockouts on YouTube and you will see what I mean. Didn't matter if he was losing the fight on points (Herol Graham) or his opponent had their hands up to block the shot (Buster Drayton), his punches were terrifying deathblows. 

Marvin Hagler

Speaking of knockout percentage and middleweights, Marvelous Marvin Hagler had the highest knockout percentage for his weight class and one of the all-time greats. He is also known for having one of the best chins ever, having been knocked down only once in his career and even that is quite disputable (Hagler says he was pushed and pulled down and proceeded to brutalize his opponent for the rest of the fight). So just like Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees in a horror movie, you couldn't really hurt Marvelous. He was in one of the greatest, most exciting fights of all time against Tommy Hearns, who just missed making this list himself, and stood toe-toe with Hearns, not backing down for a second and maintaining his shark-like composure through they entire battle.

Besides all that, for me personally, the reason I would say that Hagler was especially scary was actually because of the way he looks. On the surface, he's maybe not all that intimidating but there is a certain seriousness and intensity to him that would make me feel like I was a little kid, even if I was somehow able to travel back in time to the early 80s and be significantly older than him. It almost like a dad vibe who just got home from work and heard about the bad thing I did at school earlier.

There you have it, my Top 5 Scariest Boxers in no particular order. Let it be noted that Sugar Ray Leonard, while not a scary type of boxer to me at all, wins the courage award for getting in the ring with both Marvin Hagler and Roberto Duran on this list, as well as Tommy Hearns who I mentioned just missing this list. He fought Duran and Hearns multiple times, Hagler only the one time but coming up in weight for the latter two opponents. That's pretty brave, in my book, especially considering that Leonard was a successful, intelligent, handsome guy who didn't need to take such a big risks. Granted, he was smart about it and picked the right times for each of those fights but still, to take on those monsters makes him heroic to me. So if this were a movie, I guess we could call Sugar Ray the "Last Girl" who manages to survive the killer.

Fear and Bullies

One of the things I like about the Halloween season is that it can be a time to safely embrace our fears a little bit and have the cathartic experience of surviving them, through movies, haunts, ghost stories, etc. Of course facing a real, true threat to your life can be a very different thing. But if not for that fear, none of us would be sitting here today. It is the driving emotion behind our survival as a species. So fear...- to misquote Gordon Gecko in the movie, "Wall Street" - is good! Rational fear, that is. It may not feel good, that's for sure, but we'd all be dead without it.

How we deal with our fears is a big part of what makes us who we are. Some people are paralyzed by them, others are motivated to conquer them, others try to distract or ignore, and of course there is everything in between. Like a lot of kids, unfortunately, I was bullied a lot from about the ages of 12 on through high school. Some people told me that all bullies were cowards and only doing this because they were scared. If I just stood up to them, I would see how cowardly they were. I always thought that was ridiculous at best and even a little bit trite. Most of the kids who bullied me seemed pretty tough. And they vastly outnumbered me. I went to school in some bad parts of Los Angeles and many of my tormenters were already in gangs by 6th grade. What could they possibly be afraid of? From me?? I was certainly no threat, that's for sure.

Later I realized that there are different kinds of fears and different ways we handle them. The kids who bullied me weren't afraid of me, personally. But they were afraid of something else. Maybe it was not fitting in with the other seemingly tough kids, maybe they were afraid of their dads, maybe they were just phonies and afraid people would find out. The way they dealt with these fears was to take it out on someone else and/or distract from their own problems. As long as they singled me out as the weirdo kid that everybody hated, no one will notice that they too might have some issues. I did stand up to some bullies, but it didn't necessarily help or win anybody's respect like it does in the movies.

Luckily, I eventually grew up. Hopefully some of my bullies did too, but I have certainly encountered adult versions of them throughout my life. Some of them who try to seem physically tough, in the schoolyard way, others who are just aggressive in their demeaner in an attempt to intimidate people into getting what they want.

No matter what the bully, the key is confidence. Sounds easy enough, right? But here's the catch. It has to be real. 100% real. If it isn't, or it’s manufactured in any way, they will know. They may not be consciously aware of it but they will know. You would be amazed how many professional fighters got into boxing or martial arts because they, too, were bullied. Even some of the toughest-seeming people, like Mike Tyson and Bas Rutten, went through it as a kid. The bullying didn't necessarily stop because they got trained and beat up all of their bullies. It stopped because they developed real self-confidence through their training. Furthermore, of all of the fighters I have met, almost every single one was a sweetheart. Nothing intimidating or scary about them. Nothing to appear tough. Why? Because they actually are pretty tough, they know it, and they don't have those same fears that bullies have. There is no need to front.

Finding that confidence is the tough part. There are a million self-help books out there, but I would say that a big, big thing is being good at something. Something that you enjoy and hopefully something that just seems like a cool thing to be good at. 

Being good at something is not easy. Continuing to get better, become more knowledgeable, and more adept is even harder. It is a challenge. But that is part of it. Overcoming the obstacle of that challenge is part of what makes this build your confidence. You worked hard and you accomplished something.

That being said, there may be some things you are not good at. Doesn't mean you can't be good at them, doesn't mean you can or should quit trying, I just think it's important to be honest with yourself about things you may not be good at or understand well. Definitely don't pretend to be good or knowledgeable about those things. Sure, there is the whole "fake it until you make it" mentality which can work but you won't build confidence until you actually do make it.

Regular exercise is definitely a good way to build confidence too. That can even be the thing you are really good at, or it can be just another ancillary piece. Besides the fact that you will be healthier, look better and feel better, regular exercise becomes something you are dedicated to. You have to stick to a schedule and get things done. It's challenging but you do it anyway. Not because you have to, or you do it for someone else, but for yourself.

Which brings me to the next point, which is you've gotta treat yo'self! Spend time and/or money doing nice things for You. Just you and no one else. I have seen many people actually box better after getting brand new gloves, boxing shoes, or just fancy new exercise attire. If you feel like you look good or cool, you're going to perform better at just about anything in life so find a way to make it happen. You'd be amazed what a makeover can do!

Again, there are many different ways to build our confidence and there are many reasons we may or may not already have this self-confidence but the big takeaway is that it is the antidote to bullies and other fears. People told me to stand up to bullies but it didn't work because I was not confident. People told me not to care what others think about me, but that was impossible until I got more and more confident. I've spent a lot of time in boxing and martial arts and that is the thing I keep hearing over and over from people who train - confidence. We all have fears and always will, but if we believe in ourselves, we will believe we can handle those fears and not become consumed by them, finding ways to distract from our fears. That is what bullies do. Some bullies may be strong but they are phony. You,on the other hand, are real. And real is steel!

Who Was the Greatest Boxer of All-Time?

Of course this is the eternal question in every sport. Who is the GOAT? Everybody
has an opinion but of course there is no one, true answer and there never could be. That is part of what makes it such a fun topic of discussion. With the sport of boxing, you are comparing fighters at different weight classes, who fought in different eras, against different competition and with different styles that would make even a fantasy matchup not necessarily as telling as to who is really the best.

That all being said though, if you talk to boxing journalists, historians and learned aficionados of the sport, you will generally hear 4 names mentioned when talking about the greatest of all time:

Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Floyd competed professionally about 21 years, from 1996-2017, before retiring undefeated with a record of 50-0. I don't think it can be argued against that he was certainly the most dominant boxer of all-time, at least when it comes to wins and losses. He was a champion in 5 different weight classes. According to CompuBox - a computerized punch scoring system - he is the most accurate puncher ever and has the best plus-minus ratio (him hitting you minus you hitting him) in history. Of course the big asterisk is that CompuBox has only been around since the 80s, when none of the other people on the short list of GOATS competed. But just from watching fights, I bet his record would stand had CompuBox been around since the inception of boxing. And even when he did get hit, you almost never saw Floyd Mayweather hurt or even particularly bothered by a punch. He was never even knocked down! Technically, one knock down was scored against him as his knee may have touched the ground but even then, that is disputable.

As evidenced by those statistics, Floyd is definitely one of the best defensive fighters ever. The goal of boxing is to simply hit and not get hit and nobody did it better than him. He was an incredibly smart fighter as well. High Ring IQ plus he understood the business side of the sport completely. Some of his notable wins were against plenty of great fighters like, Canelo Alvarez , Manny Pacquiao, Oscar de la Hoya, Shane Mosley, Miguel Cotto, Arturo Gatti, Juan Manuel Marquez, Diego Corrales, Ricky Hatton and other high-level competitors.

BUT...Floyd ducked a lot of people too. And for some of the fighters he didn't duck, he waited until they might have been past their prime, most notably Manny Pacquiao whose hand speed might have diminished just enough for Floyd to squeeze out a victory. It worked the other way too. He fought Canelo early, before Canelo turned into the pressure monster that might have beaten Mayweather a few years later. Again, he understood the business of boxing better than anybody else and treated boxing probably more like a business than anyone else. He figured out how to be popular, how to make money and how not to take unnecessary risks. Even his fighting style reflected this, which brings me to the next point.

He didn't necessarily "beat" all of his opponents. He won the fight, yes, and very few could be argued except maybe his first bout with Marcos Maidana, but he won the fights by hitting and not getting hit. About half of his wins were by knockout and those were mostly earlier in his career against lesser competition. Many purists will say, "So what?" Boxing is not about knockouts or beatdowns, it is a sweet science and Floyd Mayweather Jr. mastered that part of it. True in some ways, for sure, but when we are talking about the best boxer of all time, I feel like we need to see a little more danger. There were no points in most of those high-profile matches I mentioned where it seemed like Floyd was going to actually end the fight, as opposed to just out-pointing his opponent. That also meant that there were very few classic fights too. No real wars, other than the Diego Corrales bout. I also feel like that is something we need in an all-time great. We human beings like our drama. Those indelible, historical moments where two men enter the ring and push each other right to the edge, with the better man rising to yet a new level and becoming the stuff of legends. 

Muhammad Ali/Cassius Clay

By many accounts, Ali is the correct to answer to who is the greatest boxer of all time. He is definitely the most well-known, and he transcended not just the sport of boxing, but sports itself. In looking at him in this context versus the abovementioned Floyd Mayweather Jr., Ali is very much the opposite. His record is not at all perfect. He was knocked down numerous times. He lost 5 fights. He even won some that maybe he should have lost (rematches with Ken Norton, shenanigans in the Henry Cooper fight, and certainly wanted to quit in the final fight with Joe Frazier) and hung on too long, suffering sad and embarrassing defeats to Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick. But unlike Floyd, he fought everyone there was to fight in an era regarded as the greatest for heavyweights. And he was a heavyweight. Fair or not, that is the division that makes boxing relevant to most of popular culture. Also unlike Floyd, Muhammad Ali fought in wars (metaphorically speaking). The Rumble in the Jungle against the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut that was young George Foreman, The Thrilla in Manilla against the greatest rivalry boxing has ever really had between him and Joe Frazier.

Ali started his career as Cassius Clay in 1960 and climbed the ladder quickly getting his title shot against the ferocious Sonny Liston in 1964. Back then, we had not seen speed and footwork like that from a man his size. Ali was a true heavyweight but danced around the ring like a lightweight. He definitely got caught a couple of times, most notably against Henry Cooper but as far as that division goes, he was as untouchable as anyone. He was also known and widely disliked for his trash talk, which was not common at the time or thought of as good sportsmanship. It was effective promotion though and probably helped him get his fight with Sonny Liston for the heavyweight championship. In what would be a major upset, Ali dominated Liston and would defend his title 9 times before being exiled from boxing at age 25, the prime of his career, for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.

He would win his appeal in 1970 and come back to boxing before quickly getting a chance to reclaim his title against Joe Frazier in 1971, a fight in which he would lose for the first time in his career. He lost again to Ken Norton before getting his rematch against Joe Frazier. Ali won this one by decision but neither fighter looked particularly great. George Foreman was now the champion and many people thought this second incarnation of the the older Ali had no chance against Big George. Once again though, Muhammad Ali proved the doubters wrong by defeating Foreman in what still remains the most legendary fight ever. A close second was final fight in his trilogy with Joe Frazier, which Ali managed to win despite saying he felt as close to death as ever. He would lose his title to Leon Spinks briefly, before winning it back, as well as avenging his loss to Ken Norton. All in all, Muhammad Ali was the greatest heavyweight during the greatest era of heavyweights and the setbacks and subsequent comebacks only really add to his legacy.

BUT...despite being the most culturally-relevant weight class, being a natural heavyweight usually means you can't fight in any other divisions, save for cruiserweight. When comparing pound-for-pound fighters, the smaller weight classes compete in multiple divisions, which can make some of their achievements more impressive. As mentioned previously, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a champion in 5 different weight classes. Manny Pacquiao was an 8 division champ, going up and down in weight to challenge other fighters. Natural heavyweights cannot really do this. Smaller fighters can move up to heavyweight but going down much further than cruiser isn't realistic. So if you're looking at the numbers and comparing the resumes, Ali's may not be as impressive as other fighters.

Sugar Ray Robinson

The original Sugar Ray, Robinson, is often the pick of sportswriters and boxing historians (including Muhammad Ali himself) as the greatest pound-for-pound boxer ever. He fought in a different era, 1940-1965, and as such has an insane number of fights (201) and wins (174). We will never see anyone amass those kinds of numbers again as most high-level boxers are lucky to get 2 fights per year nowadays. He competed in multiple weight classes including lightweight, welterweight, middleweight and light heavyweight. There were fewer divisions back then so if he was around now, he probably would have earned more belts. 

He is probably most culturally-known to more recent generations as Jake LaMotta's opponent in the movie, Raging Bull. Sugar Ray definitely fought in wars, particularly the St. Valentine's Day Massacre depicted in that film. He fought the highest levels of competition in multiple weight classes, multiple times over, and certainly didn't duck anyone. If he lost a fight, which he rarely did, he won the rematch. As a fighter, he was good at just about everything. There were no weaknesses in his game.

BUT...it was just so long ago. While Sugar Ray's sheer amount of fights is unfathomable now, it is also true that fighters were not nearly at the peak physical levels that they are now. I think this makes it hard to compare him to fighters from other eras. When I watch some of those old fights, I definitely see the greatness everyone talks about but I also don't see a lot of speed and power. Plus I don't know how dangerous his opponents really were. Some were good, tough fighters for sure, like Jake LaMotta, who was also bigger/heavier but did Sugar Ray Robinson get in there with anyone truly scary compared to the other Sugar Ray (Leonard), who took on true killers Duran, Hagler and Hearns and beat them all? When considering who the greatest of all time really is, that is a big criteria for me personally.

Joe Louis

Of the 4 fighters mentioned here, probably the one who gets the least amount of mentions as a potential GOAT is Joe Louis. Still though, my favorite boxing mind of all-time (FBMOAT) is Teddy Atlas and Teddy has said that he thinks Joe Louis was #1 so it's definitely worth considering. He competed even earlier than Sugar Ray Robinson, from 1934-1951 and was the longest reigning heavyweight champion of all time, with 25 consecutive title defenses, which is still a record. Speaking of records, Joe went 66-3, with only one of those losses coming during the prime of his career, a defeat against Max Schmeling that he would avenge in historical fashion. Louis is widely regarded as the first black man to become a national hero in America and Schmeling was also a hero in his native Germany where the Nazi party had recently risen to power. Max Schmeling's first defeat of Louis was touted by the Nazis as proof of their Aryan superiority. The rematch became a lot more than a fight between two great boxers. It was about two nations, two sets of ideals and certainly in the minds of many Americans (including president Franklin Roosevelt), good and evil. The fight lasted about 2 minutes. In that time, Louis knocked Schmeling down 3 times before the referee stopped it. It was one of the more historically-significant sporting of events of all time.

In terms of skill, speed, power and ring IQ, Joe Louis had it all. He would display the latter in his famous rematch with Max Schmeling, making adjustments from the first fight so that he could dominate in the second. Joe wasn't particularly big for a heavyweight but dominated much larger men with his power and accuracy. He may also be the most accurate heavyweight boxer we will ever see.

BUT......there aren't really many "buts" with Joe Louis. He dominated his division, the most important division in boxing, and defeated some monsters. He fought a lot of bums too and I guess the issue for me is that I just don't know how serious that level of competition was compared to say, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman who were defeated by Ali. Max Baer was huge and killed a man in the ring, and James Braddock, the Cinderella Man, had a movie made about him! And Joe Louis beat them both, so that is certainly something. Good enough to make him the GOAT?

I have to be honest and say that when it comes to both Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson, I am not old enough to properly gauge their GOAT-ness. I study the sport and have read much about them both but I think to truly understand how great an athlete was, you need to also understand the time and climate in which they competed. That being said, I have a lot of respect for my elders and if much of the prevailing wisdom suggests that Sugar Ray Robinson was the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time, I have to believe it even if I can't necessarily see it. Ali had the greatest impact though, is probably a Top 10 greatest sportsman of all-time, and will probably continue to represent the entire sport of boxing more than any other single person.

It is hard to imagine anyone from the modern era being on this list at any point in the future. Not because they aren't good enough but because they don't fight enough. Tyson Fury might have had a shot if he took on all the major players in the heavyweight division (Anthony Joshua, Olexandr Usyk, Andy Ruiz Jr., Jared Anderson, and maybe now Zhilei Zhang) multiple times like Ali did in his era. But that is never going to happen. We will be lucky to just get that Usyk fight that just got scheduled. Canelo might even have a chance if he were to take and defeat Terence Crawford and David Benavidez, as well as avenge his loss to Demitry Bivol, then win the rubber match in the trilogy fight. I don't think Canelo could do all of those things, but even if he could, it also will very likely not happen. Modern boxers just don't take that many fights, period, and certainly don't need to take as much risk to their careers, legacy, and health. And I can't say as I blame them either! I wish we could see another Muhammad Ali, but I also know that it can come with the heavy cost to the boxer, so I am happy to just appreciate the high level of talent there is out there in boxing, even if it lacks that historical significance.