re: Who is the meanest or scariest person you've met?

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A buddy met Mike Tyson in a boxing gym post biting off Evander Holyfield's ear. Said he exuded danger.

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Funny, I met Tyson many times through friends when he lived in Scottsdale and never got that feeling from him, he was always extremely pleasant (especially if there were women around).

Interesting subject. I've told friends many times there weren't many men I was "afraid" of but there are three that stand out as coming across unhinged and that it was unsettling being around them. One was Roberto Duran. Was in the Bay Area with friends for a Wisconsin/Stanford football game in 1996 and ran into him in the Cadillac Bar & Grill in SF the night before the game. He was drunk and/or coked up and was fine when I spoke with him about his boxing career but other guys kept bugging him for his autograph and he was extremely agitated and wanting to fight. I vividly recall he had snot coming out of his nose and kept wiping it with his sleeve. I'm pretty sure he was solo and had no friends to reign him in and I bailed when it looked like it was getting out of control. I'm pretty sure he would have taken on the whole bar.

I played slo-pitch softball in the late 80's with a Arizona (Phoenix) Cardinal LB named Niko Noga. He was a Samoan with a head the size of a stop sign and when we went out after games he always seemed to find trouble. Two other Cardinal players on the softball team said the whole team was afraid of the guy and they shipped him off to Detroit. I remember he was always wanting to arm wrestle me.

In the early-to-mid 90's I traveled to LV for work quite a bit and boxed at Johnny Tocco's Ringside Gym when visiting. A lot of big-name boxers trained there, including Iran Barkley, who twice beat Tommy Hearns. One night a bunch of us from the gym went to a local nightclub on a weeknight and one-by-one the crowd dissipated until it was just he and I and another. Barkley was truly a crazy person and even the bar security kept their distance. He begged us to stay and continue partying and finally I snuck out. Again, he appeared under the influence of drugs. I saw him a few times after that and I kept my distance. He has since fallen on hard times and I believe he is (or was) homeless.