The Toughest SOB Ever

Discussion Open Forum
1

So I’m bored and throw in a pro wrestling dvd I have of a guy named Mick Foley, aka, Cactus Jack, aka Mankind.

He’s an ugly fatty with no rippling muscles or marble chin. He’s just tough. Now lots of guys take chair shots to the head and body slams to the floor, but in watching this match
youtube.com/watch?v=wAQgz_AmPQQ
just makes me feel that Mr. foley is indeed the physically toughest guy I’ve ever seen.

Now, I’m a big rasslin fan and read Foley’s book, and he wrote a bit about this matchup, and it seems that the first fall from the top of the cage, through the breakaway table, separated his left shoulder. but he climbed back up to the top of the cage to continue the match. Then once on top, the other guy (who had a broken foot at the time) threw him through the top of the cage onto the mat. Now the mat is bouncy for sure, but a 280 pound guy falling 10 or so feet and landing on his back is bad enough, especially with an already mucked up shoulder, but a chair that was on top on the cage also fell through and smashed him in the mouth, breaking loose a few teeth (you can see part of a tooth coming out of his nose-he states in the book that it came UP from inside and out his nostril…eek). The camera gets a close up once and he tries to stick his tongue through the split in his chin (the announcer says “He’s smiling!”)

So he’s lying there, after the second fall, legitimately unconscious as a bunch a guys check on him…but he comes to, and keeps going, oh, for about 15 more minutes (the youtube clip only shows four or so), including taking a few hard shots to the shoulder with the steel ring steps.

Then for show, he gets dumped on about a thousand thumbtacks.

That’s pretty damn tough in my book, not the tacks, but the willpower to keep going after taking that much abuse: fall from the top through a table, separated shoulder, second fall, knocked unconscious, smashed teeth, and lots of body slams.

The only guy I can think to match him toughwise is Lance somethingsomething, the guy who won the Tour De France a bunch of times, after having testicular cancer.

I watch UFC a bit, but still, toughness wise, it’s hard to find someone who beats Foley in this match. Although I did hear of one UFC guy who had his leg broken in a submission hold and didn’t tap out. His opponent TOLD the rep that he hear the bone break.

This is the whole match but it takes a while to load…
vidilife.com/video_play_7803 … e_Cell.htm

Anyway, just curious as to whom you think is a physically tough SOB.

2

Ken Baumgartner
Wendel Clark
Mike Foleno
Doug Gilmore…

Ah…memories.

3

nuff said

4

[quote=“Funk500”]

nuff said[/quote]

Good call!

5

and whom might that be?? :slight_smile:

6

[quote=“jdsmith”]
Anyway, just curious as to whom you think is a physically tough SOB.[/quote]

I’m probably misunderstanding what you’re after, but my answer is:

Any one of the Battered Bastards of Bastogne. In fact, pretty much anyone on the ground in that whole mess sixty years ago.

7

Can’t argue with that.

I was thinking more of individuals though.

8

that is Quentin Crisp. I admire him for his complete refusal to conform to what was expected in society. To be as openly gay as he was in his younger years must have took some proper balls.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Crisp

9

I like taking chair shots. The kind were you take a shot of booze and then someone smacks you over the head with a folding chair. There is a special technique used for this. It looks awful and sounds worse to observers but it really doesn’t hurt.

10

[quote=“jdsmith”]So I’m bored and throw in a pro wrestling dvd I have of a guy named Mick Foley, aka, Cactus Jack, aka Mankind.

He’s an ugly fatty with no rippling muscles or marble chin. He’s just tough. Now lots of guys take chair shots to the head and body slams to the floor, but in watching this match
youtube.com/watch?v=wAQgz_AmPQQ
just makes me feel that Mr. foley is indeed the physically toughest guy I’ve ever seen.[/quote]

(a) Chair shots to the upper back – BFD.
(b) Falling off the roof of the cage – DAMN! That’s gotta hurt, but
(b)(i) There’s gotta be some kind of trick involved, and
(b)(ii) Those guys are total idiots to do that. It’s not a sport, they’re not athletes, it’s just entertainment, but only a fool would take a such risk of major injury to earn a few bucks and a few fans.
© My vote for toughest SOB would have to go to a more honest performer – maybe a real MMA fighter, maybe an ultramarathon runner/swimmer, maybe even Quentin Crisp, but not an idiot who jumps off roofs for living.

11

[quote=“Mother Theresa”]
(a) Chair shots to the upper back – BFD. [/quote]
I’ve seen him take 10 hard shots to the head. He also made a reputation for doing a flying elbow to guys on the concrete without ever using his arms of legs to break his fall…he just crashed into them.

quote Falling off the roof of the cage – DAMN! That’s gotta hurt, but
(b)(i) There’s gotta be some kind of trick involved, and[/quote]
He fell onto the “Spanish Announcer’s table” which is known to be a breakaway, so he knew it would give. Up until that time no one has done such a risky move

quote(ii) Those guys are total idiots to do that. It’s not a sport, they’re not athletes, it’s just entertainment, but only a fool would take a such risk of major injury to earn a few bucks and a few fans.[/quote]Maybe so, but one could same the same thing about NASCAR drivers and MMA fighters.

“Honest?” What do you mean? His injuries were real. He kept going. Does the fact that he’s dressed like a maniac have something to do with your opinon? I had thought about MMA, but those guys don’t fight hurt. Usually if they’re hurt, they’re beaten quickly.

The triatheletes crossed my mind as well, but it’s hard to see how much they suffer. Some people are just in sick shape and can run across deserts.

Anyway, I can loan you the dvd MT. The guy is actually quite articulate, and wrote two best selling books about his career. He says the worst injury he ever sustained was a torn abdomenal muscle. :laughing:

12

Ali I seem to recall fought with a broken jaw. That’s pretty tough too. Actually, the old bare knuckes boxers were pretty tough too.

13

As far as toughness goes, I can’t think of anyone modern, but the early explorers and pioneers of north America always got me thinking. I keep thinking about those guys with packs as heavy as they were carrying canoes and stuff to get from river to river, over mountains, through swamps, snow, you name it. Those guys were Tough!

The early cartographers and their crews, the miners, the homesteading families…The women had to be just as tough as the men too.

To me, these folks were tough. They didn’t have any emergency services or special medicines to keep them going. They had to find, kill, or make everything they needed to make their lives manageable.

When I was in the Yukon, there was an old man who regularily walked overland from Mayo to Dawson city with nothing but a gun, a knife, some beans and flour, and a frying pan. I think he had a bedroll and a tarp as well. He was tough.

I am not tough.

14

Loathe is the day that a man with such refined tastes as yourself is relegated by boredom to write blow by blows of WWF matches. JD run for your life the mundanes are coming to get you!

I pray for you brother. You have a friend in Jebus, or maybe not.

:wink:

15

Physically tough? There have been so many men and women in my life to choose from. That’s a hard one. Canucktyyuktuk had good examples of the pioneers also they had the unknown factor to deal with.

Mentally tough. That’s as easy one. My old boss Jim Wimple, (I googled it and couldn’t find anything) when I worked in the vehicle repossesion business in LA. Jim was a 2 tour Vietnam vet who saw combat in central Vietnam as a way to thank him for his bravery the US army sent him to Korea to guard the payroll for a few years. He lost his front teeth in a bar fight and had a few shrapnel scars but for the most part he was average looking 5’8 170 pound white man.

I’ve never met anyone that even came close to him in fearlessness. I’ve personally seen him throw a meth head twice his size out of his office by grabbing the guy from his back belt loop and hair and opening a glass door with the guys head. The speed and determineness he moved with looked like a jungle cat. The guy couldn’t believe that this little dude was doing what he was doing.

Asked a 300 pound violent ex-con drug dealer for the keys to his Porshe at 4 AM in South Central–NO SHIT ! I was standing next to him peeing in my pants.

Watched him calmly handle two glock toting dudes who tried to ambush us because they thought we were stealing their neighbors car. Saved our lives.

Calmly talked into a hand held tape recorder as a guy shot at us with a .38 special so that the police report would have details.

And on and on… he handled scum bags and lowlifes like they were kindergarden children and never blinked…he was a careful, thoughtful man who always stressed the importance of a neat appearance and politeness. He always planned out each car repossession with safety in mind.

He treated me like a son and was always patient and hoped someday I’d be a professional like himself. He never yelled at me but when he would chew out some screwball at the shop I would quake in my shoes.

The cops, the druggies, the prostitutes and gang bangers all stepped aside when he was dealing with them.

He would have laughed at that “Dog” bounty hunter guy. He never showboated, left all the crap at the office at the end of the day (or at the beginning of the morning because of our weird hours) and went home to his wife and kid.

I probablly would still be in the business but he encouraged me to continue with my education. He died of a massive heart attack a few years back.

16

I’d also like to add this guy to the list
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6715743.stm

:bravo: to common sense and thank you Mr Pun.
I always believe that the Gurkhas deserve a better deal. I should also point out that my granddad was one of the few to survive Burma.

17

Bubba -
Good call. Mr. Wimple sounds like a straight up guy.

Here’s a nominee I just read about this a.m.:

…<== click the pic for story.

Being ‘tough’ is more than showboating and bar fights.

18

This guy has got my vote. More of a mental toughness, but to me that’s more impressive than physical.

I think a lot of big guys get spooked when a little/average guy confronts them.

19

Tough?

Tenzin Norgay and Ed Hilary - first to summit Mt Everest.

Reinhold Messner - first to summit Mt Everest w/out oxygen

Tim Macartney-Snape - started walking at sea level and hiked to to top of Mt Everest.

Lance Armstrong - 7 times TDF winner after cancer. I recommend his book “It’s not about the bike” which goes into his battle with cancer.

Carlos Hathcock - JDS, you should know who he is (OT - I recently read an interview he gave in th early 90s and he mentioned a bunch of Marines jogged by his house sometime in the 80s and said hello. He said the leader was JD Smith. Was it you?)

20

The problem with pro-wrestling, jdsmith, is that it’s phoney and all sane adults know that. Yes they do some impressive stunts, yes I’m sure it’s tough work and one could easily get injured, but so much of it is fake that it’s hard to tell what’s real about it and what’s not. I think that’s why a lot of folks, like myself, aren’t terrible interesting in it or impressed by it. And it’s made worse because they act like, “no, you don’t understand it really is real,” which only makes me less interested in it because they’re liars and fakes.

So, I agree that looked crazy jumping off the roof twice like that and getting slammed down on a bunch of thumbtacks, but I’d rather vote for someone doing something that I know is 100% authentic – no BS, no tricks, no fraud.

Maybe this guy, Dean Karnazes, who ran 350 miles in 80 hours; has run across Death Valley in 120 degree heat that melted his shoes; has run in Antarctica; and has done 50 marathons in 50 days.
youtube.com/watch?v=yig5a7Rs … ed&search=

Or maybe a UFC fighter. Perhaps the intense Russian, Igor Vovwhatever.
youtube.com/watch?v=JW5nwAzgXjU
Or maybe Vitor Belfort (check out the intense flurry of punches)
youtube.com/watch?v=Eb97HFDihZ8

Or maybe that olympic marathoner many years ago who crawled to the finish despite debilitating cramps, deliria and diarhea running down his/her legs (I don’t remember the exact details)

Or the guy who rows a boat across the Atlantic solo.

Or some other REAL athlete such as those.