In all fairness he looks like a strapping young guy. Whereas Cali, like a lot of mob bosses, looks short and dumpy. Who do you think would win in a fistfight? Carlo Gambino was the most powerful boss ever and an asthmatic kid would probably have more endurance than him or his son; the guy would've shit his pants if Carmine Galante was alone in a room with him. Anthony Casso got battered in prison once he started acting up and lost the aura that being high up in the mafia gave him.

Angelo Bruno and Paul Castellano didn't get to the top by virtue of what they did with their fists. Nor Frank Costello before that; look how quickly he noped out of the life after his life was threatened.

I suppose it's not the physical threat posed by these people that makes them a force to be reckoned with. It's the knowledge that they can snap their fingers and have someone do whatever they want to you. With no conscience or remorse.