These FAT short out of shape mob punk bitches are not threatening...

I'm willing to bet that the crews in the gang neighborhoods you were in don't even own any legit businesses to run a money-laundering scheme. They're the lowest denominator in the crime world where their only strength is intimidation through numbers.That's it.

Jimmy wasn't even a made guy but he had several different illegal enterprises operating in Paulie's territory that were making money for Paulie. MONEY is the POWER in the crime world and if Jimmy or Paulie wanted to 'wipe the floor' with your said gang they'd easily recruit another gang from a nearby neighborhood and probably arm them with better weapons.

See how that works?

It's not about the size of the dog in the fight, it's about the size of the fight in the dog.

These guys were dangerous because they were either borderline psychopaths or full-on psychopaths, not because they were big and strong per se. They were willing and able to hurt people for little reason and were very unpredictable. Not to mention that most of them carried guns.

Even in terms of their hand-to-hand fighting ability, nearly all of them had been street fighters in their youth and had learned to take beatings from their parents (as shown by Liotta taking the belt, and the cosmetics party where Karen describes all the other moms beating their kids with broom handles and belts).

They may not be threatening in the sense of being physically intimidating...but make no mistake about it, they are extremely dangerous individuals. They are the killers that 'come with smiles and come as your friends'. I wouldn't want to be on their sh#t list...put it that way.

The current dual light heavyweight / heavyweight champion in the UFC is a short fat guy...

They'd shoot you if you said this to their face, tough guy.

They don't have to be tall or in shape. They'll gang up on you and shoot you and then go after your family. You on the other hand run your fat mouth on the internet.