actual battles. Let's start with bear vs. lion. Bears win this about every time. Too powerful. There are lots of stories about this happening. Bears vs tigers - as long as the bear is big enough, the bear should win. Amur tigers hunt bears, but bears win some and lose some. Those are often ambushes, which gives the attacker an advantage. We're talking about tigers up to 750 pounds or more against bears that can weigh over 1000 pounds. Against a smaller bear, the tiger usually wins.

Bears vs. cougars, strangely enough, are mixed results. Black bears are about even with cougars. Grizzlies don't fare so well. The research I read has native Americans recounting that cougars are too quick, and win every time. One story was about a caged cougar/grizzly match. The cougar managed to get on the bear's back and start ripping/biting it. The grizzly rolled over, and the cougar just jumped away, then jumped onto the back again until it was over. Cougars are killing machines, and are quite practiced at taking down large prey.

Cougars would never win against a lion or tiger, probably not against a jaguar either. Lions vs. tigers was also interesting. Lions' manes give tigers problems due to the way tigers are used to killing. As a result, lions typically win. There are accounts of actual battles that go both ways. There are tigers in one area of India that always win against lions. Experts have different opinions. I doubt anyone today would stage these kinds of battles, but they used to happen for probably thousands of years.

I wish I could remember more details - this was years ago, and I can't find the website that had all of those anecdotes.