Lions fight by inflicting damage with one of their front paws (right or left), each one equipped with 5 cm retractable claws that would mean serious weaponry for an animal.
“Get off my turf, shithead!”
Tigers on the other hand fight by standing on their hind legs (like also bears do) and inflicting damage using both of these front paws at once, which are also equipped with 5 cm long claws.
“You’d better run away, pal!”.
Apart from their style of fighting, there’s also a difference regarding their behavior (which of course has nothing to do with their style of hunting, that’s another story):
- given that lions live in group, they’re genetically wired to pick fights, especially males that are very territorial over their kills towards other lions and animals in general, and especially they’re prone to do everything to become the alpha male of their pride, and so this means they’ll never back down and will fight to the death;
- tigers rarely fight, since they’re solitary animals that travel for long distances, and this means they rarely meet each other in the same territory or contending the same kill, but if they meet, they’ll be wary of each other, and should they fight, it wouldn’t be a fight to the death because they know how to assess the risks of a serious fight, so most of the times the fight will end with one of them running away.
Both of them are impressive though.
UPDATE: I expected a lot of argument in the comment section. I was not disappointed.
UPDATE 2: Wow I didn’t expect to have so many upvotes! Thanks!