They might have said that they did such things, but i just dont believe the lion myth. Anyone who has been up close to a non-caged lion realizes the absurdity of the concept. Like all cats, lions are infintely more flexible than us. There is no wrestling hold that would keep them from ripping a human attacker to shreds within seconds. You would have better luck wrestling jaws.

Even if you survived, those claws are not sterile. The inevitable infections would kill you.

It's about two steps away from telling people Atlas really carried the earth. The strongest man alive would be destroyed by a lion. 4 paws and a set of incredibly sharp teeth all perfectly capable of lacerating any of your INCREDIBLY ACCESSIBLE major arteries in your neck, wrists, upper arms etc...

And, far more often than not, lions have friends within earshot. Jaws at least hunted alone. Nobody has ever ene boasted about wrestling a pride of lions.

You mean African lions? There were smaller lions in the Mediterranean I believe, which are now extinct.