I recently made a derogatory comment about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his idiotic “girly-men” comment, and a co-worker opined that I wouldn’t dare say such a thing to his face. I wouldn’t, probably, but out of courtesy, not fear of getting my ass kicked.
Well, a discussion insued about whether he, with all his muscles, could actually fight. I said probably not, due to lack of experience and training etc. Some agreed, others said he’d squish me like a bug. Squish me? look at the guy. He’s a big ol’ pussy. A couple quick jabs to the face and he’d call in his bodyguards. If I was going to worry about brawling with a governor, it’d be that guy from Minnesota, Jessie Ventura. 
Really, though. Being muscular does not give one an automatic advantage in a fistfight. Look at pics of Ali, in his prime and Schwarzenegger, in his prime. Who’s got more muscles? Who’d knock the other on his butt in five seconds? Anyway, Arnold’s getting fat.
Newsweek published a pic of Arnold at the beach a year or two ago. Needless to say, the years have not been kind (he’s like, 57). I have no idea how they made him look OK under that thight T shirt in Terminator III. Also unlike Jessie “The Body” who was a wrestler and Navy Seal, I don’t know of Ahnuld undertaking any physical activities other then weight-lifting. So if a sizable amount of his muscle is gone with youth and your a reasonably young and well built gent, my money would be on you.
Just don’t mess with Mr. The Body
Arnold served in the Austrian army before emigrating to the United States, so it’s reasonable to assume he knows how to kick ass at a basic level.
Yeah, sure. Using those sticks with a pillow at each end. 
I went and read a few of his biographies I thought he came to the US at a pretty young age. Born 1947, Mr. Universe @ twenty, and came here in 1968. If he was in the army, it wasn’t for very long. Training for that title (Mr. U) is a 24/7 job.
Anyway, my buddy is just an example. The thrust of my opinion is that lots of muscles are of dubious advantage in fighting. It takes strength and (sometimes) stamina, and a willingness to give and receive pain.
According to this poorly written article, he joined the Austrian army in 1965. IIRC, military service was compulsory for Austrians at the time. He probably only had to serve one or two years, though.
Muscles don’t necessarily instill an advantage in a fight. They do have a couple basic advantages if all other things are equal- Mass, skill and speedl. The key words there are all other things are EQUAL. Muscles that large are going to be stronger than most. Now this isn’t always true, but nobody has muscles that big and isn’t a little bit strong. Muscles that big offer a lot of padding, so strikes by an opponent will definately do less damage. Unless of course it is areas like the face, throat, groin etc. But with equal skill and speed, he should be able to defend those areas. Which means he would likely wear the opponent down with damage. I mean it just takes a bit of logic (sorry if I chose the wrong word there, but I try to refrain from the term common sense) to see that if a person takes less damage from blows, and hits harder due to being stronger, they have a huge advantage. If the stamina is near the opponent, they will likely win.
I seriously doubt that Arnold would stand up against somebody that is fit and skilled in the fighting arts. I do think he would easily win against the average joe couch potato, and even probably hold up pretty well in a bar fight. Oh, and the pictures you likely saw of Arnold where he looked like crap was right after a surgery years and years ago (before End of Days, the movie), and he very much looks fine today- he has recovered. In fact, here is a recent photo of him, and he looks pretty damn good for a 57 year old. Not the prime of his life, but certainly not a feeble fat man, which is suggested.
The thing about engaging in a fight is that you ARE going to get hit. No matter what. No matter how good you are.
Half of being a good fighter is being able to absorb a little in order to dish out more. I’ve been in fights where I’ve willingly taken shots to the body and to some tender areas just to get “inside” where I can do more damage.
So, if you think that Arnold won’t hurt you too badly when he DOES hit you, or if you think that the ratio of your striking power relative to his build is advantageous to you, go ahead and take him on.
I can fight. And I’d think twice about it, just because I’m not sure that I’d be able to do enough damage to him with my (presumably) larger number of strikes in enough time to ensure that his fewer strikes (with their much greater power) did me in.
Now Chuck Zito is a guy you wouldn’t want to mess with.
I’d assume that if he tightens up those muscles he can take just about anything, unless he’s got a glass jaw. Whether or not he can dish it out, who knows. I wouldn’t challenge him, though.
I hate to ask a dumb question, but what do you actually mean by “fight?” A lot of real-life fights (“COPS” as opposed to the movies) seem to involve grabbing or shoving. I suspect that Arnold’s strength would give him the advantage in that situation, and weight training has probably taught him something about maintaining balance too. And if he had a chance to hit you first I’ll bet it would hurt. On the other hand, if somebody delivered, say, a side kick to Arnold’s front knee, or sucker-punched him from behind, what could he (or most people) do about it?
From everything I’ve read (fortunately, no personal experience), in a real-life street fight the winner is more likely to be determined by who hits first than by training or any other single factor.
If you are a fighter, and I have no reason to doubt you, then you surely know that how you throw a punch is at least as important as the power behind it. That’s what you’re taught right off in any form of fighting (I don’t call it art). No dofferent, really, than hitting a baseball. And body mass helps very little for head shots. Or for other tender spots, and not just the balls.
I’m not saying that being strong isn’t an advantage. Surely it is, but you gotta have the other stuff too. Stuff you gain in small part from instinct, and in large part from learning it.
Most fights, by a large margin, are avoidable. That’s best. If someone sneaks up on you, they have (to them, anyway) a reason and you haven’t been paying attention. You’ve probably missed some obvious warning signs. Your mistake.
If you know there’s going to be a fight, and the guy gets close enough to touch you, flatten his nose. If he tries to grab you, either he doesn’t know how to fight or you really got a fight on your hands. Grappling, usually, is a mistake.
Arnold’s rear knee is his weak spot. Few know that.
**mangeorge, ** you are right in that how you hit is of paramount importance. But the corollary to that is also where you hit, and what you hit.
A guy as big as Arnold is going to be able to shake off more body shots than someone my size. I’m 5’9" and 165 pounds of lean muscle mass. Nice as that might look, it’s not a whole lot as far as generating power goes (which comes from the legs, hips, and body).
So it isn’t to my benefit to move inside on Arnold, because I’m going to have to pay to do it, and a man his size can and probably will hurt me badly enough to end the fight before I get in range to use my elbows and knees and short-range strikes.
But staying outside isn’t really to my advantage either, because either I can’t generate enough power to knock him down, can’t hit anything vital, or will sooner or later end up getting hit by him hard enough to stun me to the point where he can just whale on me. And, like I said, someone as big as him has to hit me a lot fewer times than I have to hit him in order to end the fight.
At the risk of making a blanket statement, most fights look like that because people either don’t know how to fight, or are not committed to doing so, or both. In training, it’s interesting to watch how much people subconsciously hold themselves back due to social conditioning. I don’t want to get on some pro-violence soapbox or anything, but, when you are in a combat situation, the goal is to remove yourself from danger as quickly and efficiently as possible, and that involves eliminating the capacity of your enemy to do you harm, be ith through a thumb in the eye or a kick in the jaw or biting off a piece of ear.
And, testride, I have to disagree with you. Fighting most certainly is an art. The amount of calculation and strategy that goes into it, and the differences in style and technique that must be understood, analyzed, and accounted for under the highest possible pressure are chess-like in complexity. But getting checkmated doesn’t come with emergency-room bills.
That was me what said it wasn’t an art.
I admire Ali above most, but I don’t think of what he did so well as art. Fighting is always brutal, and that, for me. detracts from the beauty of it. That’s my opinion.
Back to Arnold and fighting.
A few weeks ago, while surfing throught the channels, the WWE was showing a clip form 1999. It was a set up of course. Arnold was at ringside doing commentary, when a wrestler jumped him and they began to go at it. All I can say is that I would not want to be on the recieving end of Arnolds defense. Again, all a set up, and he is an actor, but he was kicking ass.
Well mangeorge give us your body statistics and maybe we can do some guesswork?
From http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000216/bio
6’ 2" (1.88 m)
At his bodybuilding peak his chest was 57", waist 34", biceps 22", thighs 28½", calves 20", and his competition weight was 235 lbs (260 lbs off-season).
Of course this was during his peak, but then again im sure even in his off-season he wasn’t a big blob or anything and 260 pounds is a lot of muscle.
Well I definitely wouldnt take him on.
I also looked up good ol’ jessie ventura who is 6’4’’ and of course he was a navy seal and served in Vietnam which prob would give him an advantage as far as experience, and although wrestling isn’t real in the strictest sense it shows that he does have stamina. Although all the times I’ve watched predator I’ve though that Arnold looked way bigger.
My son (he’s into bodybuilding and weightlifting) has read a few books on Arnold and says he used to do some bar fighting back in the day.
Loni Anderson played opposite Arnold in a movie about the life of Jayne Mansfield. Arnold played Mansfield’s hubby, Mickey Hargitay. In one scene they were supposed to be having a fight, and Arnold told Anderson to go ahead an hit him as hard as she could. She did, and got her fists all bruised up. “I beat myself up on Arnold’s body,” she later said.
So, unless you really know what you’re doing, I wouldn’t take him on. Without real training and moves, you wouldn’t even dent him.
Personally, I think Arnold’s jusy going to bide his time after he’s governor until they start shooting the live-action Fairly Oddparents movie. Then he’ll just step into the role of Jorgen von Strangl.