# If instead of wars leaders fought each other...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 17, 2013, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517 "2013-08-17T23:27:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/21 "2013-08-18T13:43:52Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#):
>
> How are we defining leaders for these purposes?
>
> Do ceremonial, but powerless, heads of state count? Or is it just the folks who actually have to make decisions that get dragged into this? (For example, if Canada and Japan went to war, would we be talking Queen Elizabeth II vs Emperor Akihito, or would we be talking Stephen Harper vs Shinzo Abe?)
>
> Either way, I think Russia’d end up as a pretty heavy-duty power - Putin’s got training, he’s got mass and brute strength, and he’s the kind of guy I can see fighting dirty, and figuring out a way to get away with it.
As in the OP; whoever the nation decides is most appropriate. Any ideas who’d be second to shootin’ Putin?
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### Author:  [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/22 "2013-08-18T13:50:18Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> Training is nice, but the fact is that some people are killers and some people aren’t.
Is that a “fact”? I mean other than some people have literally killed other people and some people haven’t.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/23 "2013-08-18T13:53:43Z")
Misread.
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### Author:  [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/24 "2013-08-18T13:55:33Z")
I don’t know about “fact” but mentality is a huge part of pugilistic sports. If you don’t like getting hit and flinch, or even blink for too long when a punch is headed your way, you don’t last long even if you’re in otherwise fantastic fighting shape. I’m sure people with legitimate boxing training can weigh in more but in the sparring that I’ve done, I found it really hard to keep my head up and to keep from turning in my shoulders when a punch was thrown. It can be taught, but a lot of it is mental makeup.
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### Author:  [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/25 "2013-08-18T14:08:58Z")
I think anyone other than Putin or Netinyahu are toast. Any form of selection other than a fight club makes a leader who’s suited to personal combat less likely. Hereditary - they get the job regardless of any merits. Election, generally (until the first rounds of elections after this new rule), their ability to run the country is the important point, and when it’s not it’s personal charisma. Both elections and military coup, the new leaders are likely to have aged out of their prime, even if they were good for MMA-style fighting before.
A historical version of this thread might be fun - especially since there were more leaders who could fight, and were still in their prime at the time they ruled - but my brain’s not in the right place to think hard enough to make it right now.
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### Author:  [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/26 "2013-08-18T14:30:16Z")
> [@notsoheavyd3](#):
>
> No idea if you mean has he been in a figurative street fight. However his skill set(judo/karate) would transfer over quite nicely to MMA. Actually aren’t the judokas kind of big on doing real matches? (Instead of point fighting or doing a routing or something.) Anybody with a background in judo want to chime in?
That’s true - one of the practical things about judo is that you practice and compete with it full force, and your training partner or opponent is actively resisting what you’re trying to do. Sambo is similar in that regard, and kyokushin has a heavy emphasis on hard sparring. Putin is accomplished in all three, particularly judo (7th Dan), and has won competitions in sambo and judo. I can’t think of any other world leaders that could hang with him.
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### Author:  [@aNewLeaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aNewLeaf)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/27 "2013-08-18T22:39:30Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#):
>
> I think anyone other than Putin or Netinyahu are toast.
>
> A historical version of this thread might be fun - especially since there were more leaders who could fight, and were still in their prime at the time they ruled
Ariel Sharon was a badass back in the day. I’d like to have seen him go hand to hand with Young Arafat.
(Give them knives and it would have been just like fight at the end of _Dune_.)
But I want see Abe Lincoln vs Teddy Roosevelt.
Winner gets to fight Clinton \*\*plus \*\*either Bush, one against 2.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/28 "2013-08-18T23:10:09Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#):
>
> A historical version of this thread might be fun - especially since there were more leaders who could fight, and were still in their prime at the time they ruled - but my brain’s not in the right place to think hard enough to make it right now.
Now [that’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=699843) a good idea!
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### Author:  [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-instead-of-wars-leaders-fought-each-other/666517/29 "2013-08-18T23:40:50Z")
I don’t know about current leaders but I would never forget the time President Muhammad Ali and Prime Minister Andre the Giant fought for world domination.
There must be a video game waiting to happen in this somewhere.
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