I’ve been in my share of fights when younger. Haven’t been in a fist fight for…shit…about 20 years now.
Most ‘fights’, IMO, are only postering. Both sides trying to look manly and brave but not REALLY wanting to fistfight.
If it does get into a fist fight - most of the time it is…subdued. A few punches thrown, maybe somebody gets a bloody lip or gut ache from a punch…but not much.
When it really gets ‘real’ then, IMO, it almost always goes to the ground and becomes a wrestling match* and then it is all endurance and strength. You burn up so much energy in just a few seconds on the ground then you think is possible.
If you find yourself in a fist fight, don’t be timid. Posturing will most likely get you out**. If you find yourself receiving punches make sure you defend your face, don’t overly rely on the defense. Don’t just stand there, move around. Don’t be hugely concerned with taking a punch - The first punch taken hurts like a sob but the others not as much but avoid taking punches to the face. Take them on the side of your body and top, front part of the head.
Also, be careful throwing punches if you not used to it. You can easily hurt yourself throwing a punch and easily hurt the other guy taking one - One guy broke 2 fingers and a knuckle and, IIRC, his hand was also not in the best shape when he hit me as hard as he could to the face and I moved my head to take it on the top of the forehead.
*Or it could be just me - I am relatively short but pretty strong. It’s to my advantage to get that tall lanky cocky sob on the ground.
There is a small group of people whose idea of a saturday night will involve a fist fight, now since it takes two to tango , a contestant must be found to play the loser in this little tete et tete, so the winner according to script can brag about it to his buddies in due course of the week.
So you the reader, have eliminated yourself from the first category, since you just want to go out and enjoy your evening and spend time with your SO. Which is great, up until our hero shows up all affronted that you did something grievious, and that sorry, no appologies will be good enough, sir the glove is thrown and you can step outside into the alleyway and have it out mano et mano.
So obviously, it has nothing to do with what you want, its simply go time. You can complain the cops later on if you want, but right at that very moment its time for you to inflict as much pain and suffering on the hero as possible, leave him with no uncertain terms that you are not to be trifled with and the cost of doing so will be high.
In proper terms , once the hero is put down, you would attempt to break bones of what ever is available, or put your shoe into the guys head or face so hard that he wakes up the next morning in pain, simply because you want the audience, who will have gathered to know what happens when someone trifles with you.
Thats the positive outcome, the negative could entail you lying on a morgue slab cause he was better.
Pretty much every fight I’ve ever seen has been ‘one or two punches and it’s over’.
I’ve taken two whole swings in 29 years of adult life, both in self defense. The last one was about 16 years ago. I’d cut my thumb with a filet knife up in the BWCA. Then we got in our canoes and started to go when my friend’s drug addict friend (along on the trip over my objections) decided to get cute about things, shoving my canoe backwards and pushing us into shore. I smacked his hand away from our canoe and he decide to grab my hand and crush my injured thumb against my paddle, while pulling me backwards out of the canoe so that we would dump into the lake. With my other hand, blind with pain, I swung the paddle at him. He blocked it, but he let go. End of fight.
In four years of Security work, I witnessed a number of fights between others, none of which lasted more than about 30 seconds. People took a couple of swings, probably spent more energy throwing tables aside and posturing, maybe a little bit of wrestling around, and then they were over with both sides a little bruised or bloody and breathing hard.
Honestly, the key to avoiding fights in the face of assholes is to be confident and determined, and to not flinch in the face of the threat. I’ve turned away some heavy threats and even a couple of robbery attempts by looking the other person straight in the eye and smiling at the idea that they want to try their luck with me. No, I’m not saying I’m a tough guy. It isn’t about being tough. It’s about making the other guy THINK that maybe you know what you’re doing and that you’re not afraid of him.
Well, that and knowing when to walk away before it gets to that point (which is not always possible or advisable, no matter what some people think).
On several occasions I’ve seen one-eyed guys get all belligerent and fighty and I always think to myself that if I was down to my last eye, nothing on Earth could convince me to risk it in a fist fight over anything less than the imminent death of a loved one.
I had a couple of serious fights in High School but I’ve been able to avoid them since.
The fights in HS were over typical HS bullshit. A couple of bullies would not leave me alone so things just had to escalate to stupidity.
One fight went very well for me. The second almost ended in disaster for me. What I thought was going to be one on one turned into three on one with me being the one. Fortunately a friend showed up in the locker room at that moment and the fight just stopped.
Since then I have ‘walked away’ from very possible physical confrontations and I’ve had to make sure other confrontations didn’t go there. When you are the manager of a movie theatre, this can happen a lot.
My daughter got into a fight over a boy. The other girl insisted the boy was ‘hers’, and threw the first punch to prove it. My daughter said she was really surprised how much it hurt to get hit. She didn’t want to cry in front of the boy though, so she punched back instead. Seems like it was a mixture of territoriality, bravado and adrenaline.
No, I was never in a fist fight (haven’t been since grade school). I’m a pretty peaceful guy.
But I waded into plenty of fights to try to break them up. A weird quirk I have, I hate seeing anyone get injured.
I must be charmed, because it always worked. I’d go in, hands up, palms open. “Look! I’m just a peacekeeper!” Usually try to “embrace” the more dominant one while talking him down.
Worked far more times than it should. I once stepped into like 6 guys stomping some drunk asshole. “Hey, I don’t even know this guy, but c’mon…”
To my great luck, it always worked. Never took a punch myself. The drunk asshole described above - he shook himself off, took an incredulous look at me and the retreating mob, and said:
“Jeez, you must believe in God or something.”
These days I’d be a lot more cautious (and a lot more afraid of some enraged dude pulling a knife or a gun and killing me.)
Fights are really stupid though. You lose? You end up in the hospital or the morgue. You “win”? You end up in court or jail. Not worth it at all.
I got advice like that from my step-dad once. He was a hard drinking SOB and had some scars from various bar fights. He always used to tell me “If you gotta hit somebody, go to the body. You’ll just break your hand on his skull.”
So the one time in my adult life that I ever actually got into a “fight”, I remembered that. I was leaving a concert a little early, and as I’m heading up the aisle, these two drunk guys were shoving each other around, and one of them came reeling into me. For whatever reason, he took umbrage at my presence in his designated stagger zone, and he took a swing at me, grazing my chin. I didn’t even think about it, I laid a shot into his wide open rib cage. He went down like he’d been shot, right about the time the security staff showed up to haul all three of us out of there. They didn’t bother to involve the police, the drunk guy who took the swing at me apologized, I apologized, and I went home.
And didn’t sleep all night from the adrenaline. Not a good adrenaline rush. Don’t care to experience that again.
Well, winning is when your hands hurt, and losing is when your face hurts. There is no “win” scenario. It’s just a matter of walking away knowing that you can do what is necessary, when necessary, and never again having to doubt that.
Some people (usually guys) get addicted to the adrenaline rush, and look forward to fighting on Saturday nights. Not really my thing, but probably preferable to train surfing.
I’ve been in too many fights in my life. Elementary school, junior high, high school, parties, a night club, and the military while on deployment. I have a big mouth that has gotten me involved in altercations I should have avoided. Fist fights are scary and they hurt especially when they are over.
I was a small kid for my age and as a result I was bullied by the bigger kids. As an angry little shit I almost always pushed the bully into a fight, and many times I lost. You could beat me up, but it would be painful for you, too. There was more than one occasion I can home with a black eye, swollen hand, torn clothing and missing my lunch box. Now I look back and wish the bigger kids didn’t bully me, yet I am glad I stood my ground even when I got my ass kicked.
As an adult, I am physically stronger and better trained in the use of force than when I was the angry toofs. Since I am no longer bullied, no more fighting. Now a physical confrontation would involve genuine self defense.
Fighting sucks but it can serve a purpose. It ended the bullying for me, and it kept the bullies from breaking my spirit.
There are an increasing number of one punch deaths occurring, mostly because we tend to be out and about on hard surfaces. Someone who has been knocked down is much more likely to strike their head on a surface hard enough to break their skull and cause brain damage than in the past. Just a simple google will suffice to illustrate the point. Maybe it hasn’t happened where you have been, but it can and does happen, and in general, the killer did not intend the consequences. They just wanted to release some aggression/testosterone/steam or assert their perceived rights. :rolleyes:
Okay. But what proportion of fights result in death by these, or any, circumstances? Well, nobody can say, but it can’t be very high. Most nonlethal fights aren’t even going to be tabulated anywhere.