@Kandi — Haha yeah, I mean it's a lot of fun to be able to beat eachother up and still be good friends. Roller derby sounds so intense! I played hockey growing up, and I used to love laying hits on people.
@Sim — Well, I wouldn't consider most street brawls “fighting”, per se; rather, I'd call them flailing of the extremities until contact is made. You are right…most people don't understand how bad it hurts to get hit with a bare knuckle fist and conversely, most don't understand how bad it hurts to punch someone in the jaw with a bare knuckle fist. Also, they don't realize how exhuasting it is to throw punches as hard as you can and miss or have them blocked. It expends a lot of energy to deliver 100% strength blows, so when they don't connect, you feel like you've been sprinting. Outside of the ring, I would do whatever I could to avoid a fight; they are unnecessary, sometimes expensive (if you are on the losing end), and can generally have legal ramifications. With that being said, my training has proved to be useful in self-defense. As most people know, I am a very sarcastic person and have had to defend myself in more than one situation where my mouth got me into trouble. Coming full circle, I think there's a lot of truth to your point that most big (fat) guys who act tough are slow and telegraph their punches a mile away, but I'd be lying if I didn't say I've been laid out by a real a-hole before. Bottom line, if it's not for sport, fighting is a terrible choice…way too many consequences, not nearly enough benefit. Self defense should be the only reason for a person to get into a fight.
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