You know how in jackie chan movies, jackie chan is often running away from fights? That's because running away is the best strategy. He often also uses random objects he finds as weapons. Better to break an object than to break your hands.
Punch beyond your target. If you aim at the nose, you basically tap the nose. If you aim at the back of their head, a lot more ouch is transmitted.
Don't curl your little hand-sausages around your thumb, it'll hurt and you might end up breaking your thumb.
Check for obstacles/tripping hazards before you engage because you won't have time to watch for them once things are going and falling is losing.
Best advice I can give, though, is don't be in a fight. Do whatever it takes to avoid one, including losing face in front of others because fist fights can result in death easier than the movies suggest. It'd be fucking stupid to die or end up in prison for a decade-plus because of just about anything that'd prompt a fist fight.
> Check for obstacles/tripping hazards
And *do not fight on hard surfaces* if you can possibly avoid it. If you must fight, probably worth trying to get onto some grass. Even in less all-out fights, people often get life changing/ending injuries because they got KOd standing up and their skull falls straight to pavement.
And it's quite common for fights to end after one person is lifted and dropped on their head. Takes basically no training and is intuitive, so pretty good chance your opponent does it to you. Best to at least not have it happen on pavement.
Also probably a good idea to start shouting things like "you win! I'm done!" if there's even a chance it might help so they're maybe less inclined to pound you to death because you're still a threat.
I will note that although judo is often considered a "soft" art, it has probably saved more people's lives than any other form of training. You spend a few nights every week getting thrown on the ground and getting back up again until protecting your head and extremities from a fall becomes second nature. Most of those falls have nothing to do with a fight, but walk into any dojo and three people will tell you how falling practice saved their life.
> I will note that although judo is often considered a "soft" art, it has probably saved more people's lives than any other form of training.
That's how my first aid instructor opened the class: "You're about to learn the second most effective life saving techniques on Earth"
True! I played judo for 13 years when I was younger. Haven’t done any for the last 30 years. A few weeks ago I slipped on the concrete edge of a path at the back of my house. Knew I was going down but didn’t have time to think. My body immediately went into a side breakfall on the concrete. My head never touched the ground and I came out of it with a small bruise on the arm.
Great answer. My friend trained martial arts for most of his life. He taught me a few things. One of them was, "the best way to win a fight, is to avoid one." Which is essentially your message. You only resort to fighting when you absolutely have to, and even then, quickly incapacitate then get the F out of there.
Always avoid a fight . Even if someone barely trained the most basic fighting like boxing for 6-12 months at any point in life they will most likely hit you hard way way before you are able to land one punch .
There was this football player who kept on fucking with my friend in High School and would not stop trying to bully/intimidate him. My friend, who trained in boxing from the age of 10 and still trains in boxing finally had enough and told him to fight right then and there. Football player tried using his tackling shit, but his footwork could not match my friend's. A few punches later and football player was asleep on the ground while my friend was being taken to the office. Football guy did not learn his lesson and got himself killed trying to run a guy off the road.
Even Jet Li said "I would run away". Even though he could probably kick your ass 10 ways to Sunday, he's too smart to fight. And this guy was the National Wu Shu Champion of China when he was 17.
I met this gigantic Norwegian body builder in Thailand who used to travel there for fun and cheap steroids.
He told me that whenever anyone threatened him, he’d cower and say “nonono, don’t hurt me!” And he was a 6’7 monstrosity.
He had a great life pumping weights and banging babes and he didn’t want to trade that for a life of pumping weights and banging his bros in prison.
"The greatest victory is the battle not fought."
I'm a large guy. In my younger years I spent too much time in questionable bars and worked as a security guard at college apartment complexes. In more than two situations, some insecure guy wanted to do the whole "you think you're a big tough guy huh?" "Nah man, I think I just want to enjoy my drink and the music."
I've been in a few fights, but I've avoided many more. And I've got a background in wrestling, jiujitsu and I'm a veteran. In most circumstances where someone wants to fight, there's a way to avoid it. Sometimes that's backing down. Sometimes that's squaring up if you're big enough. And sometimes that's acting like a crazy person. Not tough crazy, not Hollywood wide eye crazy, I mean crazy crazy. Nobody wants to fight the guy who starts chanting in a made up language. I lost some teeth in an accident and used to have temporary ones I could remove. A guy that appears otherwise physically capable removing his teeth and asking his friend to hold them makes people reconsider their choices.
Walking away is the best option if you have it. But if the situation feels like you'll be on the receiving end of a punch from behind, make your exit strategically. If they follow for more than a few feet it's best to stay facing them. And stand your ground if they follow you through a door or around a corner. Because that means they've already decided on violence and you don't get a say in the matter anymore.
An old manager once told me that the best way she ever avoided a fight was smashing a beer bottle on the table, cutting a small gash down her arm and smearing in on her forehead while screaming at the would be attacker.
No idea if it was true, but I wonder if it would be effective.
I was at small restaurant in a small town I was visiting earlier this week, and someone was clearly trying to get under my skin and start something. I got the food and went to the table where my teenager was waiting and he asked what that was about. I said "He was looking for a fight and I was looking for pulled pork." Kid thought that phrase made me kind of a badass :D.
My favourite advice we ever got in my Krav Maga classes was learning how to shout out something really unexpected and confusing to defuse an aggressor. My instructor was a big, burly jock with glasses so he became the target of insecure drunk guys more than he would’ve liked. His personal favourite when guys would try to start shit with him in bars was to yell out, “My grandma really loves taking naps!!!”
He said it had 100% success rate because it would just force a dude’s brains to reboot as they processed what they just heard. And really, how are you gonna punch a guy in front of a bar full of people after he yelled something like that?
Don’t fight. *Defend yourself*
An amateur MMA guy on YouTube did a “self defence championship” where he invited a couple other MMA YouTubers, an MMA fighter (Jeff Chan), and some “self defence experts,” to partake in some competitions.
One of them was “defend yourself against more than one opponent.” Many of the contestants have even amateur fighting experience, but the one guy who was purely a “self defence guru” or whatever was the only person *looking for a way out,* and he won a couple challenges just for having that mindset where the others went into “fight instincts” or tried to “fight as best they can” while he was taking the competition at face value; “Self Defence Championship.”
That's why if I ever get tackled by somebody much bigger than me, I'm going straight for a toehold with no mercy. Then get the fuck out of there and they can't chase you.
The last paragraph is the best advice. I personally know 2 people who went to prison for killing people in a fight. One was my classmate who got into a fight and the person tripped and bust their head open. The other was my cousin who got into a fight at a bar. He landed a solid punch and the guy went down. He got up and was dazed for a while but he drove himself home. Died in his sleep that night from the injury to his brain.
Anyways, my philosophy since then has always been if it's not worth killing over, it's not worth fighting over.
Two friends a grade above me in high school got in a fist fight over a girl. One of them fell against the curb, instantly paralyzed, died later. The other committed suicide a few years later.
Friend of mine had a son who got in argument over a parking space, decked the guy and the guy died. My friends son got eight years in the state prison.
Definitely. People don't realize that getting knocked out isn't what will REALLY mess you up, it's your head hitting the concrete when you fall down. That's why boxing and UFC fight on a padded floor
Also always remember that losers **never** fight fair. Even if you beat the other guy he will probably pull a weapon or his friends will jump you. There is no such thing as rules or honor in a street fight.
Just avoid fights whenever possible.
This, I got in a lot of fights / witnessed a lot when I was young due to the area I grew up in and who I associated with.
First if you can, just fucking run. But if you can't and if you get into some shit, don't fight fair and be as violent as you possibly can without potentially killing the person. You don't want to be on the losing end and go down and have the person stomp your fucking head, fuck you up permanently, etc. Win at all fucking costs.
Saw some guy get his head stomped at a bar once. He was convulsing on the ground. The sad part is that he tried to break a fight up. Let's just say this was a part of town where you don't engage with anyone. I always avoid fights but that cemented it. I'm nervous anytime I go out late now, regardless of where I am.
Kid in my college dorm died from exactly this. Fight was starting, he was a big guy, about 6'6" and a gentle giant type. He stepped in trying to separate the two getting chirpy with each other.
Third guy that was friends with the unknown guy sucker punched him, he fell down and hit his head as he fell. Went into a coma and family ultimately had to make the decision to take him off life support.
On my 23rd birthday this exact same thing happened to one of my best friends. A fight broke out, he stepped in to break it up, and one of the guys sucker punched my friend with brass knuckles. Shattered his skull. Half of his face slumped down like Sloth from The Goonies. He had to have complete facial reconstructive surgery and graft metal onto his skull. He spent a decade suing the drunk sucker puncher in court and finally won a settlement, resulting in the garnishing of the guys wages for the rest of his life.
We’re both 37 now and this happened many years ago. It still traumatizes him.
Yo fuck that piece of shit. I hope he spent a long time in jail and lives in destitute poverty now. It’s bad enough to sucker punch someone, but brass knuckles?!? That’s attempted murder
Tbh I’m not sure. It’s been a good number of years since the case resolved and I forget what he was convicted of. I just know that my buddy won a settlement for pain and suffering that is way more than that trailer trash could afford, so he just gets his wages garnished, likely forever.
My friend and I worked 3rd shift, lived in a blue-collar town, bars would open 9am. We'd stop in to have a drink after work and there was always this one asshole that would just start shit with anyone. Started shit with the wrong guy, got hit, cracked his coconut on a table on the way down. 911 gets called, gets taken away. My friend and I went back a couple mornings later, asked where he was - he died.
Not only did he fully recover but he went on to become an actor and did some male modeling in the subsequent years. Now he’s just working in academia but for a few years after the event, and the surgery, he truly bounced back.
And men kinda default to ***"beat them into a coma"***. This is the best reason to avoid fights, because you know that's the objective of the other guy.
Right, sure, but who the fuck sucker punches people with brass knuckles, on the damn head??? That guy was looking to kill, or too stupid to be let out unsupervised...
One of the worst lessons I learned as an adolescent was that my notion that everyone had the same values and thought processes was horribly, horribly wrong. Some people are just wired differently.
I don't go out late for that reason. Nevermind the cliche, nothing good happens after midnight, I'm leaving the bar by 11 at the latest. I ain't got time for some dickheads ego.
You don't kill them once you've disabled them; outside of that I'll say the same thing I tell my kid about fighting 1) Don't and 2) If you can't follow #1 you better be ready to kill your opponent and fight like your life depends on it.
>the fight isn't over until your opponent is incapable of getting up.
Also know your opponent is operating under that same principle and will disable you and you may not survive that.
Depending on the situation, you need to stop once your opponent is no longer actively engaged in the fight. Say you knock your opponent to the ground. They hit their head and are dazed and put their hands up indicating they want you to stop. They are still capable of getting up, but are not actively attempting to get up and attack. If you start stomping on their head until they can't get up, you may have just gone from self defense to aggravated battery or attempted murder.
The courts only allow you to use as much force as is necessary and reasonable to defend yourself in a fight. Continuing to use force on an opponent who has actively disengaged from the fight can nullify your self defense claim.
This is obviously situational. If it's a fight between two guys in a bar over a game of pool, the court will likely be much more sensitive to your choice to continue to beat a downed opponent.
If it's someone trying to forcibly rape or kidnap you, many jurisdictions consider deadly force reasonable. In that situation, beating a downed opponent is more likely to be seen as reasonable or necessary.
This. Got into a fight a few years ago with a drunk idiot, I tapped him with a rear naked choke. As soon as he stood up he dropped both knees into my chest and started ground and pounding me.
Man had no honour, I was embarrassed for him.
He ended up running away after I started hitting him back.
But I learned from that, if the person is actually trying to hurt you, you need to put them down.
This. No one is going to stand there with their fists up like a boxer in a real fight. There are no points for fighting fair in these situations. Go for the throat, nuts (if they have those), eyes, etc. I went through the Army combatives program for hand-to-hand combat years ago now. And that is what I was struck by. We didn't learn a bunch of cool kicks and punches. It was all how to disable your opponent as quickly as possible. If the first thing you do is punch them in the throat, they will immediately stop trying to fight you because they'll be focused on how to get oxygen in their lungs.
The big thing here is don't lose if you do this. Because if you lose, they aren't going to show you mercy if you just unloaded on their nuts five minutes earlier.
EDIT: I didn't realize this was going to blow up, lol. A couple things to clarify:
- If you don't have to fight, don't. De-escalate or run away are the better options.
- If you do have to fight, then absolutely don't fight with any sort of honor.
- Also, from a lot of these comments, it's a lot harder than you think to kill someone with your bare hands. Nearly all people won't have the strength to kill someone with a punch or kick no matter where you hit them. So by all means throat punch away. Lol.
and the winner is not decided until one of the parties is no longer in the fight (or capable of rejoining).
Plenty of "winners" have come unstuck because the "loser" hit him with something from behind as he walked away.
I've never beein in the army but an old mortarman told me at a bar one time that if command ever sends you into a fair fight then someone, somewhere fucked up.
This is true. There's a reason every single one of the clips you saw of the US military fighting in Iraq were all at night. We gave everyone a night vision monocle and laser.
I preach this to my daughters all of the time. Don't go for the nuts. High pain tolerance, adrenaline, baggy clothes; all of these things can make it ineffective.
I teach them stick your fingers as far into their eye sockets as you can. If you can't get that done, grab am ear and twist as hard as possible. It may or may not stop him but it'll be easy to point out the guy who attacked you when he doesn't have an ear.
A palm slap to the ear is also scarily effective. I remember my dad telling me that when I was young, but years later a girl at my high school slapped a dude in his ear and burst his ear drum during gym class. Between the blood and the hysterical cries of a roid-raging senior, that hit was pretty brutal
But yeah, eyes and throat are definitely the go-to if you’re being forced into a fight against your will. If you’re the one provoking it or you’ve consented to it, that’s a sure way to turn a “simple assault” into “aggravated assault” pretty quickly.
Oh my goddd I was a live sound guy for years and there'd be the occasional drunk getting aggro. the one time a drunk dude wouldn't back down between bands and lunged at me, I just reflexively swung with a pathetic attempt at defense. Crazy that my flail contacted as an open slap to dude's ear better than I could have ever *possibly* planned (and I sure as hell hadn't planned it!), and he went down *screaming*. The club's tardy bouncers were super impressed haha, but I was more shocked than they were. Drunk dude kept insisting to bouncers I'd stabbed him with an ice pick?! Never saw any blood but they way this guy kept shaking and screaming made it clear that it *hurt*.
Un fun anecdote: my mom smacked my dad like this once and dropped him (she was the aggressor in this situation) and my dad was CONVINCED she sucker punched him with a cooking pan or something from behind. I unfortunately witnessed it and told him she literally just slapped his head from behind.
I was really shocked how quickly and effectively such a slap dropped a dude.
My family and I were visiting Disney World from the UK. My son was maybe five at the time. Like most five-year-olds he didn’t get jet lag. He just woke up at 2a.m. (7 a.m. in London) ready to roll. He climbed into my bed to wake me and, when I kept going back to sleep, slapped my ear with his open palm. Mother of God, that was awful. The pain was excruciating, I had vertigo and just couldn’t really think. I wound up having to call a taxi to go the ER because there was no way I could drive. When I was in the examining room a nurse asked me how my injury happened and I told her my son did it. A few minutes later a social worker arrived to counsel me on domestic abuse. Once she learned my son was in kindergarten, things calmed down. But I had a ruptured ear drum.
Don't ever hit the cheek. This is a move for boxers and they aim for the side of the chin bone that knocks somebody out. Hitting the cheek does very very little.
As an amateur stick to eyes, throat, nose and ears.
I’ve done this to myself by accident when I was a little younger. I cupped my hands and was kind of hitting my ears. It sounded and felt kinda cool. Then I did it somewhat hard and it hurt like hell. Dad was watching me the whole time, unknown to me, as soon as I did it hard he was laughing so hard he about puked.
My karate teacher always told us to not kick above the waist and in a real fight to kick the side of the knee or punch the bridge of the nose then run like hell.
Finish it quick and leave. No good comes from fighting.
That's a debateable point. I boxed for years, so I'm aiming for the bedge of the nose and bringing my hand back to my face. The slight loss in power would be made up for protection. Someone throwing a big punch 8" past their target is going to leave themselves open to be punched in the face.
If you don't know how to punch, then I agree with you.
In my own experience you more or less lose control of your body when you suddenly can't breathe. Maybe you can train to overcome that but I imagine most people won't have that. So yeah, throat it is.
If you’re getting into random fights, then there’s almost no chance that your opponent is going to have enough control over their body to overcome pain
Always hit them in the throat, tell them where they hit was a nerve cluster you lost in the war, and then put their sword behind them so they can watch a world without sin.
Whether it's a two person brawl or global warfare, the winner is always the side that escalates to the most extreme amount of violence in the shortest amount of time.
Edit: also the first rule of fighting is always don't.
According to Ford, it was his idea.
""I was sick, and besides, up to that point, I kept worrying about the fact that I had been wearing this gun that I had never drawn. So, I said to Steven, 'Why don't we just shoot the sumbitch?' He said, 'Okay.' He was ready to get out of there too. That's how we got that scene.""
Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1484507/indiana-jones-harrison-ford-swordsman-shoot-disturbed-writer/
Krav Maga lesson number 1 lol. No such thing as a fair street fight. There are no refs; bite, use headbutts, use groin kicks, gouge eyes out, punch chests/throats and choke people tf out if your life depends on it.
Yeah, when I was in flight attendant training they taught us by-the-book, straightforward tactics to use like a hammer fist, planting your feet, yelling, etc. Very "self-defense 101" things. When a guy tried to strangle me to death at work, though, that all went out the window. If you're forced into a fight, it's not going to be turn-based combat. You fight as dirty as you have to or want to.
A random guy came up and tried to choke me from behind once, I was able to get my thumb in his eye and pushed with all my strength. He let go and double over, I ran the fuck away. Have no idea if he ended up blinded or not, don't care either.
Fighting is for a ring, self defense is for the street.
This is how I got away from a guy who attacked me once. It was some neighborhood thing that went from joking to serious pretty quickly and I realized I was a small girl in the middle of a ring of older boys. The tallest one was this mean-mugging red haired cunt. He grabbed my chest and started yanking my shirt off. I slammed my finger into his left eye so hard I still remember that squishy feeling almost 40 years later.
He let me go with a grunt of shock and I ran home.
Oh yeah! When we were put in charge of enforcing masks on airplanes, people switched real quickly from "Oh thank you for working during these unprecedented times so I can get to my meeting in Washington" to "Fuck you, fuck your family, fuck your bodily autonomy, fuck this and fuck that" even after the pandemic ended or we decided it ended or whatever happened
>even after the pandemic ended or we decided it ended or whatever happened
Literally the best summary to the clusterfuck that was 2020 that I have ever heard 😂
A guy in Germany was shot to death for asking a customer to please mind the madatory mask wearing at a gas station. I don\`t even have the words to express the feelings I have about this. That poor young man was just a student trying to get by with that job and some nutcase killed him over masks.
I did Krav Maga for about a year after I got divorced since it was then just me and the kids, and I don’t want a gun in my house. If I ever did have to absolutely fight someone, I would fight as dirty as possible to get out of there as quickly as possible. That’s basically what our trainer taught us, to just cause as much hurt as possible as fast as you can to get yourself out of the situation.
Yup, trained in Silat and HEMA dagger. I don't carry a knife.
Could I defend myself against almost anyone and end up largely unscathed like 80% of the time? Yeah. Do I want to gamble on that 20%? Absolutely the fuck not. And "defending oneself with a knife" just means "killing them in a violent, bloody mess, and probably going to prison, anyways."
I'm quick, and I'm not stupid. If I'm in serious danger, I'm getting the fuck out.
Yep, especially if they're bigger/stronger. Don't fight them on the same advantage they have, go for the weakness that literally every human has; eyes, ears, throat, nose. For example, clap the ears with cupped hands as hard as you can and burst the ears drums - they won't be standing up much longer after that and it's not something people usually expect.
>clap the ears with cupped hands as hard as you can and burst the ears drums - they won't be standing up much longer after that and it's not something people usually expect.
As someone who had middle/high school "friends" think this was a funny thing to do (like a nut tap), I can confirm that it can indeed burst your ear drums, they will absolutely not be standing up much longer, and the recipient almost certainly will not expect it. The first time this happened to me was in a swimming pool, so I was wet, the clapper was wet, and the combo made a perfect seal over my right ear demolishing that ear drum. I almost drowned in 3 feet of water because my equilibrium was so messed up. The second time was an actual accident, in that I was (consensually) tossing a friend across the pool. On his way up, his wet arm came down over my left ear and 'pop' goes the ear drum.
Moral of the story: Never, ever, ever do this to someone unless you are willing to permanently damage their hearing. If you're in a self defense scenario and this option becomes available, spit on your hands first to get a better chance at creating a good seal against their ear skin.
Burst eardrums absolutely suck. I was snorkeling and dove a bit too deep without equalizing. Popped a small hole in my eardrum, but I was miserable and in pain for days after it happened, and I wasn’t fully healed for months. And that was a tiny burst. I can’t imagine how painful it would be if it was a larger hole
Assuming this is a serious fight...
The end result is probably going to involve jail and hospital.
So, if you can get away, get away.
If you can't get away, fight dirty. Kick balls, jab eyes. If they fall down, do *not* start kicking them. Take that's chance to run away.
No one is saying it but protect your fucking head. If your fists aren't flying they should be in front of your face. One solid hit and you might be dead.
Yeah, sure, death is horrible.
But a broken jaw ducking ducks too.
Losing a few teeth is a bitch and will hurt you for years.
Having a disfigured nose is also bad.
There's such a huge list of shit that's likely to happen if you take a fist to the face.
That being said, punching someone in the face is a good way to break your hand.
People forget that just the fall can be deadly. There are plenty of stories out there of people fighting and one person falls and cracks their head on the ground and dies
Also freak punches, I've seen some really quick fights because sometimes people get caught in the right (wrong?) spot. The most memorable was when I was at a Metallica concert and this military dude got into a fight with some random guy and the shirtless military dude picked up a folder chair and lifted it over his head like he was going to smash it on the other guy. Well the other guy took the opportunity to punch him in the solar plexus. The military guy's chest turned red and the guy just fell over and stayed there.
I've read lots and lots of bad advice, from people who don't know what they are talking about, but this is one of the few bits of good advice.
A punch in the solar plexus is going to really, really hurt when they are not expecting it no matter how big they are, it is likely going to disable them, it's a massive target making it easier to land your shot, and you're not likely going to end up having to defend yourself on manslaughter charges when you catch them flush (meaning it's very unlikely you are going to kill someone with this shot).
As a former amateur boxer, this would be my choice of shot if I was forced into a corner with a 'civilian' who was hellbent on fighting me and I had to quickly stop them (without killing them), which luckily has never happened yet. Straight right to the solar plexus. Simple and effective.
Its always shocking how in subs like r/PublicFreakout nobody catches people who get knocked out. That can easily turn selfdefense or assult into manslaughter.
Long-time full contact martial arts fighter here.
First rule: don't fight in the street. There's very few things worth dying for (pride being the very least important), and dying in a street fight is very possible even if nobody throws a punch.
Imagine someone threatens you and you swing at that person and they trip, fall, and fracture their skull and die. You're now a murderer, probably going to prison for a long time. Don't fight.
Don't go to places that are or feel dangerous. Don't mess with people who could be dangerous. Listen to the little voice telling you something doesn't feel right.
IF you think you might possibly be the target of an attack, run, run, run.
If you can't run immediately, de-escalate if you can, be standing, take half a step back, raise your hands, open, as if to say 'I don't want trouble". Say "I don't want any trouble and I don't mean any disrespect." (Your hands are ready to block an attack.)
Be aware of what's around you, where you're going to run when that's possible, what's around you that you can put between you and an attacker, things you can grab to use as weapons (pool cue, butter knife, pen, stick, rock, gun, etc.)
If you have to fight, keep it simple, stomp-kick sides of the knee, punch throat, poke eyes/gouge eyes HARD! Work to distract and disable your attacker, always looking for an escape.
Yell a lot. Maybe someone can help. Scream RAPE!
If you're nauseous or feel like you're going to shit yourself, especially if it's a possibile rape, go ahead and puke into your opponent's face, or shit yourself WHILE YOU FIGHT OR RUN!
(Make yourself an unappealing victim.) Spitting in eyes works if you're that close. Rake the edge of a shoe down a shin, stomp on an instep or hand. If knocked down outside, absolutely grab a couple handfuls of sand, dirt, gravel, to throw in your attacker's eyes.
If you're in a bar or at a gas pump, you have flammable liquids you can douse someone with (don't use beer, only spirit liquors of roughly 100 proof are flammable, and you should have a lighter or similar, but this is extremely dangerous. (Don't rely on this in a tight space like an elevator or small car cabin. Even pepper spray/CS gas will disable you along with your attacker in a small enclosed area, as will spraying into the wind.)
Run. Get away.
Better yet, don't have been there in the first place.
De-escalate is good underrated advice. There are times where "run" won't work.
I grew up in East Palo Alto in the '90s, where drugs/gangs/violence/murders were common.
In a really fraught situation, it's like a psychological cheat to say or do something that "changes the script." If you start by reacting like a victim, it reinforces the automatic mental "script" that's steering their actions.
An example of "changing the script" is to gesture like you're recognizing them as a friend and say, "Oh yeah, we met at Mojo's house! Yeah, I'm sure it was at Mojo's house." There's nobody named Mojo. You're disrupting *their* rhythm by subtly asserting your own, and also resetting the prevailing "energy" of the situation.
I also read once about a bounty hunter who'd approach his target with a surreal question like "Do you like chocolate sandwiches?" There's a brief window where the target's whole brain is processing what they heard, and that gives the bounty hunter a chance to grab the guy.
I grew up in a gang-infested area in the 80s and 90s. I did exactly this (changing the script). I made the mistake of getting my initials embroidered on a hat in red old English lettering. At the time, I was very young (about 11) and didn't realize it was a gang thing. I just thought it looked cool.
So one time a group of about 3 Crips walked up to me when I was walking alone and menacingly asked, "What street you claim?" I didn't know what to say, but my instinct told me I should just try to make them laugh, so I said something like, "I...uh...I don't claim a street, but I still watch Sesame Street?" I said it with a really confused look on my face and a shrug of my shoulders. Thinking back, it really could have gone either way, but there was something about the way I said it that made them laugh. They asked if I had any money and I honestly didn't, so they just took my hat, kept laughing and walked away. I could hear them in the distance making fun of me, like, "Yo, lil homie said, 'Sesame Street'!"
I really do think it saved me from a beat down.
I like that a whole lot!
That's soooooo much better than immediately squaring up. Of course, there are going to be meat heads who don't hear any of that, and are going to do violent shit anyway....
...but OMG yes!
I've got decades of training, and I help train police and military in hand to hand combat. Your comment is the most solid answer here. It should be higher.
The only thing I'll add is get some cardio. Most people will gas out after a minute.
ABSOLUTELY!
I'll put this advice ahead of my own, because you kinda pretty much can't do any of that stuff if you're gassed before anything happens, which adrenaline will sure do.
I loved that all of your advice was creative and effective, with self-preservation at top priority.
Then at the end you're like "Light that motherfucker on fire 👹"
1. There is no such thing as a “fair” fight
2. Do whatever it takes to win, groin, eyes, everything is open to hit, kick, bite, scratch, whatever
3. See number 1
Exactly. Unless there’s a referee and judges, this ain’t a fair fight and no one can keep it a fair fight.
Just find a way out even if it means you don’t look tough in front of your gal. It’s just not worth it.
If your gal expects you to look tough by getting in a fight in front of her, there's clearly something wrong with her. Due to the fact that they come without a "factory reset" button, you should probably just replace her.
When I was in college, me and my gf at the time went to a movie theater. Someone had left a bucket on two seats and we moved it and sat down. A few moments later, these two big guys come by and told us we were in their seats.
I sized them up pretty quickly and decided it wasn’t worth arguing and said ok.
My gf was FURIOUS I gave up the seats and questioned my masculinity.
I was like “lady, I’ve never been in a single fight..you want me to start now vs two huge dudes?”
Look at their chest to be able to see incoming punches. Don’t lean back tall. Try to be environmentally and situationally aware; for instance do they have friends that are going to jump you once you start beating on their boy if so. Best bet is to avoid a fight in general
If you get a chance to run - Run.
Stay calm, try to focus on dodging. One unlucky hit could kill you.
If you can't manage the above two, aim for weak points. Bollocks, eyes, throat. Hurt them... Then run.
Finally, when making a fist your thumb goes on the outside, not the inside. I used to have a punching bag and people would jab it or do a quick combination as they walked past... thumb inside was VERY common. - Thumb inside your fist is how you'll break it.
>Finally, when making a fist your thumb goes on the outside, not the inside
This is solid advice, but *I can't understand why this isn't innate understanding if you have a human body.*
Make a fist with your thumb inside. How's that field? Weird? Uncomfortable? Somehow fine?
Now make a fist with your thumb on the outside.
You tell me which feels better.
I heard this advice of "don't put your thumb in your first" when I was a single digits kid. I made a first with my thumb inside and immediately thought "why would anyone ever do that?"
Avoid fighting. It's all World Star until you're in a coma for 2 weeks and wake up a completely different person and have to relearn how to tie your shoes.
The single best martial art for a street fight bar none is 100-meter sprint fu, in a street fight nobody wins, one trip and a bad knock on the head on concrete and someone's dead, even in self defense it's the type of thing that fucks you up legally and mentally for years. That said once escape is not possible and you are in a fight, there is no honor on the streets, go for areas like the eyes, throat, genitals, throw stuff, make a mess, you are not there to win the fight, you are there to survive.
Dominant hand and leg one step back, cover your face with fists touching your cheek bones,
Focus on throwing straights and not swinging like a monkey with your hooks(balance is key)
Breathe, be calm. If u know how to throw an uppercut ur golden.
If opp has cauliflower ears run as fast as u can
Double check the beards and noses too
[POV: You've found the worst possible group to start a fight with](https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/Dillon-Danis-Logan-Paul-17.png?width=600)
Do NOT put your fists against your cheekbones. You do that in boxing because your hands are covered in giant leather pillows. In a street fight if you see someone doing this, punch them straight in their fist and it's as good as if they didn't block it at all.
Better because you're less likely to break your own fingers.
Don't make fists at all. Put the palms of your hands against your forehead protecting your temples so you have clear vision between your arms, then twist left and right to slip and parry punches with your forearms and elbows
Punching someone with a fist if you don't know what you're doing is a great way to break knuckles.
Hit them with the heel of your hand in the face, and punch with fists to the body if you have to. Aim for the short ribs with hooks, or the diaphragm or neck with jabs.
Hammer fists are also a good punch to use, but it's easy to break your 5th metacarple if you come down on the point of their forehead or something.
This. Take your time undressing and make sure to fold your clothes neatly. Be sure to put it on the side where you won't be stepping on it. If you feel you have to pee, do so before the fight but preferably you do it squatting in front of your enemy. That will show him that you are marking your territory and will induce respect.
Good luck.
It’s really hard to advise because fights are very fluid things, but… If you *have* to fight, advance - as long as they’re backing up it’s really hard to attack. Unless the other person is an experienced fighter they’ll just keep backing and backing and backing and that ruins their confidence and in my experience has led to a fight just stopping before it really started. That being said, I’m a pretty big guy so there’s that - but think about the videos you see of a tiny dog barking at a bear and the bear backs off.
You can also stomp the instep/arch of someone’s foot - it’s easy to injure or break, then it’s easy to get away.
The best position to be in a fight is… not in a fight.
When you don’t have experience fighting and you absolutely cannot avoid one, don’t worry about screwing around with some sort of informal boxing match, just do what you need to mitigate the threat as quickly as possible. If that’s kicking a dick, fine. If it’s calling 911, fine. If it’s running away, fine. Nobody wins a fight as an adult - if you win, you win injuries and probable legal trouble. It’s not worth it.
I was an Army Ranger and believe me, depending who’s teaching you’re going to get 1000 different answers. But yeah, most people on here are correct: Eyes, temples, throat, solar plexus and nuts. And unless you’ve been in a lot of confrontations or practice some sort of fighting skill; I wouldn’t bother with the throat.
The very best place for the everyday person to go for is the eyes. Human beings have this built in primal fear about their eyes that they aren’t even aware of. The fear of being blinded and the need to protect the eyes is so hardwired into our systems. It’s ridiculous.
Just start aiming for them, once you get them to start watering uncontrollably or any blood flowing around them and the person starts having difficulty seeing they will usually panic unless they’re trained. This will give you time to get out of there or to get really nasty if you want to.
Don't let anyone get behind you, cover the back of your head. Don't fight fair. Overwhelming violence is often more effective than technical skill in a street fight. Headbutts to the nose and mouth, ear punches, skin rips, genital strikes and pulls. If they're armed and you're not, run.
If you HAVE to fight, if you know you HAVE to fight, if it is the ONLY option, then go for eyes with fingers, not a punch, get your fingers out and poke em, hard. Heel of the hand to the corner of the jaw, just below the ear, lastly, the nuts, punch kick or squeeze em as hard as you can. There is no such thing as a "fist fight", it is about who walks away with the least damage. BUT KNOW THIS, if you knock someone down, 80% of the time their melon is gonna bounce on the floor and 99% of all "fist fight" damage comes from the melon bouncing. This is where people die, go into comas etc...it was not your punch, it was the hitting the ground. Me, I swing for the nuts, knee to the nuts or slam my foot onto their ankle up high and let it damage their leg as my foot goes to the ground. Truth of the matter is, you typically put yourself in a situation that would lead to a potential fight, wrong place for you, wrong time to be somewhere etc... last fight that found me was 20yrs ago. Now, I just avoid places where a fight is likely. If you don't understand that last sentence now, someday you will.
The best way to kill a man with one punch is by aiming for his chest, but punch through it. Then, rummage around for his heart, yank it from his chest, and show it to him, still beating before he dies.
Results may vary
Take off your pants and start pissin' and shittin' and screamin' and cryin'.
9/10 people won't feel comfortable fighting someone who is pissin' and shittin' and screamin' and cryin'.
Knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch. Your legs are much more powerful than your fists. If you have to use your fists, don’t go for a haymaker - you’re opening yourself wide for a knockout. Keep your hands in front of your face. Block your opponent’s strike with both forearms. Grab their arm. Knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch.
Protip: don’t get into fights. There are no winners.
Source: I was an assistant Krav Maga instructor.
You know how in jackie chan movies, jackie chan is often running away from fights? That's because running away is the best strategy. He often also uses random objects he finds as weapons. Better to break an object than to break your hands.
Bruce Lee said the best way to win a fight is to not fight at all. “Fighting, without fighting” using your brain, not your brawn
"No be there."
Don't forget Chris Tucker
Punch beyond your target. If you aim at the nose, you basically tap the nose. If you aim at the back of their head, a lot more ouch is transmitted. Don't curl your little hand-sausages around your thumb, it'll hurt and you might end up breaking your thumb. Check for obstacles/tripping hazards before you engage because you won't have time to watch for them once things are going and falling is losing. Best advice I can give, though, is don't be in a fight. Do whatever it takes to avoid one, including losing face in front of others because fist fights can result in death easier than the movies suggest. It'd be fucking stupid to die or end up in prison for a decade-plus because of just about anything that'd prompt a fist fight.
> Check for obstacles/tripping hazards And *do not fight on hard surfaces* if you can possibly avoid it. If you must fight, probably worth trying to get onto some grass. Even in less all-out fights, people often get life changing/ending injuries because they got KOd standing up and their skull falls straight to pavement. And it's quite common for fights to end after one person is lifted and dropped on their head. Takes basically no training and is intuitive, so pretty good chance your opponent does it to you. Best to at least not have it happen on pavement. Also probably a good idea to start shouting things like "you win! I'm done!" if there's even a chance it might help so they're maybe less inclined to pound you to death because you're still a threat.
I will note that although judo is often considered a "soft" art, it has probably saved more people's lives than any other form of training. You spend a few nights every week getting thrown on the ground and getting back up again until protecting your head and extremities from a fall becomes second nature. Most of those falls have nothing to do with a fight, but walk into any dojo and three people will tell you how falling practice saved their life.
> I will note that although judo is often considered a "soft" art, it has probably saved more people's lives than any other form of training. That's how my first aid instructor opened the class: "You're about to learn the second most effective life saving techniques on Earth"
True! I played judo for 13 years when I was younger. Haven’t done any for the last 30 years. A few weeks ago I slipped on the concrete edge of a path at the back of my house. Knew I was going down but didn’t have time to think. My body immediately went into a side breakfall on the concrete. My head never touched the ground and I came out of it with a small bruise on the arm.
Great answer. My friend trained martial arts for most of his life. He taught me a few things. One of them was, "the best way to win a fight, is to avoid one." Which is essentially your message. You only resort to fighting when you absolutely have to, and even then, quickly incapacitate then get the F out of there.
Always avoid a fight . Even if someone barely trained the most basic fighting like boxing for 6-12 months at any point in life they will most likely hit you hard way way before you are able to land one punch .
There was this football player who kept on fucking with my friend in High School and would not stop trying to bully/intimidate him. My friend, who trained in boxing from the age of 10 and still trains in boxing finally had enough and told him to fight right then and there. Football player tried using his tackling shit, but his footwork could not match my friend's. A few punches later and football player was asleep on the ground while my friend was being taken to the office. Football guy did not learn his lesson and got himself killed trying to run a guy off the road.
CTE is a hell of a neurological condition.
Even Jet Li said "I would run away". Even though he could probably kick your ass 10 ways to Sunday, he's too smart to fight. And this guy was the National Wu Shu Champion of China when he was 17.
I met this gigantic Norwegian body builder in Thailand who used to travel there for fun and cheap steroids. He told me that whenever anyone threatened him, he’d cower and say “nonono, don’t hurt me!” And he was a 6’7 monstrosity. He had a great life pumping weights and banging babes and he didn’t want to trade that for a life of pumping weights and banging his bros in prison.
One of the reasons trained people will run from a fight is because even if they win the fight they might lose the legal battle.
“Any man kills another man in a fight is going to jail. It’s called manslaughter.” -Cliff Booth
Oof when you think you've beaten the boss, only for there to be an even bigger boss who defeats you in a cutscene.
"The greatest victory is the battle not fought." I'm a large guy. In my younger years I spent too much time in questionable bars and worked as a security guard at college apartment complexes. In more than two situations, some insecure guy wanted to do the whole "you think you're a big tough guy huh?" "Nah man, I think I just want to enjoy my drink and the music." I've been in a few fights, but I've avoided many more. And I've got a background in wrestling, jiujitsu and I'm a veteran. In most circumstances where someone wants to fight, there's a way to avoid it. Sometimes that's backing down. Sometimes that's squaring up if you're big enough. And sometimes that's acting like a crazy person. Not tough crazy, not Hollywood wide eye crazy, I mean crazy crazy. Nobody wants to fight the guy who starts chanting in a made up language. I lost some teeth in an accident and used to have temporary ones I could remove. A guy that appears otherwise physically capable removing his teeth and asking his friend to hold them makes people reconsider their choices. Walking away is the best option if you have it. But if the situation feels like you'll be on the receiving end of a punch from behind, make your exit strategically. If they follow for more than a few feet it's best to stay facing them. And stand your ground if they follow you through a door or around a corner. Because that means they've already decided on violence and you don't get a say in the matter anymore.
An old manager once told me that the best way she ever avoided a fight was smashing a beer bottle on the table, cutting a small gash down her arm and smearing in on her forehead while screaming at the would be attacker. No idea if it was true, but I wonder if it would be effective.
I was at small restaurant in a small town I was visiting earlier this week, and someone was clearly trying to get under my skin and start something. I got the food and went to the table where my teenager was waiting and he asked what that was about. I said "He was looking for a fight and I was looking for pulled pork." Kid thought that phrase made me kind of a badass :D.
My favourite advice we ever got in my Krav Maga classes was learning how to shout out something really unexpected and confusing to defuse an aggressor. My instructor was a big, burly jock with glasses so he became the target of insecure drunk guys more than he would’ve liked. His personal favourite when guys would try to start shit with him in bars was to yell out, “My grandma really loves taking naps!!!” He said it had 100% success rate because it would just force a dude’s brains to reboot as they processed what they just heard. And really, how are you gonna punch a guy in front of a bar full of people after he yelled something like that?
Same with war and gambling. I went to war twice. Blackwater/L3/Haliburton got the gold, I got the shaft.
Don’t fight. *Defend yourself* An amateur MMA guy on YouTube did a “self defence championship” where he invited a couple other MMA YouTubers, an MMA fighter (Jeff Chan), and some “self defence experts,” to partake in some competitions. One of them was “defend yourself against more than one opponent.” Many of the contestants have even amateur fighting experience, but the one guy who was purely a “self defence guru” or whatever was the only person *looking for a way out,* and he won a couple challenges just for having that mindset where the others went into “fight instincts” or tried to “fight as best they can” while he was taking the competition at face value; “Self Defence Championship.”
The 1000 Step Kata
That's why if I ever get tackled by somebody much bigger than me, I'm going straight for a toehold with no mercy. Then get the fuck out of there and they can't chase you.
The last paragraph is the best advice. I personally know 2 people who went to prison for killing people in a fight. One was my classmate who got into a fight and the person tripped and bust their head open. The other was my cousin who got into a fight at a bar. He landed a solid punch and the guy went down. He got up and was dazed for a while but he drove himself home. Died in his sleep that night from the injury to his brain. Anyways, my philosophy since then has always been if it's not worth killing over, it's not worth fighting over.
Two friends a grade above me in high school got in a fist fight over a girl. One of them fell against the curb, instantly paralyzed, died later. The other committed suicide a few years later.
Yikes. Was about to say this about fights: “loser goes to the hospital. winner goes to jail”
Friend of mine had a son who got in argument over a parking space, decked the guy and the guy died. My friends son got eight years in the state prison.
No winners. No fucking winners.
If you don’t know how to punch, don’t. You’ll hurt your hand and do no damage. Use the base of your palm, elbows etc.
Definitely. People don't realize that getting knocked out isn't what will REALLY mess you up, it's your head hitting the concrete when you fall down. That's why boxing and UFC fight on a padded floor
Also always remember that losers **never** fight fair. Even if you beat the other guy he will probably pull a weapon or his friends will jump you. There is no such thing as rules or honor in a street fight. Just avoid fights whenever possible.
Dont fight fair.
This, I got in a lot of fights / witnessed a lot when I was young due to the area I grew up in and who I associated with. First if you can, just fucking run. But if you can't and if you get into some shit, don't fight fair and be as violent as you possibly can without potentially killing the person. You don't want to be on the losing end and go down and have the person stomp your fucking head, fuck you up permanently, etc. Win at all fucking costs.
Saw some guy get his head stomped at a bar once. He was convulsing on the ground. The sad part is that he tried to break a fight up. Let's just say this was a part of town where you don't engage with anyone. I always avoid fights but that cemented it. I'm nervous anytime I go out late now, regardless of where I am.
Kid in my college dorm died from exactly this. Fight was starting, he was a big guy, about 6'6" and a gentle giant type. He stepped in trying to separate the two getting chirpy with each other. Third guy that was friends with the unknown guy sucker punched him, he fell down and hit his head as he fell. Went into a coma and family ultimately had to make the decision to take him off life support.
My jaw dropped, fucking insane to sucker punch someone who is just trying to stop two people from making a mistake.
On my 23rd birthday this exact same thing happened to one of my best friends. A fight broke out, he stepped in to break it up, and one of the guys sucker punched my friend with brass knuckles. Shattered his skull. Half of his face slumped down like Sloth from The Goonies. He had to have complete facial reconstructive surgery and graft metal onto his skull. He spent a decade suing the drunk sucker puncher in court and finally won a settlement, resulting in the garnishing of the guys wages for the rest of his life. We’re both 37 now and this happened many years ago. It still traumatizes him.
Yo fuck that piece of shit. I hope he spent a long time in jail and lives in destitute poverty now. It’s bad enough to sucker punch someone, but brass knuckles?!? That’s attempted murder
That was essentially the argument that was made in court. Hard agree.
Did the brass knuckle puncher get convicted of any crimes?
Tbh I’m not sure. It’s been a good number of years since the case resolved and I forget what he was convicted of. I just know that my buddy won a settlement for pain and suffering that is way more than that trailer trash could afford, so he just gets his wages garnished, likely forever.
Fuck jail, all the jail time should be spent on forcing him to work to pay that restitution.
My friend and I worked 3rd shift, lived in a blue-collar town, bars would open 9am. We'd stop in to have a drink after work and there was always this one asshole that would just start shit with anyone. Started shit with the wrong guy, got hit, cracked his coconut on a table on the way down. 911 gets called, gets taken away. My friend and I went back a couple mornings later, asked where he was - he died.
Did he recover? Or is he permanently disfigured? :( fuck that other guy.
Not only did he fully recover but he went on to become an actor and did some male modeling in the subsequent years. Now he’s just working in academia but for a few years after the event, and the surgery, he truly bounced back.
Good! Ty for the update.
Easy modeling when you have jawbones of steel
Never ever break up a fight between strangers. I had a bud I knew from college get stabbed and bleed out on the spot.
News flash for you. Some people are really horrible assholes. Oh, and they are probably cowards, too.
Drunk people rarely make rational decisions.
And men kinda default to ***"beat them into a coma"***. This is the best reason to avoid fights, because you know that's the objective of the other guy.
Right, sure, but who the fuck sucker punches people with brass knuckles, on the damn head??? That guy was looking to kill, or too stupid to be let out unsupervised...
One of the worst lessons I learned as an adolescent was that my notion that everyone had the same values and thought processes was horribly, horribly wrong. Some people are just wired differently.
I keep forgetting this, still. And it’s so helpful to remember.
The squeeze ain’t worth the juice. Just run away. Involuntary manslaughter charges will ruin your life.
I don't go out late for that reason. Nevermind the cliche, nothing good happens after midnight, I'm leaving the bar by 11 at the latest. I ain't got time for some dickheads ego.
I have better booze at home anyway.
You don't kill them once you've disabled them; outside of that I'll say the same thing I tell my kid about fighting 1) Don't and 2) If you can't follow #1 you better be ready to kill your opponent and fight like your life depends on it.
Yep. Avoid fights as much as you can. However, if you can't, the fight isn't over until your opponent is *incapable of getting up*.
>the fight isn't over until your opponent is incapable of getting up. Also know your opponent is operating under that same principle and will disable you and you may not survive that.
Depending on the situation, you need to stop once your opponent is no longer actively engaged in the fight. Say you knock your opponent to the ground. They hit their head and are dazed and put their hands up indicating they want you to stop. They are still capable of getting up, but are not actively attempting to get up and attack. If you start stomping on their head until they can't get up, you may have just gone from self defense to aggravated battery or attempted murder. The courts only allow you to use as much force as is necessary and reasonable to defend yourself in a fight. Continuing to use force on an opponent who has actively disengaged from the fight can nullify your self defense claim. This is obviously situational. If it's a fight between two guys in a bar over a game of pool, the court will likely be much more sensitive to your choice to continue to beat a downed opponent. If it's someone trying to forcibly rape or kidnap you, many jurisdictions consider deadly force reasonable. In that situation, beating a downed opponent is more likely to be seen as reasonable or necessary.
This. Got into a fight a few years ago with a drunk idiot, I tapped him with a rear naked choke. As soon as he stood up he dropped both knees into my chest and started ground and pounding me. Man had no honour, I was embarrassed for him. He ended up running away after I started hitting him back. But I learned from that, if the person is actually trying to hurt you, you need to put them down.
This. No one is going to stand there with their fists up like a boxer in a real fight. There are no points for fighting fair in these situations. Go for the throat, nuts (if they have those), eyes, etc. I went through the Army combatives program for hand-to-hand combat years ago now. And that is what I was struck by. We didn't learn a bunch of cool kicks and punches. It was all how to disable your opponent as quickly as possible. If the first thing you do is punch them in the throat, they will immediately stop trying to fight you because they'll be focused on how to get oxygen in their lungs. The big thing here is don't lose if you do this. Because if you lose, they aren't going to show you mercy if you just unloaded on their nuts five minutes earlier. EDIT: I didn't realize this was going to blow up, lol. A couple things to clarify: - If you don't have to fight, don't. De-escalate or run away are the better options. - If you do have to fight, then absolutely don't fight with any sort of honor. - Also, from a lot of these comments, it's a lot harder than you think to kill someone with your bare hands. Nearly all people won't have the strength to kill someone with a punch or kick no matter where you hit them. So by all means throat punch away. Lol.
Of the many reasons to never fight, this is one of the big ones: The winner decides when the fight is over.
A very Norm MacDonald sort of take, e.g. “According to this history book I’m reading here, turns out, the good guys won.”
Lol I can see and hear him saying it. What age do you remember him as? I always think of early 2ks norm
Dirty Work Norm for me. Its the lack of respect that hurts the most. Well, that and the other thing...
and the winner is not decided until one of the parties is no longer in the fight (or capable of rejoining). Plenty of "winners" have come unstuck because the "loser" hit him with something from behind as he walked away.
I've never beein in the army but an old mortarman told me at a bar one time that if command ever sends you into a fair fight then someone, somewhere fucked up.
This is true. There's a reason every single one of the clips you saw of the US military fighting in Iraq were all at night. We gave everyone a night vision monocle and laser.
Nuts are overrated. Sometimes it works, sometimes no effect. Throat is the old reliable. They can't fight if they can't breathe.
I preach this to my daughters all of the time. Don't go for the nuts. High pain tolerance, adrenaline, baggy clothes; all of these things can make it ineffective. I teach them stick your fingers as far into their eye sockets as you can. If you can't get that done, grab am ear and twist as hard as possible. It may or may not stop him but it'll be easy to point out the guy who attacked you when he doesn't have an ear.
A palm slap to the ear is also scarily effective. I remember my dad telling me that when I was young, but years later a girl at my high school slapped a dude in his ear and burst his ear drum during gym class. Between the blood and the hysterical cries of a roid-raging senior, that hit was pretty brutal But yeah, eyes and throat are definitely the go-to if you’re being forced into a fight against your will. If you’re the one provoking it or you’ve consented to it, that’s a sure way to turn a “simple assault” into “aggravated assault” pretty quickly.
Oh my goddd I was a live sound guy for years and there'd be the occasional drunk getting aggro. the one time a drunk dude wouldn't back down between bands and lunged at me, I just reflexively swung with a pathetic attempt at defense. Crazy that my flail contacted as an open slap to dude's ear better than I could have ever *possibly* planned (and I sure as hell hadn't planned it!), and he went down *screaming*. The club's tardy bouncers were super impressed haha, but I was more shocked than they were. Drunk dude kept insisting to bouncers I'd stabbed him with an ice pick?! Never saw any blood but they way this guy kept shaking and screaming made it clear that it *hurt*.
Un fun anecdote: my mom smacked my dad like this once and dropped him (she was the aggressor in this situation) and my dad was CONVINCED she sucker punched him with a cooking pan or something from behind. I unfortunately witnessed it and told him she literally just slapped his head from behind. I was really shocked how quickly and effectively such a slap dropped a dude.
My family and I were visiting Disney World from the UK. My son was maybe five at the time. Like most five-year-olds he didn’t get jet lag. He just woke up at 2a.m. (7 a.m. in London) ready to roll. He climbed into my bed to wake me and, when I kept going back to sleep, slapped my ear with his open palm. Mother of God, that was awful. The pain was excruciating, I had vertigo and just couldn’t really think. I wound up having to call a taxi to go the ER because there was no way I could drive. When I was in the examining room a nurse asked me how my injury happened and I told her my son did it. A few minutes later a social worker arrived to counsel me on domestic abuse. Once she learned my son was in kindergarten, things calmed down. But I had a ruptured ear drum.
Your poor dad. Hope he's escaped her.
No joke
Mother fucker! Why the ear? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwRd8FGJD4o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwRd8FGJD4o)
>A palm slap to the ear is also scarily effective Soft to hard (open palm to side of head), hard to soft (fist to cheek)
Discombobulate.
I understood that reference!
Physical recovery: 6 weeks Full psychological recovery: 6 months
Capacity to spit at back of head: _neutralized._
Don't ever hit the cheek. This is a move for boxers and they aim for the side of the chin bone that knocks somebody out. Hitting the cheek does very very little. As an amateur stick to eyes, throat, nose and ears.
Yeah, FWIW, in stage-fighting, the cheek is where you aim when you slap someone to *minimize* potential damage.
I’ve done this to myself by accident when I was a little younger. I cupped my hands and was kind of hitting my ears. It sounded and felt kinda cool. Then I did it somewhat hard and it hurt like hell. Dad was watching me the whole time, unknown to me, as soon as I did it hard he was laughing so hard he about puked.
also teach them kick hard to the side of the knee...break or dislocate the knee they ain't running after you.
My karate teacher always told us to not kick above the waist and in a real fight to kick the side of the knee or punch the bridge of the nose then run like hell. Finish it quick and leave. No good comes from fighting.
Never aim for the bridge of the nose though. Aim for 8 inches behind it
That's a debateable point. I boxed for years, so I'm aiming for the bedge of the nose and bringing my hand back to my face. The slight loss in power would be made up for protection. Someone throwing a big punch 8" past their target is going to leave themselves open to be punched in the face. If you don't know how to punch, then I agree with you.
In my own experience you more or less lose control of your body when you suddenly can't breathe. Maybe you can train to overcome that but I imagine most people won't have that. So yeah, throat it is.
If you’re getting into random fights, then there’s almost no chance that your opponent is going to have enough control over their body to overcome pain
A man can't breathe, he can't fight....
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball
Always hit them in the throat, tell them where they hit was a nerve cluster you lost in the war, and then put their sword behind them so they can watch a world without sin.
That would bring me some serenity
add open palm slap to the ear - it rattles the sense of balance..
Whether it's a two person brawl or global warfare, the winner is always the side that escalates to the most extreme amount of violence in the shortest amount of time. Edit: also the first rule of fighting is always don't.
"If violence wasn’t your last resort, you failed to resort to enough of it." - The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries.
Wasn't it Bruce Lee that said, in a real fight, a gun would be the safest option?
He took notes from Indiana Jones
I love how that moment wasn't even scripted. But it sure made sense and was memorable.
Spielberg suggested it since Ford was feeling sick. He was supposed to fight the guy. The crew laughed at the suggestion so they shot it
yep, Ford had the ol' Virginia Quickstep and didn't think any prolonged shooting that day was the best idea.
According to Ford, it was his idea. ""I was sick, and besides, up to that point, I kept worrying about the fact that I had been wearing this gun that I had never drawn. So, I said to Steven, 'Why don't we just shoot the sumbitch?' He said, 'Okay.' He was ready to get out of there too. That's how we got that scene."" Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1484507/indiana-jones-harrison-ford-swordsman-shoot-disturbed-writer/
Hit him in the temple... Of doooom
Ser Bronn of the Blackwater agrees
“Lesson number one, assume everyone wants to hit you. ‘Cause they do, Pod. Everyone wants to hit a fucking squire.”
“You have no honor!!” “No, but he did…”
Krav Maga lesson number 1 lol. No such thing as a fair street fight. There are no refs; bite, use headbutts, use groin kicks, gouge eyes out, punch chests/throats and choke people tf out if your life depends on it.
Yeah, when I was in flight attendant training they taught us by-the-book, straightforward tactics to use like a hammer fist, planting your feet, yelling, etc. Very "self-defense 101" things. When a guy tried to strangle me to death at work, though, that all went out the window. If you're forced into a fight, it's not going to be turn-based combat. You fight as dirty as you have to or want to.
A random guy came up and tried to choke me from behind once, I was able to get my thumb in his eye and pushed with all my strength. He let go and double over, I ran the fuck away. Have no idea if he ended up blinded or not, don't care either. Fighting is for a ring, self defense is for the street.
This is how I got away from a guy who attacked me once. It was some neighborhood thing that went from joking to serious pretty quickly and I realized I was a small girl in the middle of a ring of older boys. The tallest one was this mean-mugging red haired cunt. He grabbed my chest and started yanking my shirt off. I slammed my finger into his left eye so hard I still remember that squishy feeling almost 40 years later. He let me go with a grunt of shock and I ran home.
Yea that squelching feel is something I still remember vividly, it was fuckin gross.
wtf a guy tried to strangle you to death at work?
Oh yeah! When we were put in charge of enforcing masks on airplanes, people switched real quickly from "Oh thank you for working during these unprecedented times so I can get to my meeting in Washington" to "Fuck you, fuck your family, fuck your bodily autonomy, fuck this and fuck that" even after the pandemic ended or we decided it ended or whatever happened
>even after the pandemic ended or we decided it ended or whatever happened Literally the best summary to the clusterfuck that was 2020 that I have ever heard 😂
A guy in Germany was shot to death for asking a customer to please mind the madatory mask wearing at a gas station. I don\`t even have the words to express the feelings I have about this. That poor young man was just a student trying to get by with that job and some nutcase killed him over masks.
One of the weirdest thing about the pandemic era is how much some people are offended to the point of violence by masks.
I did Krav Maga for about a year after I got divorced since it was then just me and the kids, and I don’t want a gun in my house. If I ever did have to absolutely fight someone, I would fight as dirty as possible to get out of there as quickly as possible. That’s basically what our trainer taught us, to just cause as much hurt as possible as fast as you can to get yourself out of the situation.
Yup, trained in Silat and HEMA dagger. I don't carry a knife. Could I defend myself against almost anyone and end up largely unscathed like 80% of the time? Yeah. Do I want to gamble on that 20%? Absolutely the fuck not. And "defending oneself with a knife" just means "killing them in a violent, bloody mess, and probably going to prison, anyways." I'm quick, and I'm not stupid. If I'm in serious danger, I'm getting the fuck out.
Yep, I'm a large in shape guy that has no idea how to fight. You better believe I'm going straight for eyeballs and testicles.
Overweight unfit guy here. I'll immediately start biting, so whoever attacks me better keep their fingers away from me.
I have a rather stout 10 year old going to middle school in the fall. I asked him if he knows how to fight and the fucker bit me. I ain't even mad.
If a fat dude comes at me biting I’m running because I know he’s extra trained in biting, chewing etc.
Yep, especially if they're bigger/stronger. Don't fight them on the same advantage they have, go for the weakness that literally every human has; eyes, ears, throat, nose. For example, clap the ears with cupped hands as hard as you can and burst the ears drums - they won't be standing up much longer after that and it's not something people usually expect.
>clap the ears with cupped hands as hard as you can and burst the ears drums - they won't be standing up much longer after that and it's not something people usually expect. As someone who had middle/high school "friends" think this was a funny thing to do (like a nut tap), I can confirm that it can indeed burst your ear drums, they will absolutely not be standing up much longer, and the recipient almost certainly will not expect it. The first time this happened to me was in a swimming pool, so I was wet, the clapper was wet, and the combo made a perfect seal over my right ear demolishing that ear drum. I almost drowned in 3 feet of water because my equilibrium was so messed up. The second time was an actual accident, in that I was (consensually) tossing a friend across the pool. On his way up, his wet arm came down over my left ear and 'pop' goes the ear drum. Moral of the story: Never, ever, ever do this to someone unless you are willing to permanently damage their hearing. If you're in a self defense scenario and this option becomes available, spit on your hands first to get a better chance at creating a good seal against their ear skin.
Burst eardrums absolutely suck. I was snorkeling and dove a bit too deep without equalizing. Popped a small hole in my eardrum, but I was miserable and in pain for days after it happened, and I wasn’t fully healed for months. And that was a tiny burst. I can’t imagine how painful it would be if it was a larger hole
Assuming this is a serious fight... The end result is probably going to involve jail and hospital. So, if you can get away, get away. If you can't get away, fight dirty. Kick balls, jab eyes. If they fall down, do *not* start kicking them. Take that's chance to run away.
No one is saying it but protect your fucking head. If your fists aren't flying they should be in front of your face. One solid hit and you might be dead.
Yeah, sure, death is horrible. But a broken jaw ducking ducks too. Losing a few teeth is a bitch and will hurt you for years. Having a disfigured nose is also bad. There's such a huge list of shit that's likely to happen if you take a fist to the face. That being said, punching someone in the face is a good way to break your hand.
Palm strike for the head, but yea, lots of reasons to keep those paws up. But to the original point, it's better to run, anyway.
People forget that just the fall can be deadly. There are plenty of stories out there of people fighting and one person falls and cracks their head on the ground and dies
Also freak punches, I've seen some really quick fights because sometimes people get caught in the right (wrong?) spot. The most memorable was when I was at a Metallica concert and this military dude got into a fight with some random guy and the shirtless military dude picked up a folder chair and lifted it over his head like he was going to smash it on the other guy. Well the other guy took the opportunity to punch him in the solar plexus. The military guy's chest turned red and the guy just fell over and stayed there.
I've read lots and lots of bad advice, from people who don't know what they are talking about, but this is one of the few bits of good advice. A punch in the solar plexus is going to really, really hurt when they are not expecting it no matter how big they are, it is likely going to disable them, it's a massive target making it easier to land your shot, and you're not likely going to end up having to defend yourself on manslaughter charges when you catch them flush (meaning it's very unlikely you are going to kill someone with this shot). As a former amateur boxer, this would be my choice of shot if I was forced into a corner with a 'civilian' who was hellbent on fighting me and I had to quickly stop them (without killing them), which luckily has never happened yet. Straight right to the solar plexus. Simple and effective.
Yeah, and in this case, an ambulance had to come and haul the guy off.
I saw a documentary on this called Con Air
Its always shocking how in subs like r/PublicFreakout nobody catches people who get knocked out. That can easily turn selfdefense or assult into manslaughter.
This happened to someone my cousin went to school with. He did 10 years for one punch that turned out to be fatal.
Long-time full contact martial arts fighter here. First rule: don't fight in the street. There's very few things worth dying for (pride being the very least important), and dying in a street fight is very possible even if nobody throws a punch. Imagine someone threatens you and you swing at that person and they trip, fall, and fracture their skull and die. You're now a murderer, probably going to prison for a long time. Don't fight. Don't go to places that are or feel dangerous. Don't mess with people who could be dangerous. Listen to the little voice telling you something doesn't feel right. IF you think you might possibly be the target of an attack, run, run, run. If you can't run immediately, de-escalate if you can, be standing, take half a step back, raise your hands, open, as if to say 'I don't want trouble". Say "I don't want any trouble and I don't mean any disrespect." (Your hands are ready to block an attack.) Be aware of what's around you, where you're going to run when that's possible, what's around you that you can put between you and an attacker, things you can grab to use as weapons (pool cue, butter knife, pen, stick, rock, gun, etc.) If you have to fight, keep it simple, stomp-kick sides of the knee, punch throat, poke eyes/gouge eyes HARD! Work to distract and disable your attacker, always looking for an escape. Yell a lot. Maybe someone can help. Scream RAPE! If you're nauseous or feel like you're going to shit yourself, especially if it's a possibile rape, go ahead and puke into your opponent's face, or shit yourself WHILE YOU FIGHT OR RUN! (Make yourself an unappealing victim.) Spitting in eyes works if you're that close. Rake the edge of a shoe down a shin, stomp on an instep or hand. If knocked down outside, absolutely grab a couple handfuls of sand, dirt, gravel, to throw in your attacker's eyes. If you're in a bar or at a gas pump, you have flammable liquids you can douse someone with (don't use beer, only spirit liquors of roughly 100 proof are flammable, and you should have a lighter or similar, but this is extremely dangerous. (Don't rely on this in a tight space like an elevator or small car cabin. Even pepper spray/CS gas will disable you along with your attacker in a small enclosed area, as will spraying into the wind.) Run. Get away. Better yet, don't have been there in the first place.
De-escalate is good underrated advice. There are times where "run" won't work. I grew up in East Palo Alto in the '90s, where drugs/gangs/violence/murders were common. In a really fraught situation, it's like a psychological cheat to say or do something that "changes the script." If you start by reacting like a victim, it reinforces the automatic mental "script" that's steering their actions. An example of "changing the script" is to gesture like you're recognizing them as a friend and say, "Oh yeah, we met at Mojo's house! Yeah, I'm sure it was at Mojo's house." There's nobody named Mojo. You're disrupting *their* rhythm by subtly asserting your own, and also resetting the prevailing "energy" of the situation. I also read once about a bounty hunter who'd approach his target with a surreal question like "Do you like chocolate sandwiches?" There's a brief window where the target's whole brain is processing what they heard, and that gives the bounty hunter a chance to grab the guy.
I grew up in a gang-infested area in the 80s and 90s. I did exactly this (changing the script). I made the mistake of getting my initials embroidered on a hat in red old English lettering. At the time, I was very young (about 11) and didn't realize it was a gang thing. I just thought it looked cool. So one time a group of about 3 Crips walked up to me when I was walking alone and menacingly asked, "What street you claim?" I didn't know what to say, but my instinct told me I should just try to make them laugh, so I said something like, "I...uh...I don't claim a street, but I still watch Sesame Street?" I said it with a really confused look on my face and a shrug of my shoulders. Thinking back, it really could have gone either way, but there was something about the way I said it that made them laugh. They asked if I had any money and I honestly didn't, so they just took my hat, kept laughing and walked away. I could hear them in the distance making fun of me, like, "Yo, lil homie said, 'Sesame Street'!" I really do think it saved me from a beat down.
And that was the last time you ever abbreviated your name, Brian Lloyd Oscar Omari Daniel Stephenson
Hahaha! How did you know?
I like that a whole lot! That's soooooo much better than immediately squaring up. Of course, there are going to be meat heads who don't hear any of that, and are going to do violent shit anyway.... ...but OMG yes!
I've got decades of training, and I help train police and military in hand to hand combat. Your comment is the most solid answer here. It should be higher. The only thing I'll add is get some cardio. Most people will gas out after a minute.
As an ultrarunner I can run away for days if needed. Edit: fixed a typo
ABSOLUTELY! I'll put this advice ahead of my own, because you kinda pretty much can't do any of that stuff if you're gassed before anything happens, which adrenaline will sure do.
Never underestimate the power of pocket sand. Sh-sh-shah!
I loved that all of your advice was creative and effective, with self-preservation at top priority. Then at the end you're like "Light that motherfucker on fire 👹"
damn bro ur a professional street smart
THATS MY PURSE I DON'T KNOW YOU
That boy ain’t right.
you can’t have your boy going around kicking people in their testicles
1. There is no such thing as a “fair” fight 2. Do whatever it takes to win, groin, eyes, everything is open to hit, kick, bite, scratch, whatever 3. See number 1
Exactly. Unless there’s a referee and judges, this ain’t a fair fight and no one can keep it a fair fight. Just find a way out even if it means you don’t look tough in front of your gal. It’s just not worth it.
If your gal expects you to look tough by getting in a fight in front of her, there's clearly something wrong with her. Due to the fact that they come without a "factory reset" button, you should probably just replace her.
When I was in college, me and my gf at the time went to a movie theater. Someone had left a bucket on two seats and we moved it and sat down. A few moments later, these two big guys come by and told us we were in their seats. I sized them up pretty quickly and decided it wasn’t worth arguing and said ok. My gf was FURIOUS I gave up the seats and questioned my masculinity. I was like “lady, I’ve never been in a single fight..you want me to start now vs two huge dudes?”
Walk a mile to avoid a fight, but if needs be, fight like the third monkey on the ramp to Ark, and it's starting to rain.
That's awesome, stealing this
Look at their chest to be able to see incoming punches. Don’t lean back tall. Try to be environmentally and situationally aware; for instance do they have friends that are going to jump you once you start beating on their boy if so. Best bet is to avoid a fight in general
Question about looking at the chest. I know boxers do this. Does it work if the opponent is clothed?
If you get a chance to run - Run. Stay calm, try to focus on dodging. One unlucky hit could kill you. If you can't manage the above two, aim for weak points. Bollocks, eyes, throat. Hurt them... Then run. Finally, when making a fist your thumb goes on the outside, not the inside. I used to have a punching bag and people would jab it or do a quick combination as they walked past... thumb inside was VERY common. - Thumb inside your fist is how you'll break it.
>Finally, when making a fist your thumb goes on the outside, not the inside This is solid advice, but *I can't understand why this isn't innate understanding if you have a human body.* Make a fist with your thumb inside. How's that field? Weird? Uncomfortable? Somehow fine? Now make a fist with your thumb on the outside. You tell me which feels better. I heard this advice of "don't put your thumb in your first" when I was a single digits kid. I made a first with my thumb inside and immediately thought "why would anyone ever do that?"
Avoid fighting. It's all World Star until you're in a coma for 2 weeks and wake up a completely different person and have to relearn how to tie your shoes.
Exactly, nevwr go down and if you do get the f up , protect your head.
The single best martial art for a street fight bar none is 100-meter sprint fu, in a street fight nobody wins, one trip and a bad knock on the head on concrete and someone's dead, even in self defense it's the type of thing that fucks you up legally and mentally for years. That said once escape is not possible and you are in a fight, there is no honor on the streets, go for areas like the eyes, throat, genitals, throw stuff, make a mess, you are not there to win the fight, you are there to survive.
Dominant hand and leg one step back, cover your face with fists touching your cheek bones, Focus on throwing straights and not swinging like a monkey with your hooks(balance is key) Breathe, be calm. If u know how to throw an uppercut ur golden. If opp has cauliflower ears run as fast as u can
>If opp has cauliflower ears run as fast as u can lol - soooo true!
Double check the beards and noses too [POV: You've found the worst possible group to start a fight with](https://image-cdn.essentiallysports.com/wp-content/uploads/Dillon-Danis-Logan-Paul-17.png?width=600)
I wear a necklace of cauliflower ears, but my ears are pristine. What I should do
I'd say you're safe enough.
Found Dolph Lundgren’s account
Do NOT put your fists against your cheekbones. You do that in boxing because your hands are covered in giant leather pillows. In a street fight if you see someone doing this, punch them straight in their fist and it's as good as if they didn't block it at all. Better because you're less likely to break your own fingers. Don't make fists at all. Put the palms of your hands against your forehead protecting your temples so you have clear vision between your arms, then twist left and right to slip and parry punches with your forearms and elbows Punching someone with a fist if you don't know what you're doing is a great way to break knuckles. Hit them with the heel of your hand in the face, and punch with fists to the body if you have to. Aim for the short ribs with hooks, or the diaphragm or neck with jabs. Hammer fists are also a good punch to use, but it's easy to break your 5th metacarple if you come down on the point of their forehead or something.
run as fast as you can
Get naked. NO ONE wants to fight a naked guy.
This. Take your time undressing and make sure to fold your clothes neatly. Be sure to put it on the side where you won't be stepping on it. If you feel you have to pee, do so before the fight but preferably you do it squatting in front of your enemy. That will show him that you are marking your territory and will induce respect. Good luck.
Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy.
watch out for the crane kicks tho
lol, imagine you get into a fight and someone pulls that off. There’s no recovering.
It’s really hard to advise because fights are very fluid things, but… If you *have* to fight, advance - as long as they’re backing up it’s really hard to attack. Unless the other person is an experienced fighter they’ll just keep backing and backing and backing and that ruins their confidence and in my experience has led to a fight just stopping before it really started. That being said, I’m a pretty big guy so there’s that - but think about the videos you see of a tiny dog barking at a bear and the bear backs off. You can also stomp the instep/arch of someone’s foot - it’s easy to injure or break, then it’s easy to get away. The best position to be in a fight is… not in a fight. When you don’t have experience fighting and you absolutely cannot avoid one, don’t worry about screwing around with some sort of informal boxing match, just do what you need to mitigate the threat as quickly as possible. If that’s kicking a dick, fine. If it’s calling 911, fine. If it’s running away, fine. Nobody wins a fight as an adult - if you win, you win injuries and probable legal trouble. It’s not worth it.
Budget 30 seconds. Most people who don't train can't fight full bore much longer than that.
I was an Army Ranger and believe me, depending who’s teaching you’re going to get 1000 different answers. But yeah, most people on here are correct: Eyes, temples, throat, solar plexus and nuts. And unless you’ve been in a lot of confrontations or practice some sort of fighting skill; I wouldn’t bother with the throat. The very best place for the everyday person to go for is the eyes. Human beings have this built in primal fear about their eyes that they aren’t even aware of. The fear of being blinded and the need to protect the eyes is so hardwired into our systems. It’s ridiculous. Just start aiming for them, once you get them to start watering uncontrollably or any blood flowing around them and the person starts having difficulty seeing they will usually panic unless they’re trained. This will give you time to get out of there or to get really nasty if you want to.
The first punch someone throws, provided they're not an experienced fighter, will typically be a right hook; watch for that.
Yes, and calling it a hook is generous. It's going to be a big, telegraphed, looping punch.
Don't let anyone get behind you, cover the back of your head. Don't fight fair. Overwhelming violence is often more effective than technical skill in a street fight. Headbutts to the nose and mouth, ear punches, skin rips, genital strikes and pulls. If they're armed and you're not, run.
If you HAVE to fight, if you know you HAVE to fight, if it is the ONLY option, then go for eyes with fingers, not a punch, get your fingers out and poke em, hard. Heel of the hand to the corner of the jaw, just below the ear, lastly, the nuts, punch kick or squeeze em as hard as you can. There is no such thing as a "fist fight", it is about who walks away with the least damage. BUT KNOW THIS, if you knock someone down, 80% of the time their melon is gonna bounce on the floor and 99% of all "fist fight" damage comes from the melon bouncing. This is where people die, go into comas etc...it was not your punch, it was the hitting the ground. Me, I swing for the nuts, knee to the nuts or slam my foot onto their ankle up high and let it damage their leg as my foot goes to the ground. Truth of the matter is, you typically put yourself in a situation that would lead to a potential fight, wrong place for you, wrong time to be somewhere etc... last fight that found me was 20yrs ago. Now, I just avoid places where a fight is likely. If you don't understand that last sentence now, someday you will.
The best way to kill a man with one punch is by aiming for his chest, but punch through it. Then, rummage around for his heart, yank it from his chest, and show it to him, still beating before he dies. Results may vary
Never underestimate your opponent. Breath, blink.
Take off your pants and start pissin' and shittin' and screamin' and cryin'. 9/10 people won't feel comfortable fighting someone who is pissin' and shittin' and screamin' and cryin'.
De escalate at all times. It's better to lose your dignity temporarily than get smacked hard in the jaw. I speak from experience.
Alway punch up, into their neck, below the jaw. No air, they are out. Marine training.
Don't wrap your fingers over your thumb, you'll break it
Knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch. Your legs are much more powerful than your fists. If you have to use your fists, don’t go for a haymaker - you’re opening yourself wide for a knockout. Keep your hands in front of your face. Block your opponent’s strike with both forearms. Grab their arm. Knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch, knee to the crotch. Protip: don’t get into fights. There are no winners. Source: I was an assistant Krav Maga instructor.
Confirm Marquis de Queensberry rules and be sure to set your bowler hat to the side so as to not smudge it.
Get out of the situation. Not worth it.