Fights you've been in and how you felt about them

[ManWithAPlan]

I'm just gonna say it right now, this thread isn't meant to turn into a dick-measuring contest.


the last fight i've been in was a long time ago, actually. I always remember it because i came close to killing someone.

The short end of it is, i was stuck somewhere i didn't want to be playing basket ball with a group of guys, one of whom i really did not get along with.

He started talking crap (as he would always do) and i decided, in a fit of rage, to teach him a lesson. I ended up picking him up upside down and holding him over the concrete... i had him a few inches above the ground and i could have smashed his head in.

What's remarkable is, i never felt remorse about it (no i didn't kill him), but i can't say i felt pride about it...

this is back when i was just starting highschool by the way...

[Mantus]

Hmm. Not really a philosophy forum thread but I'll indulge.

My last fight was in grade 6. Which was some 12 years ago. There was a kid who used to bug me. One day I got pissed of and picked a fight with him. No one really won, we just wrestled around and while I was faster he was stronger. But I think if it kept going I would have been on the short end of the stick. I don’t remember if it prooved effective at stopping him from bothering me.

That was the last physical fight I had.

[mcovey]

when i was in highschool my mexican roommate had his freinds in and one of them challenged me to a no holds barred wrestling match. I'm 200lb and this guys a skinny mexican, maybe 150lb.

So he grappled with me for a moment, then I put 1 arm under his crotch and one on his shoulder and flipped him upside down, and then slammed him onto the bed, and he says "that was nothing i was not ready" so we did it again, this time I let him hit me in the stomach (which hurt -- pointy hands) before I took his arm and put it over my shoulder, then did the other and sort of force-piggybacked him around the room before i flipped him over me onto the floor. then he said OK i won but only because he was tired.

[ManWithAPlan]

the philosophy, mantus was in "how you felt about it".

how did you feel hurting someone or being hurt?

Fight Club, Tyler Durden: "How much can you know about yourself if you've never been in a fight?"

[Manic_Skafe]

I was in highschool and this kid found it rather funny to harass me simply because I wasn't the most sociable of people. I was ony my way down the stairs and about halfway down the stair case I feel hands pushing me from behind. Luckilly enough, I grabbed the handrail in time and saved myself from falling. As we got to the landing he opened his mouth to speak and I hit him in the face as hard as I could...he was on the floor and I was repeatedly punching him in the teeth until my hands hurt too much to continue...I doubt he'll ever attract a woman with his smile ever again.

That made me realize that when I get that angry I act without considering the consequences and that can be very dangerous to me and other people. Since that day I don't think I've ever been that angry.

[ManWithAPlan]

to date, the person who can piss me off more than anyone, is my mother:-D

i love her but she really doesn't know when to stop sometimes, and then she strikes a nerve that makes me go psycho.

[braindamage351]

I've honestly never gotten into a real fight in my life. I guess I just don't inspire those kinds of feelings in people.

[ManWithAPlan]

the key to everything is strong will and strong character=)

[kurty[B]]

I used to have a short temper, my last fight was in high school. Like ManWithAPlan, we were playing basketball at the park. I forget how it started, seems rather trivial now. I do remember tripping him, and him landing a punch. All I know is he somehow pushed me past my limit, and I didn't stop till he stopped trying to get up. I remember how bloody we both were. I've never lost my temper since, and if I do get that angry I'll go for a long long walk now instead of taking it out on anyone. The scary thing is realizing how when I lose control I'll resort to any means to "defend myself or those I love", if you can call it that.

[ManWithAPlan]

i think it's perfectly acceptable to use violence to defend yourself or someone close to you

[kurty[B]]

yeah, but it's scary realizing what you're capable of.

I was at a party a while ago, and things between one group of people and I deteriorated quickly (because of what another person's wife said to me), and this very large (possibly 300 pound) man started threatening me. I was just thinking in my mind what nearby object I would grab to bash his head in if he decided to try and physically harm me.

I don't like having those thoughts.

[ManWithAPlan]

when someone threatens you, threaten them back, and make explicit comments on what you're going to do. (cut open your stomach with a kitchen knife and strangle you with your intestines)

that usually gets people to shut up.

[kurty[B]]

yeah, but when you're the only one on your side, and her whole husband's family is looking at you like they're waiting for an opportunity to lynch you and bury you in the backyard. I was waiting for the invite to take the discussion outside one-to-one before I made any threats, plus wasn't my home, and I told the man (I like to call him Chubs) that I wasn't leaving till the owner's of the home asked me to leave, or I felt comfortable leaving (I was very drunk at the time).

Normally, I'm the one keeping my friends out of fights, well, not anymore, I've stopped hanging out with that crowd of people who comes back to work the next week with bruises and black eyes and a pathetic story about a fight they got themselves involved in that they are not sure how it even started.

[ManWithAPlan]

someone once told me, "life's all about how you sell yourself".

like it or not, it's very much true. the value of a member of society is decided upon by a concensus of the remaining members of the society. in other words, you can be anything others believe you to be.

if you can make people afraid of you, you can control them without posessing any real problem:-)

[TheKak]

I beat up a few people in 6th grade who were either picking on me or my friends, never had any more problems in Middle school, with the exception of the occasional brawl from the "regulars" (people I fought with often). In the first year of high school I beat up like 4 people, and I only had to fight one more time after that in all 4 years of school. All my fights were either self defense, or defense of others that would just let peoiple push them around because they were freshmen. Most of the time people would never show up to fights when they said they would, which to me shows that guys in general don't like backing down to someone's face (machoism?), but don't REALLY want to fight.


(As a side note, I have been doing martial arts for about 9 years, and though I enjoy fighting I don't enjoy hurting people, I only take it as far as it has to go)

[kurty[B]]

Originally posted by ManWithAPlan
if you can make people afraid of you, you can control them without posessing any real problem:-)

Gain a person's respect though, and they'll usually do what you ask. Eventually if they are simply afraid of you they'll withdrawal themselves, or retaliate.

[ManWithAPlan]

fear and oppression are different things. if people are afraid, but they know that their fear is conditional and not 'living', then they don't need to lash out.

just like a hot stove. it's hot, and if you touch it you get burned, but you know that as long as you don't touch it, there's no problem.

[kurty[B]]

no wonder I have so many burn marks on my hands!

[khuct]

umm last fight i've had was last year, around late January. It was in a fight club and I got my ass whooped and broke my dominant hand (left) and had surgery on it...sucks ass and haven't been in a fight since...

[ManWithAPlan]

how can you fight someone that you're not mad at?

[Kalibah]

I dont take the first swing but beyond that ..... its all fair




Ever seen coolhand luke? Just dont know when to give up

[KellyC]

Fortunately for me, I've been able to use word as my medium of mediation. Therefore, no *real* fights have occured.

[corybmcfly]

Originally posted by khuct
umm last fight i've had was last year, around late January. It was in a fight club and I got my ass whooped and broke my dominant hand (left) and had surgery on it...sucks ass and haven't been in a fight since...

I was wondering if anybody was ever going to fess up to getting their ass whooped! Kudos!

As for me, I've never been in a major brawl. I had fights as a kid which always ended before blood was drawn, so I guess I've never really been in a real fight. If I got into a fight against anybody with some background, skill or training, I'd probably get whooped too.

[ManWithAPlan]

when my friend wrestled (although he was bad he was able to beat me, who had no wrestling experience) he'd often get bored and decide to wrestle me... sure he'd win seeing as how he's the worst on the wrestling team... i don't really consider them fights, since if i really wanted to i could have just kicked him once and set him down for the count.

[Seer666]

I've been in a few fights. Not for a great many years. Got my ass stomped a couple times, did the stomping a couple times. One fight sticks out, because it end with me literaly jumping up and down on the guys chest. I though I killed him. Still don't know for sure. I asume not because there wasn't anything about a body being found. While I was scared as hell after the fact, and I don't like the idea that I might have taken a life, I can't say I would do much differnt. I was not seeking a fight, did not start it, but this guy seemed to want it. Even if I didn't kill the moron, at least he should think twice about starting with strange people ever again. I also hold the veiw that some people just need to be killed for the good of hte rest of us, so that might have something to do with my lack of overwhelming remorese.

[repeater]

Just out of curiousity? Have any women here been in fights? It seems like all men.

I was in one fight in middle school. He ran away crying. Since then I've always been able to talk my way out of fights. Last year I saw my friend who is even weaker than I am about to get his ass kicked by some skinhead at a party so I brought the attention on myself instead. At one point his hand was around my throat, but eventually I talked my way into him trying to give me CDs to listen to. I know I'd get my ass kicked in pretty much any fight, so I guess it's good that I can talk my way around them.

[ManWithAPlan]

life's also all about hwo you sell yourself... if you make people afraid of you, they won't pick fights.:-)

[whocarz]

My last fight was over a year ago. My friend and I were going home after we saw Terminator 3. I was driving. While driving, I exchange words with this asshole. He indicates that he wants to fight and we pull off the road. We both jump out of our cars and charge each other. We hit each other a few times, then he lands a real good hit on me and lays me out. I hit the cement and he jumps on me, pummeling my face. My friend goes to pull him off of me, but the guy's friend stops him and tells him to "let them finish". The guy gets off of me, but I'm not done yet. I get up and try to keep fighting him. By now he's probably wondering what the fuck is my problem. Then his friend get's a skateboard out of their car and comes after me with it. I run back to my car and grab my knife, trade a blow or two with the dude, and eventually chase them off.

The kicker is this: I don't remember a thing. Not a single fucking thing. What I remember is driving down the road, then all of a sudden, I'm pulling up to my friend's house, and he's asking me a bunch of questions. I feel numb and my head is all foggy. Then my friend relays to me what happened. We come to the conclusion that I must have suffered a mild concussion when my head hit the ground. Falling from 73 inches off the ground will do that I guess.

Then, who happens to turn onto the street? That's right, the fucking cops. Shit. Two cruisers pull up and ask me to step out of the car. They see my face looking like hamburger and know they got their man. Someone had called the cops and reported my license plate. They call an ambulance and I get my first ride to the hospital, even though I didn't want to go. The guy gives me oxygen, then trys to run an IV drip on me. No way, I tell him I don't want that shit, you aren't sticking needles in my veins. After about an hour, complete with a CAT scan, they say I'm fine (I got a hard head). A cop comes by and gives me a ticket for "Unlawful Display of a Weapon" but says the judge will take a look at my face and go easy on me. I pay the 100 dollar co-pay and leave.

The damage report: My face had numerous cuts and I had a massive bump on the back of my head where it hit the street. My lower right canine tip was broken off and my body ached dully. You might think this is the end of the story, but no, it gets better.

The court date is a month later. By this time my face is fully healed. Standard assembly line justice, judge reads report, you say your piece, he passes judgement, the end. I'm there for about an hour, and I want to leave. I finally get called up, he summarises what happened, I pled guilty (ignorance is a wonderful thing) and he fines me 500 dollars (out of a possible 1000 dollar fine) on top of a 50 dollar court fee and gives me 10 days in jail. He says he will waive the jail time as long as I don't do something similar for a year, but if I do, then I get mandatory jail time on top of whatever else.

Then the ambulance company calls me. They want 700 bucks, and threaten my credit rating. I tell them if they want their fucking money, talk to the cops since they ordered me to get into the ambulance. Thankfully I haven't heard back from them.

So my total comes to 650 dollars, oh and the court destroyed my knife, but it was ten bucks, I could give less of a shit. Worst fight I've had, and I've had a few. I don't start fights, I never have. I never throw the first punch. I however, have a hard time backing down. I have not once in my life backed down from physical violence. Normally I can scare most people into submission, but there are those that I will have to beat to calm them down. But there is always someone bigger and badder than you out there, and this guy was (according to what my friend said) taller and had bigger muscles than me. However, since I've stopped driving, I haven't gotten into a single violent confrontation, mainly because I'm not out on the road where tempers get heated. Not a single nasty word exchanged. I quite like that.

If you ever want to fight, come look me up. I'll oblige you.

[ManWithAPlan]

The kicker is this: I don't remember a thing. Not a single fucking thing. What I remember is driving down the road, then all of a sudden, I'm pulling up to my friend's house, and he's asking me a bunch of questions. I feel numb and my head is all foggy. Then my friend relays to me what happened. We come to the conclusion that I must have suffered a mild concussion when my head hit the ground. Falling from 73 inches off the ground will do that I guess.

sounds like butterfly effect..

as for the tooth, bah that sucks. i chipped my teeth a little while back, sometimes they still hurt

[whocarz]

It stopped hurting a long time ago. It felt funny for a couple months, but now it's normal to me.

[ManWithAPlan]

i chipped mine on a fork:-/

I've been in the martial arts for a long time, so I know what its like to get hit in a teaching environment, but for those who have done it, street fights are way different and bring up weird emotions. I haven't been in many "real" fights, but the ones I were in were justified, except the time this skinny goober jumped me on the way home from school, cops pulled us apart... Street fights bring up adreniline (obviously) plus add on fear, anger, pain, (more as time passes usually) Odd thing, justification... Guess that varies on your point of view as well. Best thing is to walk away, takes a stronger man to walk away. But if you can't walk away, make sure he doesn't either.

[ARTelevision]

After a youth spent fighting at least once a week, my college years were studded with frequent bouts of street-fights. No fights since graduate school.

I don't feel anything about them.
I spend almost no time at all thinking about my past. I almost never talk about it. It holds no interest for me.

[ManWithAPlan]

as elvis once said "i never looked for trouble, but i never ran"... i think that macho motto actually has something to it. if you back down once and give them a foot, they take a proverbial mile.

What i'm saying is, in my experience, if you back down once, people are gonna put you in the same situation again and take from you until you just can't let it go anymore.

[BoomTruck]

I never have got into a fight, although I prevented many from happening. (If you grab an angry friends belt and yank them back into a chair and say "Sit Down", they tend to listen.) Somehow I always managed to keep my cool for about 15 seconds longer than I needed to. There still are a few people I know that I wouldnt mind having a good excuse to attempt to change their attitudes. I just don't really want to because I have no idea how hard I can hit.

That, and my idea of a fair fight is one that I walk away from.

[ManWithAPlan]

i know how hard i can hit... punching bag 8-)

[BoomTruck]

I guess I did hit one thing in high school... An obnoxious ram out at the FFA farm that would attempt to knock anyone over who got in the pen that didn't give it powdered donuts (long story). He came running at me as a ram would, and I planted a size XL welding glove(complete with fist) squarely in the middle of it's forehead. It stung quite a bit, but I guess the ram considered me a worthy adversary and left me alone.