I’ve been training since I was 16, mid 30s now. Been in a fair few fights when I was younger.
When I was 24 I got into an avoidable fight with a drunken acquaintance outside a pub – he was threatening one of my close friends, I told him to back off and he turned on me and I essentially agreed to fight him.
He was terrible, no skill what so ever. Throwing wild haymakers I would slip and counter then disengage to outside of the pocket. Then kind of rinse and repeat.
My ego got the better of me and I started to fuck around – spinning shit, backfists etc.
He was getting very frustrated that he couldn’t hit me and was being toyed with. Tackled me onto the hood of a car, and started bouncing my head between fist and bonnet. Last thing I remember is someone saying “get him off my car!”
He ended up KOing me, lifted me up when the person yelled at him, I was out on my feet, he hit me one more time and I fell backwards hitting my head on the gutter.
I woke up lying in a massive pool of blood (from head to toe, I noticed because my socks were wet with it and when I lifted my hand up my arm was completely red) with friends around me and my girlfriend holding a towel to my head, being told to not move and an ambulance was coming.
Started having a fit in the ambulance, was experiencing blood loss from the hole in my skull. Began fearing I was going to die. At the hospital I don’t remember much except lots of people rushing around me, doing things to me, being shoved into machines, crying because I thought I was going to die. Had surgery, woke up days later.
I spent a while in hospital – I fractured my skull, had a hematoma on my brain, and could’ve easily died that night all because of a stupid fight that could’ve been avoided.
Three months later the guy I fought with had a beef with me because the cops were pressing charges, he paid some guys to do a home invasion with baseball bats on my house while I was asleep. Luckily my dog helped me scare them off.
I spent years w PTSD from the two events, still trained which helped me process it all and am a much better person today because of it. Haven’t been in a fight since.
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Don’t fight on the street, it’s way too easy to die even if you’re trained.
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If you HAVE to fight, don’t fuck around because you’re better than your opponent.
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Fights don’t always end when the fight ends.
– Discojam
Theodore Lee is the editor of Caveman Circus. He strives for self-improvement in all areas of his life, except his candy consumption, where he remains a champion gummy worm enthusiast. When not writing about mindfulness or living in integrity, you can find him hiding giant bags of sour patch kids under the bed.