how long do fights last?

[WildWest.]

I agree with blitz.
One on one or two on one shouldnt' last longer than 10 - 20 seconds, If you are evading around a bit then maybe 60 seconds absolute maximum. By then somebody should be out of commission or somebody has run away. An hour is just fantasy.

[bigred389]

Re-reading, I just realized how absolutely ridiculous one hour sounds.

How many PRO matches do you see go for one hour? And those things are DESIGNED to have longer than necessary fights.

Jeez...just try hitting a heavy bag for an hour straight...

[BoarSpear]

I was wondering how long it was gonna take you guys to wake up and smell the bullshit

[WildWest.]

It reminds me of the "how-fit-do-you-need-to-be-to-survive-a-street-fight" myth that was around when I first started training in Martial Arts back when I was 12.
People then used to tell me you need to train 8+ hours a day 7 days a week just to survive several seconds of a street fight.....who are we supposed to be fighting here?? a demi-god??

Looks like some people here still live in movieland.

[treelizard]

It reminds me of the "how-fit-do-you-need-to-be-to-survive-a-street-fight" myth that was around when I first started training in Martial Arts back when I was 12.
People then used to tell me you need to train 8+ hours a day 7 days a week just to survive several seconds of a street fight.....who are we supposed to be fighting here?? a demi-god??

I think being fit definitely increase your chances, though--fighting does take a lot out of you.

[Thai Bri]

Each fight is different. But if you know what you are doing you should be able to finish someone off the instant before they realise it has started.

Failing that they still should be quick. Real fighting is a sprint, not a marathon. Sports fighters are inhibited by rules and learn to pace themselevs. In a real fight you should go all out for a quick victory.

They may well drag on though if things go to the ground. people can get locked into a stalemate. So learn escapes!

Gang fights? Watch them closely. Amongst all the posturing and shouting there are rarely any effective fighting techniques used at all. They're often merely half hearted pushes and punches with a lot of running about. So these things can go on a long time.

[WildWest.]

Certainly you should have some degree of physical fitness, but then if we're all MA practitioners then we should have more than enough fitness to last a quick street fight.
I definitely agree with Thai Bri, a street fight should be a sprint. Everything you do should be hard and fast and as many times as necessary. Not only are sport fighters inhibited by rules they also wear nice padded gloves and getting hit by bare knuckles/palm/elbow etc is a little different. That's not to say it doesn't hurt get hit by a gloved punch...it's just different.

[Thai Bri]

On a side note there is a convincing point of view that boxers would be safer with lighter gloves on, rather than heavier gloves.

Heavy gloves allow for a large amount of brain cell killing blows..... whereas the bouts involving small/no gloves are over very quickly. Hence less cumulative brain cell destruction.

[WildWest.]

That's an interesting observation....is it better for your brain to get KO'ed quickly compared to being beaten into a KO?

[J-Luck]

It all depends on the situation. The biggest gang fight I have seen(the one I talked about in the previous post) lasted a good hour from the two dudes seeing each other and fighting, untill shots were fired and the state troopers and prov police came in. When PSB and OR had hundreds of people there... probably only ten minutes... but it was more of a riot than a fight.

I think the most common fight lasts 10-20 seconds. Dude gets hit when he aint lookin and gets stomped and kicked for a couple seconds.

[gabbah]

That's an interesting observation....is it better for your brain to get KO'ed quickly compared to being beaten into a KO?

I think so. The latter shakes your brain many times. The former does it once and you're out. But hey, I'm no doctor either.

[bigred389]

What I remember is this:
When hit by a gloved fist, even square on...unless it particularly jars something out of place(ie jaw/chin shot) nothing feels broken, there's not a massive overwhelming feeling of pain. In fact, what makes it suck so much is a momentary fuzzy feeling when your mind basically goes stupid...kinda like trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
Kinda reminds me of Dumog takedowns, except without the "fuzzy" part.

When hit by a bareknuckled haymaker...I saw stars...constellations of em. Massive sensory overload...every neuron screaming at your brain...there's no fog...it's more like so many things are firing off at once you can't figure out what the hell just happened...whereas with a gloved fist it's more like you're confused simply b/c you think your mind blanked for a split second.

That's just my experiences...of course other people may have different ones, and I guess it also depends on your condition when hit and (just as important)who's hitting you...

Edit note: I know we've got some boxers/Thai boxers here...I'd love to see what you guys have to say on the experience of getting bonked in the head.

[J-Luck]

What I remember is this:
When hit by a gloved fist, even square on...unless it particularly jars something out of place(ie jaw/chin shot) nothing feels broken, there's not a massive overwhelming feeling of pain. In fact, what makes it suck so much is a momentary fuzzy feeling when your mind basically goes stupid...kinda like trying to figure out what the hell just happened.
Kinda reminds me of Dumog takedowns, except without the "fuzzy" part.

When hit by a bareknuckled haymaker...I saw stars...constellations of em. Massive sensory overload...every neuron screaming at your brain...there's no fog...it's more like so many things are firing off at once you can't figure out what the hell just happened...whereas with a gloved fist it's more like you're confused simply b/c you think your mind blanked for a split second.

That's just my experiences...of course other people may have different ones, and I guess it also depends on your condition when hit and (just as important)who's hitting you...

Edit note: I know we've got some boxers/Thai boxers here...I'd love to see what you guys have to say on the experience of getting bonked in the head.

Wow... not too many people get hit THAT hard... I hope you're ok...

The point is with the gloved fist... you can take the shots... you feel ok... and you take 5-10-15... and so on. With the bare knuckle, you take 1-2 big ones and it's over... no more brain rockin.

[bigred389]

Wow... not too many people get hit THAT hard... I hope you're ok...

The point is with the gloved fist... you can take the shots... you feel ok... and you take 5-10-15... and so on. With the bare knuckle, you take 1-2 big ones and it's over... no more brain rockin.

Lol, haven't eaten that many, and they can't have been too bad or I probably would have been absolutely KTFO.

I think we can all agree that the padding is, from observation, letting people eat more of what would be KO caliber shots.

I'd just like to know the medical/scientific reason it lets people stay conscious.
I mean when you think about it, in both cases, your head/brain case is getting jarred pretty damn hard...I don't think the padding of a glove is making a huge difference in that respect.
Which is why i don't think the KO effect (as far as RBSD goes) is isolated to the brain case jarring, which is how boxing coaches will instruct it(aim for the chin for the KO).

Another reason I think there are other factors involved is the difference in the result of the KO.
In boxing, a boxer who gets put down for the KO is done...I don't mean the guy who can't make it up from the count, I mean the guy who goes down hard with lights out. You don't see them recovering consciousness for a LONG time. He's suffering from the result of many consecutive sharp blows to his brain which have piled up...after a while his body probably just goes "Nuh uh, we're staying down on this one Balboa."

In MMA, even after a nasty GnP KO, you see them being revived and on their feet again within seconds a lot of the time. I honestly think there's something to the "sensory overload/pain" factor.
Too bad I don't have the background in bio to investigate further...

[gabbah]

Hitting the chin is not the same as hitting higher up on the head, jarring the brain. That can also cause a KO, but hitting the chin is a much easier way of getting the KO (demands less power), and AFAIK it's not because it rattles the brain. Instead it has someting to do with the jaw bone being connected near the balance centre at the ears... maybe somebody else can shed some light on this?
So it would seem to me that getting KOed from a clean jaw shot is much "healthier" than getting a shot to the temple that knocks you out. Or does the shot on the tip of the jaw actually shake the head a lot "rotation wise", thus causing the KO because of the brain being rattled?

Also, it's the shots you don't see coming that knock you out really easy.. they don't need much power at all.

I think my worst shot was in sparring, from a heavier guy. I was taking his heavy right hands on my guard all the time, because I saw them coming all the time. As he was throwing a fat one, I was backing away a little, and had my hand already on my forehead to take the shot. What do you think happened? Of course, another guy sparring bumps into me and I into him, I stop dead in my tracks and my guards falls down JUST at the right moment.. BAM! Right on my nose! For an instant, my knees buckle and everything almost goes completely black before I recover and see some stars.
After that my nose was a bit sore for a while. :P
That was with 10 or 12oz gloves btw.