In physical confrontations with mortal risk, the only self-defense measure or martial art approach that matters is unrestrained ‘dirty fighting’.
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.” -Mark Twain
From as early as our ancestral caveman days, humanity has hurt and killed each other for gain, pleasure or out of necessity. Fighting, defensive or offensive is our oldest skill, not much different than any other animal – the most natural skill.
Animals aren’t restrained by arbitrary rules or hindered by the concept of right and wrong or societal consequence. They fight dirty through the instinctive nature to survive at all cost, because they have to.
Even as civilized humans, we should defend ourselves equally unrestrained, brutally but methodically if our life was dependent on it. As the most sentient species, it’s logical and appropriate that our instinct for survival is just as strong as any lesser organism.
Dirty fighting or fighting dirty is a method of unconventional close quarters combat with none of the restrictions typically found in organized fighting:
-Improvised Weaponry
-Eye Gouging
-Elbow Hits
-Spitting
-Crotch Shots
-Kidney Shots
-Throat Shots
-Knee Shots
-Preemptive Attacks
-Biting
-Choke Holding
-Hair Grabbing
Most of those combat tactics are for good reason, prohibited in legitimate sport fighting as well as friendly sparring – dirty fighting has no place in such venues.
If you’re about to be assaulted and escape is not an option, those dirty (but situationally justified) fighting tactics should be executed with extreme prejudice.
There’s a difference between “fighting to win” and “fighting to kill”, or in this case “fighting to survive”. The concept of “winning” makes it seem like a game or a match, and those things have rules and limitations.
This makes the art of dirty fighting naturally basic.
For the warriors in us, it’s easier to let the beast out, but for everyone else it needs to be triggered by an extreme catalyst such as an imminent threat of harm
This “beast”, while retaining a conscious and level head should embrace the animal within and fight as if your life depended on it, because it does.
“I like a man who grins when he fights.” -Winston Churchill
/// The Art of Dirty Fighting
[The featured photo was taken in Amsterdam, Netherlands.]
6 Comments
Great article. “All is fair in love and war”…
I think it’s all the media from boxing, martial art competitions and even MMA that makes us think dirty fighting is never okay. But I think if your life literally depended on it, then hells yes it is.
Does this mean you’ll be starting a new series on how to fight, I can get behind that.
My momma always told me if I get cornered by a skeezy man, kick him in the nuts as hard as I can then run as fast as I can.
You mentioned Elbow hits and Chokes, MMA allows for both, and its probably one of the more popularised international sports next to Kick boxing, and Boxing.
Eye pokes, crotch shots, and spitting all seem pretty dirty and on a street fight would be useful if you didn’t know a serious martial art like BJJ or train in MMA.
You stand a better chance training in a real world self defense like BJJ, Muay Thai, or Greco Wrestling… As long as the fight is a 1-to-1 game. Any more than 1 opponent and the situation changes.