Sooner32

Just because you define "fighting" as a life or death struggle does not mean that everyone else goes by your definition when having a conversation. Most people that view any sort of grappling or pugilistic contests refer to them as "fights"....thus the question "did you see the fights last night", or "did you get tickets to the fight?"
Your analogy of fencing/sword fighting compared to boxing/fighting is just this side of retarded. Fencing is not meant to inflict pain at any point, while boxing is meant to inflict pain, either by one massive blow, or a slow beating over a number of rounds.
Every form of fighting discussed on here has rules attached. That is part of what makes them interesting to watch.

hurrakane212

One member was challenging another, didn't sound frendly either. So I made a few observations about the differences between fighting for "real" and fighting for fun... having trouble with the semantics?

My analogy was "this side of retarded" because in fencing the point isn't to cause pain... so all the other points where my analogy is dead on means nothing because of the lack of pain?
The dodging, fenting, parrying, strategy, and execution in fencing must have no relation to actual swordfighting, or have no parrallels to boxing/ fighting either.
Are you familiar with SAT style analogies? Kitten is to Cat as.... (answer Child is to man, nut is to tree etc)
In that format, fencing is to swordfighting as boxing is to streetfights.
My apologies if you can't seem to grasp the logical porgression, I will try to use little words for those on the "other" side of retarded...~Nathan

Sooner32

Yes, all your other points mean nothing because there isnt any pain involved. Dodging, thrusting, and the like really are meaningless if there is not a penalty to pay.
Playing poker w/ fake chips is not playing poker....you know why????? it doesnt hurt to lose.
Boxing or wrestling is still fighting because you can get your ass torn up doing it...and thats kind of the point of the whole thing....beating the other guy down, using whatever set of rules are in place.
Stay in school

AtomDanger

[quote=jamlena]
Ehh, the early forms of MMA have you beat.

Mixed martial arts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"One of the earliest forms of widespread unarmed combat sports with minimal rules was Greek pankration, which was introduced into the Olympic games in 648 B.C"

hurrakane212

Actually, you are mistaken... you are still (by your own semantics) "playing" poker. Concequences are not necessary to the playing, they just make the play more interesting. You are still using cards, still using strategy, still abiding by the rules of poker. Thus, Playing poker. You might not be as careful if you are not playing for keeps (my point about boxing/MMA) but you are still playing. Of course some people play for the sake of competitiveness and pride so there is a concequence to losing even if there is no physical pain.
I don't mean to offend (as a matter of fact I was a bit pissed during writing the last post and I apologize), but your thinking is a bit one demensional. Try and see if you can understand where I am coming from on this.~Nathan