Look, I wouldn't want to get in a fight with a Pro MMA Fighter. However, I'm tired of hearing about how MMA is the way to train for an actual violent criminal attack in the street.
First up, what a "fight" was like on the early 19th Century frontier under a No Holds Barred competitive fight. The description is pretty brief. An excerpt from Mark Hatmakers Blog.
A Bad Day in Georgia
The following excerpt is from Whitman Mead’s Travels in North America [1820.] The author refers to an incident he witnessed in 1817 while travelling though Georgia.
Such gatherings, according to Mead, occurred 2-3 times per week where folks would gather to fellowship, feast, drink, dance, gamble, exchange wares, and often following the ever-present horse-race a public challenge may be issued.
At which time:
“A ring is formed, free for anyone to enter and fight…After a few rounds, they generally clinch, throw down, bite and gouge, and the conquered creeps out under the ring as a signal of his submission.”
Mead tells of meeting several past combatants who had noses bitten off, eyes gouged out, and more than a few who had been castrated in such affairs. Many of these now unsavory tactics were not mere desperation moves in the heat-of-battle but sought for targets-of-acquisition with their own strategy and methods.
And now, a list of the all the Banned/Illegal Moves/Techniques in the UFC
1. Headbutting
2. Eye-gouging
3. Biting
4. Hair pulling
5. Fish-hooking
6. Groin attacks
7. Small joint manipulation
8. Rabbit punches
9. Downward Vertical elbows
10. Piledriving or Spiking an opponents head
11. Kicks/knees/stomps to the head of a grounded opponent
12. Shorts/gloves and fence holding
13. Throat strikes of any kind
14. Clawing, pinching, or twisting the flesh
15. Grabbing the clavicle
16. Kicking to the kidney with the heel
17. Throwing an opponent out of the rings or fenced area
18. Spitting at an opponent or the referee
19. Engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct that causes an injury to an opponent
20. Using abusive language
21. Avoiding contact with an opponent, dropping the mouthpiece, or faking an injury
22. Applying any substance that could result in an unfair advantage
23. Striking the part of the body just above the kidneys
This concludes our brief lesson in the differences between a modern day no rules fight, and what was considered 'de rigeur' on the Early American Frontier.
For a more detailed picture of of Early American Frontier style unarmed combat, see Elliot Gorn's essay
"Gouge and Bite, Pull Hair and Scratch"
The Social Significance of Fighting in the Southern Backcountry
https://ejmas.com/jmanly/articles/2001/jmanlyart_gorn_0401.htm
