Worst beating I was involved in was back in high school, Bitburg Germany in the teen club. A couple friends and I were shooting pool and talking crap about some guy in our gym class. Little did we know one of his buddies was on the table next to ours. Soon as I turned my back to shoot this guy uses my head for batting practice with the pool Que. I was barely aware of the pummeling he administered directly after. My friend Art in an effort to distract John O threw a pool ball at him and hit him square on the top of head. John O went down like a rock and didn't awaken for 4days. Literally. He came so close to dying that he had been given last rites. Art really had no intention of hurting John that bad, just poor judgment in throwing the ball. Art spent the night in jail while I got 16 stitches and sent home. It took John a while to recover but did eventually. Even John admits that he didn't intend to hurt me as bad as he did it was just a case of three idiots demonstrating some very poor judgment.

Grant - your from Lowell and you never mixed it up? Even your native son Jack K pushed a few knuckles. You must gots some mean vibes or fast feet (most likely luck & good judgement).

If you really want to mess someone up, you sue them. Or sell them a 911 "project". :cool:

I am not very big..sorta old and dumpy looking. Big guys seem to like to pick fights with me....as I am obviously easy prey for them to prove they are macho. I am usually happy to oblige them. I even give them the first punch. My nose has been broken so many times it just sorta flattens out when hit...must be no solid material left in there. Strangely enough, the younger, bigger guys have no idea how to fight. They take the cheap shot ( a big round house) and give you their best punch in the face....then they just stand there waiting for you to fall down. If you don't go down...and usually their "big punch" wasn't all that....they are really slow and you can get in the next half-dozen punches before they realize they just got their ass kicked by a little, old, dumpy guy. Sometimes they start crying. It is hard to be merciful and not give them a real beating because of the pain from the first punch..and the fact that they took the cheap shot. It is the little wiry guys that I find difficult to take...they are fast, mean as hell, and are used to taking a lot of punches. Sometimes they bite.

My last serious fight was in 7th grade, I was pickin in this 5th grade kid I knew. He kicked my ass all over the street in front of all my friends. Needless to say i didnt show my face for a few days.:D Had a few scuffles in the past but usually try to avoid fights if I can.
It sounds like that plumber has been sniffing too much PVC cement!

Jesus, Fintstone, you're a mean little redneck. :D

Nah speedy....I never punch first..so I am not mean...maybe a redneck. Most think I am just a geek because I am well groomed, speak and dress rather well due to my education/position. People underestimate my physical condition and weight and size since I am only about 5'8' or so..but almost 190 lbs and no fat. Punks always punch first and they always go after the smaller guy (me)...so I have never had a problem with the law. I always try to let them back off...but they take that as a sign of weakness and then, like the bullys they are...really want to fight. I told a guy once to think it over...because after I beat him to a pulp...the cops would come and haul him away...adding insult to injury. He walked away. Even if he won, I would inflict a lot of damage and he would look like a prick attacking the smaller guy....so lose/lose for him.
When/where I grew up, although everyone had guns and knives by the score, noone would even think about using them to fight...That made fighting a relatively harmless event among young men...which happenned almost daily. Most fights were relatively fair and little blood was shed. Adults sorta looked the other way. It cleared the air..and you usually ended up as friends. Sure taught one the rudiments well though. Young men today rarely have a fist fight to settle things unless they are drunk. Their whole life they had to fear being kicked out of school, arrested, or killed by the other guy if they got in a fight. They cannot take a good punch and many fight like girls...Some are so darned big now (genetics? hormones in meat?) and expect that their size will automatically win out...and it would if they were skilled. Many think that what they see on TV is the proper way to do it...LOL. The most pathetic are the guys who had a bit of martial arts training and expect that to help. And it would if you cooperate and choreograph your moves for them and do it in slow motion. They are usually the worst unless they had doine a good deal of full contact work.

Both...is there some sort of dichotomy? Are these mutually exclusive in your mind?
You cannot picture a short, dumpy, older guy in a nice suit with a short haircut and clean nails?

sorry..edited while you were posting. I am pretty mild mannered and would never start a fight. I just refuse to be pushed around so some punk can get their jollies at my expense.

Last fight I was in was in High School, 11th grade. The 10th grade bully in my French class finally gual'd me into a fight.

I was a heavier kid, but in reasonable shape since I biked 10-20 miles a day. He was taller and more knowing in the fighting arts. He got in 1 good right cross to my nose, blood flowed, and I think he thought the fight was over. I tackled him and proceeded to try to break the concrete with his skull, until he gave up. Worked very effectively.

I was lucky we were never found out, since fighting was an expulsion offense. I was asked by one of the Library instructors if I needed help, or to go to the principal. I said no, since he was in much worse shape than I.

I never understood why I all of a sudden had the respect of all sorts of people. I am not into violence and abhor it. But I will not back down and will give it my all if needed.

Closest recently, about 5 years back, I was out with a girl and we were at a summer closed street bar band party. We're dancing and the a-hole hold a lit cigar with an inch of ash over her very light blond hair. I jumped off the street to where he was and proceeded to ask him WTF he was doing. He immediately backed down. Girl was impressed.

I wondered after that if I should find, and pay someone to "act out" so I can "shut them down" for the effect on my date. Sex and violence...

Seven years old, picked on by the local bully and came home crying often. My father asked me why I didn't hit back. The thought never occured to me. The next time he struck I knocked him down and never had a problem since. The moral of this story, Get your hits in early and coast the rest of the way.

;)

When I was a kid youd have to know the other kids fathers rank first. ***** run downhill if you know what I mean.

Almost happened today. I was out with my younger brother and all his biker friends. We walk into a bar that I would never go in by myself. I am walking back to the bathroom when, of course I knock over the beer of some young guy at the bar looking like he's been sitting there since breakfast waiting for someone, anyone to give him a reason to exsercise the arms he is proudly showing off on someones face. He jumps off his bar stool and glares at me.
Me: was that your beer?
Him: your f*&)%$$%#$@%^$&^)*& right it was!
Me: well I hope it was almost empty because whatever you where drinking I'm going to buy you a new full one!
Him: Duhhhhhhhhhhh
Me: Bartender please give this gentleman and his friend here another of whatever they are drinking?
I when to the bathroom came out paid for the beers and just to be safe moved to the other end of the bars and stood beside the two biggest (and nicest) friends my brother has.
Crap I'm in my fortys now and if I got in a fight my wife would never let me go ou and play any more.
Steved

Nearly yesterday...

Short on-ramp to 5 North...guy sees me coming up the on ramp, he decides I'm getting into HIS space. I see him race up, we go door to door as my lane goes away, mind you he has a full wide open lane next to him. Noone even close. I continue on down the emergency lane alongside him. Then I pull my foot out, drop behind, take the #2 lane and come along the driver's side. He's all animated and $hit, I just look at him. Of course his is the next offramp and he flips the bird as he exits...balls the size of BB's.
I'm stuck in a leg cast right now, but if I wasn't, I had enough room to fall in behind him and catch him at the end of the off ramp. Guy is in his mid 40's (hey wait, so am I)...he shouldn't be doing that $hit, there's plenty of guys out there who are just itching to put a cap in someone's a$$.

hey cowtown, its funny you mention that fight in sacramento, cause i actually know the guy who threw the punch that killed. i got most of the story and its pretty amazing, an argument with 4 guys, two each in two cars, spilled onto the street, when all four got out of the cars, it was pretty much a yelling match, with things looking like they were going to end, when the guy who was killed, decided to throw a punch for no reason. since he was drunk, it missed and the guy i know (not well mind you) hit him with a right cross that didnt do much damage, but the guy fell and hit his head on the sidewalk in just the right way, causing a hemmorage. the amazing thing is that the guy i know and his friend of course claimed self defense, but the other guys friend also held up their story of his friend swinging first, he is still going to jail, but no where near as long as he might have...pretty sad though, the guy i know does have a temper, but would never have tried to kill anyone, in fact after the first punch, they left, didnt try to continue hitting or anything, which still isnt an excuse

No fighting since I was 10 yo. What surprises me in all of this is that so many of you are such big sonsa*****es. I'm 6' tall and weight all of 160lb... and I probably fight like a girl (but I can probably run fast ;)).

Last fight was at the Southern 500, Darlington SC, in 1994. (yeah, I know, nastycar, but I was stationed in SC at the time, and tickets were provided free)

Anyhow, after the race, we were trying to get out of the parking lot, as we (two friends and I) are trying to squeeze into line, a car with tennesee plates zooms up and cuts us off.

Apparently (I found this out later, my parents retired to TN) in certain areas of TN, if you honk your horn at someone, it means you want to fight.

Driver of car jumps out and storms towards the passenger door (where I was sitting) leans down and sticks his head in the window and asks us if we want our asses kicked.

I put him in a modified headlock and jammed my thumb in one of his nostrils, and my middle finger in his other nostril, dug my fingernails into his septum and twisted. Yeah, it sounds strange, try it on yourself at home - it hurts like hell and makes your eyes water something fierce - makes it really hard to see.

Doofus starts yelling, eyes start tearing up, I explain to doofus that while I'm not sure where he comes from, but where I come from (Metropolitan Detroit) you never get confrontational with someone in another car, because you have even odds that they have a gun and will use it. I also told doofus that he should carry himself back to his car and continue to molest his sister or whatever else he does with himself before heading out to the track.

I removed my fingers from his nose, wiped the blood on his shirt and let him go. He mumbled a few things and went back to his car to tend to his bloody nose.

We pulled out behind him and tooted our horn when he turned left and we turned right.

AFJuvat

There was a recent article in the local paper about a fight. One guy got punched, fell to the ground, fractured his skull, and died. The other guy is going to jail, not murder one, but something substantial. Need anymore reasons NOT to get into a fight, especially in this day and age. Nobody is going to win.

Well, I didn't actually grow up there, I just live there now.
I've never found myself in a situation that warranted a fight. I certainly don't go looking for them, and for whatever reason people generally don't want to fight me.... I've never had anyone challenge me to a fight, not once in my entire life.
I learned what I know of fighting from many sessions fooling around in the backyard with my dad. FWIW, my dad is a West Point graduate, a vietnam vet, and most importantly for this discussion, a former Army Airborne Ranger. I feel fairly confident that, if the time came, I could take someone down in a fight. It would be dirty. Since I don't especially have the desire to injure anyone to the extent that I figure I could achieve, I've avoided situations that might lead to fisticuffs, because I wouldn't be holding back. I'm talking blood and guts and veins in my teeth....deep, dead burnt bodies....I mean kill...Kill....KILL!
FWIW, I'm also only 25....I've got plenty of virile fighting years to catch up to the rest of you.

I never started a fight, but have been involved in several. Hopefully, those days are over, but you just never know.
Injuries I have suffered in fights:
Broken hand--had it pinned for about 3 months
10 stitches in forehead--head went through window
black eyes
sprained ankle--bouncers at Hammerheads in VA Beach
Injuries I have inflicted in fights:
Broken nose
knocked out teeth
stitches in scalp
blood in urine--kidney damage?

PS--I know about the last 2, because when I was in the emergency room getting my stiches, the guy in the next treatement area was the opponent --and I was listening in.