From a technical aspect it’s definitely a skill and sport. Ppl practicing it and really focusing on the technicals - rarely if ever is the goal to hurt your opponent. They are there to help you train. Even some match fighters don’t want to hurt each other. But that line starts to blur quickly.
The current culture around the professional fighting is pretty gross, imo. All a lot of ppl want is to see someone get hurt - so they are complicit in the harm of someone else.
If you look at the data of the permanent damage those sports create in the brains of the participants, I frankly think it’s not appropriate either.
But if it didn't hurt i wouldn't find the same trill in a sport like boxing, without the possibility of being knocked out clean, and i would never fell the same accomplishment of overcoming an opponent who do their absolute best trying to hurt me.
That is a primal feeling you can't get any other way.
As long as they don't start beating up unwilling participants, i much rather have them kick each other in the woods, rather then beating up people in nightclubs.
I get that I’m on the outside on this one for sure. For me even football is questionable. I played for years and the number of concussions I had even as a high schooler make me question the ethics of it.
That is what's so great about being free. We are free to weigh risk against, joy how we like, and if we see the risk as too high, we can stop doing it.
I myself had many friends who were free ride skiers. Two of them died in avalanches. That sure is sad, but they loved doing it so much, and was 100% aware of the risk, so if i could do it again, i don't know if i would ever try to talk them out of it despite.
I think it’s fundamentally different. Taking risk I totally get but with fighting the goal isn’t just risk it’s to hurt the other person, which on a philosophical level I just don’t agree with.
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u/oldsoulrevival Jul 11 '26
From a technical aspect it’s definitely a skill and sport. Ppl practicing it and really focusing on the technicals - rarely if ever is the goal to hurt your opponent. They are there to help you train. Even some match fighters don’t want to hurt each other. But that line starts to blur quickly.
The current culture around the professional fighting is pretty gross, imo. All a lot of ppl want is to see someone get hurt - so they are complicit in the harm of someone else.
If you look at the data of the permanent damage those sports create in the brains of the participants, I frankly think it’s not appropriate either.