Fight to Win. Martin Dougherty

in the towel,” sometimes literally. This is one responsibility of the corner man—to surrender on behalf of a fighter who is too stubborn to give up but who is suffering unacceptable harm. Alternatively, the referee may stop a fight for various reasons. In a sporting bout, intervention is normally a matter of fighter safety and there are rules in place to govern this. As with tapping out or submitting in any similar manner, submitting in a sport bout is final; the fight is over and there is a clear winner.

      In a self-defense context, intervention can take many forms, not all of them useful. A fight between two individuals can be greatly complicated by bystanders or friends trying to separate the fighters or assist them. It is not uncommon for someone to get hurt because a well-meaning bystander or girlfriend was swinging on their arm trying to drag them away.

      Intervention can also take the form of security or police personnel arriving to deal with the incident, or passers-by deciding to join in. It is not uncommon for totally uninvolved people to run up and kick someone who is fighting or even lying helpless on the ground. This possibility for random intervention makes street fights, especially those that go to the ground, something of a gamble.

      In a sporting context, intervention normally takes the form of a coach or referee halting proceedings. When the guy in charge says it’s over, it’s over. Things are less clear-cut on the street.

      However, it is possible to use the intervention of others as a tool to end a situation. One of the few times when it is worth applying a restraint in a self-defense situation is when assistance is readily available. If an assailant can be restrained and handed over to police or security personnel, or if your friends are available to quickly dissuade him from continuing the altercation, then restraint may be a reasonable option. Otherwise, it is probably not a good idea unless the opponent is not much of a threat. The last thing you need is to be entangled with one opponent, trying to apply a restraint, only to be hit by one of his friends.

      Winning

      It is easy to think of “winning” a fight in terms of a clear-cut victory, but this is usually the case only in sporting bouts. In a self-defense context, “winning” is a more nebulous thing. It is more about you than the opponent, inasmuch as your goal is more likely to be to prevent yourself (or someone you want to protect) from coming to harm. It is not all that important how you achieve this, and indeed, a situation that involved you knocking the other guy clean out but taking a few shots into the bargain might be considered less of a victory than one where you were able to talk him down and never exchanged blows.

      Winning, as already noted, is a matter of ending the situation on the most favorable terms you can obtain. There are many routes to that goal. In a sporting bout you can win by knockout or submission, or by wearing the opponent down until he cannot go on any longer. You may even be able to induce him to do something that will get him disqualified, though this is a fairly hollow sort of victory. In any case, a winner will be announced so the situation is fairly clear-cut. In a self-defense situation, things are more nebulous. Winning can be achieved by many of the same methods, but there are victories to be won in other ways too. An opponent who is dragged off by nightclub security, or who allows his friends to persuade him that you are not worth it, will not trouble you any more so this can be considered a victory.

      The “fence” is used by security professionals worldwide. It is essentially a modified fighting stance designed to be non-threatening but to keep potential aggressors at bay while remaining ready to react if necessary.

      Often the psychological barrier of the fence posture is enough to deter an aggressor. If not, he can be pushed vigorously away with a firm command to keep his distance.

      Often, a potential aggressor can be deterred in this manner. If he comes back again after being pushed away, he is clearly determined to fight and must be dealt with accordingly.

      In short, it is necessary to understand what you are trying to achieve in order to have the best chance of victory. In a sports bout your aim will usually be to be declared the winner by the judges. In a self-defense context your goal is more likely to be to avoid coming to serious harm. If that is achieved by hurting the assailant, so be it, but knocking him out or whatever you must do to him is not the goal, it is merely an outcome. The goal is to get home safely, and so long as you achieve this then you have won.

      What Makes an Effective Fighter?

      Several factors, usually in combination, can make a fighter effective. There is no single formula for success; two equally good fighters may have entirely different advantages. However, the single overriding factor is mental rather than physical. It has many different names—guts, sand, heart, willingness, and élan to name a few—but what they all allude to is fighting spirit, the will to win, or, in some cases, sheer desperation.

      The adage that, “it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog” may be a bit trite, but it is true. A skilled fighter can be beaten by a drunk brawler who just keeps throwing haymakers; a determined assailant can be driven off by a small, weak person who refuses to give up.

      That said, will power alone does not guarantee success. Rather, it makes it possible. Without that will to struggle on and keep fighting, to risk taking painful blows or possibly being seriously hurt, it is not possible to defeat any but the most feeble opponent. Lack of will, or fighting spirit, can rob a fighter of a win in another way too; they may be unwilling to do what is necessary to complete the victory.

      Someone who is winning has less at stake than their opponent. For example, a fighter who has a dominant position and is struggling to apply a submission, or an assailant who is hoping to deliver a beating, has less incentive to keep going in the face of determined resistance than their disadvantaged opponent. The aggressor in a street assault has the choice of being able to break off any time they like. The defender often does not have this luxury. Likewise, someone trying to resist a submission does not have the option just to let go, but a fighter who is trying to apply one does.

      Many factors combine to create an effective fighter, but high on the list is a combination of good coaching and hours spent on the mat, learning what works and struggling through when everything goes wrong.

      If the defender is struggling hard and causing pain, he may cause an insufficiently determined opponent to back off. A given amount of pain may be entirely ignored when a fighter’s attention is focused on getting a choke off his throat, because there is a more urgent concern. However, it requires rather more determination to accept the same amount of pain when it is less necessary. A fighter who chooses to relinquish his submission attempt loses little if he retains a dominant position. He is still winning, so may choose to find a different avenue of attack if the present one is costing him too much.

      This factor is equally important to sporting and self-defense fighters. On the street, an assailant may decide that you are too much trouble. In the ring, it is sometimes possible to get out of a desperate situation by making the price tag for finishing you off a bit too high. Conversely, it is possible to lose a fight because you were not willing to accept the price of finishing it. An effective fighter weighs up the costs and the potential gains of his options—usually in a split second—and acts accordingly. He is willing to pay an affordable price to obtain a submission, but will not expose himself to the risk of unnecessary damage.

      This ability to make rational decisions mid-fight is another hallmark of the effective fighter. It is possible to win by blindly bulling through, a method that works well enough for many aggressive drunks. However, a skilled fighter can exploit an opponent who over-commits to the attack, and a tough one can often win simply by surviving long enough for the attacker to tire himself out with his constant