Web Brawlers

Having a broken foot means I spend more time on the Internet. Recently, I've discovered fight sites. These websites feature videos of people fighting. Some contests are staged but most show fistfights in parks, alleys and streets.

As you might guess, combatants are usually young males. There are one-punch knockouts, sucker punches, painful beatdowns, group battles and a few really good fights where both parties go at it hard with some know-how. An archive of blog CityRag featured a fight linkfest.

Lots of headlocks along with the perennial favorite of climbing atop your opponent and punching him in the face until he quits.
A surprising number of girl fights. Girls go for the hair, gripping it like C-clamps. They will sometimes pause in the middle of a punch-up to taunt or insult one another.

There was a muscular black guy named Kimbo who came across as a semi-pro, bareknuckle fighter. I saw him in a few videos. He traveled with a crew, changed shoes before a fight, and wore a mouthguard. Kimbo kept his arms up and his feet moving. He hit hard, klonking one opponent with an uppercut that laid the guy out in a parking lot. But Kimbo was nothing if not a good sport, wishing his foe well and checking to see he was Okay.

My fighting years are long past. Nowadays, when trouble threatens, I drop a twenty-dollar bill and run.

Or hobble briskly.