Sunday, June 17, 2012

The Myth Of The Fair Fight: How Urijah Faber Learned This The Hard Way

Urijah Faber is the most popular UFC fighter who has never won a title in the promotion.  With that laid-back California accent, mellow demeanor, and sense of humor, it's not to hard to understand why the UFC uses him so much to promote the organization.  I haven't even seen one of his full fights yet and I'm a fan, which is why I was shocked to discover that, several years ago, he was in a street fight in Bali.

I read about this in his book titled "The Laws Of The Ring."  Basically, he was hanging out with some European girls at a bar, when one of the local males rammed him with his shoulder.  As Urijah put it, this guy was a male escort trying to hustle wealthy foreign ladies, and he mistakenly thought Urijah was trying to steal his potential clients.  Anyway, being drunk, Urijah challenged him to a fight.  They went outside and the California Kid stomped him.  Then all of the escort's homeboys jumped in with brass knuckles and broken bottles.  Urijah spent the rest of the night fighting for his life, not only in the street, but back through the bar, in a store, and only got away thanks to the help of a sympathetic cab driver and some bystanders who turned out to be Good Samaritans.  Basically, he found out the hard way that, in real life, fair fights almost never happen. 

The fact is, if someone has a beef with you in real life, all they care about is teaching you a lesson.  Most people don't care about honor or fairness.  They care about taking you out in the most efficient way possible.  In other words, if you tangle with one guy, rest assured that he is going to come back at you with his brother, his cousin and his best friend.  If this happens Stateside, at least one of them is going to have a gun.  This is why, if you are challenged by someone, you're better off backing down.  You don't know who that person is, who they're with, or what they're packing.  They could be an off-duty cop.  They could be out on the town with a gang of fifteen guys.  They might have an arsenal of AR-15s in the back of their SUV.  It's tempting to want to "be a man" and slug it out, but at what cost?  A living chicken is better off than a dead duck.

Faber learned this the hard way, and emphasizes in his book that it's important to be the bigger man and walk away.  Be sure that you take his word for it, because you might not be so lucky.  Unless your life is in danger, if someone challenges you to a fight, walk the heck away!       

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