Of all the locations you could choose for a bare-knuckle fight, a concrete enclosure is right up there with the worst possible options, but health and safety seemed to be the last thing on the mind of the two men involved here.
This fight is believed to have taken place at a Gaelic handball court in Ireland, which presented a bleak backdrop for the action that was about to unfold between two men, identified as Charlie Ward and Ned Ward, though it’s not made clear exactly who is who.
The two appeared to be involved in a classic ‘straightener’ – a time-honored Gypsy culture tradition used to settle disputes by way of a one-off bare-knuckle fight, generally overseen by respected members of the community who would seek to ensure ‘fair play’ between them.
There was little to the early action here, as the two men cautiously sized other up from range, looking for the perfect moment to strike.
However, 90 seconds into the fight it suddenly crackled to life when the smaller man in the black tank-top landed a left at close range and then a right hand over the top that wobbled his blue-shirted opponent, followed up soon after with a straight left that dropped him.
One of the referees immediately helped blue-shirt back to his feet and checked to see if the dazed fighter was ok to continue. Meanwhile, his opponent was champing at the bit to get stuck in again and urged the officials to get out the way so they could get on with the fight.
Black-top then pressed forward and launched a hard one-two at his still stunned rival. His right hand connected cleanly and sent his opponent flying backwards, with his head making a sickening impact on the concrete wall behind him on the way down.
It was a brutal knockout, but remarkably when blue-shirt came too he groggily mumbled to the referees to let me up.
He was clearly still in a bad way though and couldn’t keep his legs under himself without the two men holding him up, and thankfully for the sake of his remaining brain-cells, the fight was then deemed to be over.
“>
This video serves as a reminder of just how potentially dangerous, and indeed life-threatening, the environment around you can be when you’re in a fight, and is yet another good reason to avoid getting involved in a physical altercation in the first place if you can possible avoid it.
