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Fighting in the street is something that should be avoided at all costs. Even among trained martial artists, the risk is far too great. There are often no rules on the street, and it is common for a one-on-one street altercation to escalate into multiple opponents, or even weapons being used. Rorion Gracie famously said, “Nobody is punch proof.” You can say that even more emphatically about weapons.
This video of a crazy road rage incident involving a trained martial artist, took place on April 21st, 2017, in the United Kingdom. It was covered widely in print and television news (for example, Daily Mail, Express, The Independent, Metro, Mirror) when it happened. In the original, you can hear people in the vehicle filming the action calling the police and ambulance to come and help.
This version has a lively voiceover from Rener Gracie.
The Breakdown
Two cars are stopped, one behind the other, at a junction. The driver of the front car exits his vehicle, and removes a baseball bat from his trunk; let’s call him Batman. He moves forward threateningly, while shouting, to the right (in the UK driver’s side) of the second car. The driver of the second car wisely stays in his vehicle, but when the Batman swings it into his car, he evidently can’t take any more.
The man steps out of his car, wearing, appropriately, a white hat. He confronts Batman, avoids a swing with adroit distance management, and knocks him down and out cold with a straight right. Simultaneously, the passenger of the first vehicle exits and tries to take White Hat down with a rugby tackle; we’ll call him Eleanor Rugby.
The usefulness of knowing how to strike was on full display here. Had White Hat not stopped Batman near instantly, he would be facing two attackers, one of them armed. However, he still has Rugby slamming him into a car, repeatedly.
White Hat resists the takedown, and then reverses, taking it down to the space between the two vehicles, and off camera. Suddenly the two reappear as the attacker tries to rise, but now White Hat is sinking a Short Choke. In under five seconds, Batman is out; while this is quick for a choke, the man had no experience, and was doubtless highly adrenalized, and exhausted from the burst of action trying to take White Hat down.
Batman remains unmoving where he fell.
With his white hat never having fallen off, White Hat trots back to his vehicle, and drives over the curb to escape the car in front of him. That car is going nowhere, as both attackers remain incapacitated.
This could well have gone the other way, with the man being beaten into a coma. So it shouldn’t be taken as a roadmap for what to do. The man was able to drive around the car after the fight, so should have been able to do that before, too.
Still, that was very, very cool to watch.
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