UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor does most of his fighting in The Octagon, but if forced to defend himself, he will be okay.
“My top tips for winning a bar fight,” he began. “Like most self-defense situations it is about awareness. So be aware of your surroundings.
“Obviously if you can avoid the situation, avoid it and leave. If you are forced, where there is no going back, I would advise strike first, strike hard, and exit safely.
“James Bond had a quote – ‘ When you enter a room, be civil to everybody, but have a plan to kill each and every one of them.’
“That’s a KO win.”
So to sum up:
1. Be aware of your surroundings
2. Leave if you can.
3. Strike first, strike hard, then leave.
4. Be civil to everyone.
5. But have a PLAN TO KILL EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM.
Thanks to UGer Chuckliddellstein for the find!
There has even been a scientific study of bar fights, specifically, what makes people jump into one.
When does alcohol-fueled conflict merit intervention? Not as often as you might think, according to a recent study of third-party involvement in bar fights–only about a third of the time does a good Samaritan (or someone spoiling for a fight of their own) jump into the fray.
In an effort to examine what situations prompt uninvolved bystanders to step in during bar fights, a team of researchers led by Penn State sociologists examined 860 aggressive incidents in large Toronto bars over the course of 503 nights.
Trained observers were sent into bars in pairs, an average of 25.5 nights per person, to be on the lookout for any acts of physical aggression, unwanted physical contact or verbal insults. Any sort of conflict or dispute that made the participants angry or they took personally was recorded. (The observers got to order one drink per night so as not to be noticed as those creepy dudes taking notes at the bar.)
They found that one-third of barroom brawls garnered the attention and participation of a bystander, usually in a non-aggressive manner. Most (80 percent) of those that jumped in were male, and they were more likely to step in when both participants in the fight were also male.
And the more drunken and more aggressive a dispute got, the more likely bystanders were to intervene: 72 percent of mutually aggressive, male-on-male fighting led to someone stepping in. The researchers hypothesize that two drunk men getting physical might be a “danger signal” that portends serious violence.
“The present results are generally consistent with evidence that aggression in bars is largely a male phenomenon, with bars being settings with heightened concerns regarding male honor and identity,” they write.
Despite notions of chivalry, in real life, it seems, no one’s looking to save the damsel in distress. Though the most frequently observed type of aggressive conflict occurred between a male aggressor and a female victim, third parties were least likely to intervene there (only 17 percent of those type of conflicts merited intervention). Because those types of conflict, generally involving unwanted sexual attention coming from the male end, rarely escalated into physical fighting, the researchers theorize that bystanders view them as non-dangerous conflicts.
Unfortunately, the observers were unable to gather data on the motives of those who intervened–like whether they were strangers or friends of the fight’s participants–so we can’t know for sure why people step in when they do.
