Does size always matter in a street fight?

Well how about this martial man? A .454 casull perhaps?



do you think that might just do the trick? Maybe?

 

Not every time, no.

 

And why not? (pauses as if not knowing the answer)

 

I like the use of the word casual there.

 

That is one nasty piece. It was made for big game attacks.. they aren't a practical gun to own, but, you could hit anyone pretty much anywhere with a hollow point in the .454 and they're likely gonna bleed out quickly if they don't get help... while a .45 HP is much more practical for home defense because of the decreased velocity of the round as well as that the HP will not go through every wall in your house and risk collateral damage.

 

Nope. Wrong word..its Casull, after the NAME of the guy who designed it

 

In a self defense scenario, weight and height matter less than they do in competition. There you have rules which are more disadvantageous to the smaller man than to the bigger man.

And I must strongly disagree with the speed advantage not being a big enough factor between a small and a big person. Big guys tend to need more time to load up on their punches, while smaller guys can punch more spontaneously. If the difference in size isn't that big then you would have less of a speed advantage, but the other guy would also have less of a power advantage.

From what I've seen, the guys who are the most aggressive tend to win the fight, regardless of weight or height. Also, usually the person who gets off a good punch first wins. I always tell people to go straight for the nose if they have to fight. Don't hook people, just straight up punch them on the nose and 90% of the time they can't/won't continue.

 

I'm not sure I follow you here. Do you have any evidence other than opinion to support either of those paragraphs?

 

can't agree there. I do agree that if you watch boxing or any other combat sport, the bigger guys to tend to move slower.

In a real fight, the guy who is the most calm is many times the one who can think about his next 2 or 3 moves ahead. The aggressive and/or angry guy may tend to leave himself wide open for either the first punch, or counter shots. However, I don't fool myself, a guy who's a lot bigger than me is usually going to punch harder based only on weight even if I would somehow be stronger... it all boils down to that it's hard to compensate for weight if the other person is even remotely skilled.

 

I agree with most except the BOLD

I have observed many in fights getting hit in the nose, only to get more aggressive

 

Did they just get hit in the nose, or did they actually get their nose broken?

 

Well yes, watch a middleweight boxing fight and then a heavyweight boxing fight. The middleweight fighters will still have enough speed to get combinations off while heavyweight guys usually only combine 2 or 3 punches. They don't have the speed to really combine more, also because their momentum is too great. I don't need to provide evidence, because it's all around us. Anyone could see this really.

There are always going to be exceptions like Tyson and Ali, but it's kind of pointless to talk about guys like that, because the chance you'll run into a big guy with their kind of speed is close to none. Also, white guys usually don't even come close to that kind of speed when they're that big.

Well you know, most people aren't calm in a real fight unless they're trained fighters. And even then, they only look calm but they really aren't, they just know what to do. A real fight is about being very scared and very angry and punching the guy who made you feel like that. A street fight is no place to think about your moves. The guy who tries to act calm usually gets stomped into the ground, because when the fight starts they freeze up because they don't know how to deal with the 80 kilos of rage and testosterone coming at them. Or they throw one punch, that doesn't have the desired effect, they freak out and then proceed to get their butt handed to them.

 

It's not a surefire way to win a fight, but against most people it works just fine. Getting hit (hard) in the nose causes your eyes to water up and you can't see very well and then fear takes over because you know that while you're stunned, the other guy could pummel you into oblivion.

It doesn't always work, because it's not easy to just on demand punch someone on the nose with enough force. Also, very aggressive guys get more angry from being punched anywhere. That's why they usually win the fights.

 

I'd never sell it as a fight-ender, but a couple of friends of mine have ended 1) a fight 2) an unwanted amorous advance with a love-tap to the nose. It can give someone pause for thought that they might actually get hurt if they continue. Like smacking a dog on the nose with a newspaper.

Wouldn't work on me though, I've got very squishy cartilage in my nose and don't get much stinging and eye-watering, very difficult to make it bleed too. So be wary of counting on it, best to go for the bridge IMO.

 

That's not the kind of evidence I was looking for. I'm looking for hard data on punching speeds that prove that bigger guys punch slower. I'm not convinced about this size = slowness thing and haven't been since the first time I sparred with a thirty year older and heavier Dan grade in 1992. I'd be happy for people with more experience of boxing to chime in, but I suspect that heavyweights fight the way they do because of power and stamina considerations. A heavyweight throws fewer punches to conserve energy in a long fight and each punch that lands has a greater effect - I don't think the punch itself is significantly slower.

I've never watched an Olympic 100m sprint and marvelled at how light the runners are. Usain Bolt weighs 94Kg, Carl Lewis was 81 Kg. These guys are heavyweights.

Mitch, Simon and I (to name a few Mappers) are all in the heavyweight category and I think we can all move our arms faster than a lot of lighter martial artists.

 

I think Zinowor has a point about momentum and recovery.

In sprinting strength and inertia work to your advantage. If you look at sports that require fast recovery and changes in direction; squash, tennis, ping pong, you don't see big guys rising to the top much at all.

But the OP wasn't about top fighters, and while fat guys can have hand speed, it's pretty obvious that they're generally slower on their feet. But at the end of the day it comes down to training and lifestyle.

 

With regard to those sports I'd say size doesn't convey an advantage, so there's no need for people to gain it or incentive / attraction for naturally larger people compared to other sports. Despite their size and weight you'll see very nimble Rugby players, American football players and gymnasts.

 

I know next to nothing about rugby (or sport in general), but it does seem from a quick googling that the smaller guys are better at the nimble side-step.

Inertia is an indisputable fact, no?

Which gymnastic events were you thinking of?

 

Indeed, but a lot depends on how you centre, place and use your weight. An unskilled person will often have more problems shifting direction than a skilled person regardless of weight. I don't want to get too off topic from fighting where size and weight are significant factors and do not necessarily compromise speed or mobility significantly.