Getting in physical fights is the lamest. It doesn’t prove how tough you are — in fact, it might do the opposite. But for whatever the reason, witnessing a fight, in whatever form it takes, still fascinates us; maybe it’s our lizard brains. Whether they’re actual brawls, spats between couples, battles behind the wheel or fights against the status quo, our interest is immediately piqued when we see people going at it.
This week was dedicated to that fascination. With the summer about to hit us with the kind of heat that makes you want to fight someone, we thought it was appropriate.
Must Read
“The Perverse Pleasure of Watching Couples Argue in Public”
You know you do it: Out for dinner, the sound of raised voices coming from the table next to you, you tune out everything and listen in. What’s he saying? Who did what to who? They’re doing this, here, now? Kate Dries writes about her own fascination with public spats, and why, as a society, we can’t look away. READ MORE
Hard-Knock Life
If you thought the life of a boxer was all private jets and makin’ it rain — like, you know, Floyd “Money” Mayweather — you’d be dead wrong. Most fighters make barely more than a teacher, and they get their faced caved in for their trouble. Read about how the economics of a typical boxing purse break down here.
Road Rage
Why do we become the worst version of ourselves the moment we’re wronged behind the wheel? Has it been this way since the days of the Model T? And is there anything we can do to stop it? Features writer C. Brian Smith spoke to a clinical psychologist, an author who wrote a book on the topic and a former police officer to better understand our anger on the open road. READ MORE
Street Beefs
Harrisonburg, Virginia is the type of working-class town where disputes could easily devolve into a stabbing or a shooting, even in broad daylight. Tired of neighborhood beefs ending in bloodshed, 40-year-old Chris Wilmore sought to promote not just a private place to fight, but the belief that disputes could be settled with punches and a handshake, not a dead body. So he started a backyard fight club. READ MORE
Fight Sounds
Speaking of fight clubs, the movie Fight Club has one of the most visceral ass-kickings ever committed to celluloid. So how did the sound guys pick up every bone-cracking, upchuck-inducing crunch of Ed Norton’s face-destroying fight with Jared Leto? Poultry, baby:
For even more sound-artist secrets from the fights of Fight Club, click here.
Ring Girls
It’s one thing that women haven’t traditionally been allowed to become sumo wrestlers, but that same tradition dictates that women aren’t even allowed to step foot in the ring. Features writer Eddie Kim took a look into the cultural and historical reasons for this long-standing prohibition of females in sumo — and why women around the world are pushing to find their own place in the sport. READ MORE
Broken Bottles
People have been getting into fights in bars for as long as people have been drinking in bars. While things have certainly calmed down since the gunslinging, table-flipping fights of the Old West, bar brawls are still commonplace, and bartenders, well, they’ve seen some shit. Our resident barkeep Haley Hamilton, breaks down — by fighting weight, no less — all the most memorable brawls (or near-brawls) she’s encountered in her years of tending bar. READ MORE
Knives Out, Dicks Out
Contributing editor Tim Grierson spoke to crewmembers of the bloody Russian bathhouse fight scene in David Cronenberg’s terrific 2007 thriller Eastern Promises. So, how do you stage a knives-out brawl between two burly Chechens and a Russian vor in nothing but the tiniest of towels? It wasn’t easy, and let’s say the placement of the blades wasn’t the only topic of discussion:
It’s a Cronenberg movie — you know it’s going to be violent, and you know that violence is going to be depicted in the most realistic way possible. Which means, if you’re going to have dudes fight in the middle of a steam room, balls will make an appearance. READ MORE
The Weekend Binge: Dick Fight Edition
While it may be one of the best, Eastern Promises hardly broke new dick-fighting ground by featuring Viggo Mortensen’s hog so prominently in the aforementioned Russian bathhouse knife fight. There have been numerous on-screen dust-ups where a dong or two make an appearance. These are some of the best:
That’s alotta dicks.
