fight club

[MasterKiller]

Seems familiar...like I've seen it somewhere before...

[Starchaser107]

Yeah too many words,
Does anybody have a link to the videos?

[Shaolinlueb]

thats crazy. at least stop it when the person is knocked out.


kids these days

[David Jamieson]

and some would say that television and the media doesn't effect the behaviours of children.

I still say Marshall Mcluhan was right when he said "The medium is the message".

we are effected daily in how we think and what we think and subsequently, this is teh impetus to action. Though we are not automatons, we are remarkably subject to influence and suggestion through memes and repetitive reinforcement of ideas pumped at us all day everyday over and over again.

Teen fight clubs never existed at the level of ubiquity they are at now 10 years ago. teens fought and there were school yard brawls in my day at school, in my dads day and at his dads day and so on, but organized? to the level it is at now? nope.

This is yet another example of how malliable a young mind is.

the jesuits were right.... a long time ago they figured out the correct.

[n00854180t]

and some would say that television and the media doesn't effect the behaviours of children.

I still say Marshall Mcluhan was right when he said "The medium is the message".

we are effected daily in how we think and what we think and subsequently, this is teh impetus to action. Though we are not automatons, we are remarkably subject to influence and suggestion through memes and repetitive reinforcement of ideas pumped at us all day everyday over and over again.

Teen fight clubs never existed at the level of ubiquity they are at now 10 years ago. teens fought and there were school yard brawls in my day at school, in my dads day and at his dads day and so on, but organized? to the level it is at now? nope.

This is yet another example of how malliable a young mind is.

the jesuits were right.... a long time ago they figured out the correct.

Meh, you can't pin things like this on the influence of mass media. For instance, you have to consider that there are more people now (as opposed to a hundred years ago) to actually be going and joining these fight clubs. Which means more variety of people (i.e. maybe some of them are just nutters, inclined to doing stupid things by default). If, fifty years ago, you couldn't say "well, there are <blah amount> of teens that are joining fighting clubs," it could be for any number of reasons. There are multitudes of factors that could contribute to clubs like these. Among them the one I just mentioned, the fact that world population is higher, and so is population density. As well as that you have the fact that transportation is extremely prevalent and (relatively) cheap. You're naturally going to have more gatherings of any type when transportation isn't an issue (or less of one).

It's true that most teens aren't ethically mature and are prone to making poor decisions and/or not predicting their outcome. However, that doesn't mean that they are so susceptible to suggestion as to see some bit of violence and immediately go out and immitate it, or even to see some thousand bits of violence and go and immitate it years later. No valid correlation has been drawn between exposure to fictional violence and violent behavior in sane persons, to date.

[BM2]

My Dad was born in 1920 and Mom in 1924. The first time my Mom saw my Dad was when he jumped the iron fence and said hello to his little sister that was in the front yard with my Mom. My Mom asked who that was with the ripped shirt and blood on him. My Aunt replied it was her older brother and that he had been in the park fighting with the African Americans or something like that.
There would be a group of whites that would meet up with a group of African Americans to fight one on one at the park each weekend. They were all teenagers.
On a different note: TV does warp young minds, I am proof of that. After watching a hot foot on the cartoons, I put a match between my sleeping older brother's toes and lit it. I watched it burn almost out and thought that it didn't work when he jumped up yelling. Yup, left a blister on each toe

[Shaolindynasty]

The media excuse is weak and played out.


IMO these kids live in an enviorment where they can't even play dodge ball anymore. There is no outlet to vent aggression like there was 50 years ago and it builds up. Animals that live in artificial eviorments tend to go insane eventually. We tend to forget that we are animals also. Before anybody says that our higher brain functions set us apart, remember we still have all those natural urges and instincts wired into us from our wild beginings.

Maybe it's a backlash from the sissyfying of society


Maybe if the adults would let them hit each other with nerf balls this kind of stuff wouldn't be an issue

Of course this stuff has been going on for centuries.

I once saw a documetary where "teenage" chimps would gather into "gangs" and go around killing whatever they could find. They stoped this kind of behavior when they grew older.

Seems to me that maybe teens of all species are stupid.

[David Jamieson]

you guys don't think the mnedia influenecs anything?

I'm not saying it is the primary catalyst, but I think it's pretty evident that it contributes a lot to peoples points of view, which they otherwise would not form on a great deal of subjects simply because they lack exposure to the knowledge of them.

I would also say, that because of the ubiquity of video cameras, internet sites for amateur camera folks and the broader spectrum of media we use to communicate with each other that you will just happen to see more of this stuff out there and it is not necessarily that there is more going on, just that we are seeing more of it that we didn't see before because there was no vehicle to be aware of it.

young men fight. that's part of being a young man. through the ages, through all time. young men fight. There's nothing really new here.

[Shaolindynasty]

Are young people influenced by the media? Or do young people influence the media?

My thought

The media is a creation of man, really it's a reflection of it's creators. Not the other way around.

just that we are seeing more of it that we didn't see before because there was no vehicle to be aware of it.

Remeber the early 90s when "gangsta rap" was under fire? Some people where saying that it was causing all this violence in certain communities. I saw this interview with Tupac where he was defending his music and said the same thing as this quote. Just thought it was funny.

[n00854180t]

you guys don't think the mnedia influenecs anything?

That's not what I said. I just pointed out that media can't be attributed so easily as a cause of this sort of thing (or violence in general).

I'm not saying it is the primary catalyst, but I think it's pretty evident that it contributes a lot to peoples points of view, which they otherwise would not form on a great deal of subjects simply because they lack exposure to the knowledge of them.

It does definitely contribute to susceptible peoples' point of view. There are millions that take television news at face value. I think it is moronic, but then, I'm not most people (being a software engineer/designer and part-time scientist). In my previous post, I just wanted to note that most sane people (that sort of narrows it down a huge amount already, a large portion of the world's population aren't sane by any reasonable measure of the word) won't go out and wantonly start killing people because they saw a horror movie or played Doom.

I would also say, that because of the ubiquity of video cameras, internet sites for amateur camera folks and the broader spectrum of media we use to communicate with each other that you will just happen to see more of this stuff out there and it is not necessarily that there is more going on, just that we are seeing more of it that we didn't see before because there was no vehicle to be aware of it.

young men fight. that's part of being a young man. through the ages, through all time. young men fight. There's nothing really new here.

The above is part of the the point I was trying to make, so I agree.

[GeneChing]

roflmao at the title of this article. Well played, Chris Buckley & Adam Wu.

First Rule of Chinese Fight Club: No Karaoke
查看简体中文版 查看繁體中文版
By CHRIS BUCKLEY and ADAM WU FEB. 8, 2018


A fight club in Chengdu, China, which goes by the English name “Monster Private War Club.” Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

CHENGDU, China — On the sixth floor of a down-on-its-luck shopping mall in this southwestern Chinese city, a brawny, hyperkinetic master of ceremonies going by the name “Train” strutted around a new fight ring, pumping up the crowd for a Friday night of punching, jabbing and kicking.

After a monthslong shutdown, “fight club” was back in business.

The funk music faded, lights brightened and two amateur boxers started squaring off. Yan Nan, a lithe 33-year-old office worker in a state-owned machinery company, was up against Li Guowei, a neatly muscular sports teacher, 4 inches shorter and seven years younger.

“I hope the kids in his class don’t mess up,” the master of ceremonies, whose real name is Wang Zijing, joked about Mr. Li to the hundreds of fans crowded around the ring.

The fight club in Chengdu, a city with about eight million urban residents and a reputation for spicy food and laid-back living, is a testament to entrepreneurial young Chinese trying something new, even when numerous obstacles, licenses and official jitters stand in the way.

Shi Jian, the club manager, and Mr. Wang said they had been inspired to open their venture in late 2015 after repeated viewings of “Fight Club,” the 1999 cult film in which Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star as two unlikely partners who start an underground barefist fighting club.

“Before all this, I didn’t have anything to do with fighting,” said Mr. Shi, with a folk-singer-like bowl cut and heavy glasses. “I like to have fun and also do something meaningful, and then I saw that movie.”

Mr. Shi, 35, a man of few words, and Mr. Wang, 29, a man of few silences, also seem like unlikely allies.

But they and another investor found a shared cause in entertainment that they thought would appeal to Chinese in their 20s who were bored with karaoke nights and bars. Their club features weekly boxing, kick boxing and mixed martial arts bouts and goes by the English name “Monster Private War Club.” It seeks an edgy audience, with graffiti-sprayed walls and a dimly lit recreation room.

“What Chinese people lack most is a spirit of fun, that’s what Chinese people need most of all,” said Mr. Wang, a former soldier who spoke in a torrent of Sichuanese-accented Mandarin Chinese and rap-inspired English, salted with plentiful profanities in both. “They really need to let themselves go.”

“Here it’s a bit more commercial,” he said of their new space inside a karaoke nightclub, “but we’re trying to find some of the vibe of the underground.”


Yan Nan, a 33-year-old office worker, right, fights Li Guowei, 26, a physical education teacher. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

A Chinese saying goes that it’s easier to get away with things in the far provinces, “where heaven is high and the emperor far away.” And it would be difficult to imagine such raucous entertainment surviving in button-down Beijing.

But boxing, mixed martial arts and other high-energy fighting forms have been enjoying a minor boom in China in recent years. Gyms and audiences have multiplied across the country. Precise numbers are hard to come by, but one fan group estimates that the number of clubs had reached 8,300 in 2016, up from 2,700 in 2008.

Even so, commercial fight venues that draw a broader audience are rare. And Chengdu, with its zestful night life and hipster scene, seemed as good a place as any to try opening one. Yet even here the club has struggled to balance between being cool enough to draw customers and respectable enough to keep the inspectors at bay.

In a former venue, the fight club had to fend off complaints from the police, who deemed the weekly bouts undesirable, if not illegal. The authorities cut off their power and water late last year, Mr. Shi and Mr. Wang said. Tensions had also grown when a national controversy erupted last April after Xu Xiaodong, a mixed martial arts fighter, challenged masters of China’s gentler traditional martial arts to fight and flattened one of them in about 10 seconds.

Mr. Xu may have won that fight hands down, but the episode brought bad publicity for new martial arts in China.


The club has struggled to balance between being cool enough to attract customers and respectable enough to keep the authorities at bay. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

The Chengdu club shut down in November because of the friction with the authorities, and reopened late last month after the partners persuaded city sports officials to support them. They found a new venue in the half-empty mall, which some residents say is cursed by ghosts from an ancient cemetery that was dug up nearby.

Even with that official support and begrudging approval from the police, the club has to be careful to stay respectable. There is absolutely no gambling, no drugs, no brawling between patrons, nothing that could bring officials’ wrath, Mr. Shi said.

“If we were into gambling, do you think we’d be as poor as we are now?” Mr. Wang chipped in. “In a year I could afford to buy a Rolls-Royce.”

Each Friday night involves four boxing, kick boxing or mixed martial arts fights between men, and sometimes women.

“I think it’s a great setting with plenty of atmosphere,” said Liao Yanyun, 22, a professional boxer who fought a match at the club recently, when she and her opponent fought to a draw. “You attract a big crowd to this kind of fight, and that will help boxing to develop,” she said, though she added, “There are a lot fewer female fighters than men, and it’s hard for women to find matches and opponents.”


Mr. Yan was knocked out in the third round but said he would fight again. Credit Gilles Sabrié for The New York Times

This year the partners plan to expand by bringing in professional fighters from across China, and maybe stars from Thailand. For now, the club’s fighters are hardscrabble professionals from local clubs or pure amateurs.

Before Mr. Yan’s fight, he and a dozen or so friends warmed up with a dinner of peppery tofu, and Mr. Yan appeared cheerfully indifferent about his chances in the club. “I haven’t thought about tonight, it’s just for the kicks,” he said.

The famous first rule in the movie “Fight Club” was “do not talk about Fight Club,” and Mr. Yan had his own twist: Do not tell his parents. He inherited his love of boxing from his grandfather, but said his mother and father would be alarmed if they found out he was climbing into a ring.

“They think at my age you should be more stable,” he said.

In the first of three rounds against Mr. Li, Mr. Yan initially appeared to have the upper hand. While Mr. Li went into a defense crouch, Mr. Yan threw down punches as dozens of supporters screamed encouragement.

But Mr. Li had a strategy: Younger and smaller than his opponent, he figured he first had to tire Mr. Yan out. By the second round, Mr. Yan began to flag. In the third round, Mr. Li moved in and began pounding at Mr. Yan — who by the end of the third round was slumped and beaten.

Mr. Wang, the master of ceremonies, hurried the two fighters out of the ring to make way for the next bout, a kick boxing match between two professionals from nearby clubs.

By the final fight of the night, the competitors and the crowd were screaming for more. Yet Wang and Mr. Shi said they wanted to create an even more passionate crowd, by bringing back a cagelike octagon-shaped ring that would let spectators press closer to the fighting.

In the dressing room, Mr. Yan was tearful — losing was harder than he had expected.

But he vowed to return to the club’s ring. “After more time and practice,” he said.

Correction: February 12, 2018
An earlier version of this article gave an incorrect name for an amateur boxer. He is Li Guowei, not Li Weiguo.

A version of this article appears in print on February 9, 2018, on Page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: At Chinese Fight Club, Boxer’s First Rule: Don’t Tell His Parents

[@PLUGO]

In Detroit, a city known for one of the highest murder rates in the country, some residents have lost faith in the ability of their law enforcement to keep the streets safe from gun violence.
We traveled to Detroit to see how an underground fight club run out of a local car wash has taken matters into its own hands by allowing rivals to settle “beefs” before the violence gets out of control.