Is kickboxing attracting the wrong sort of people?

Question

I ask this because not that long ago at a major kickboxing event in australia there was a minor gang war people where shot and stabbed etc it ruined the fight and they had to cancel it

the people that where doing the warring where from rival biker gangs

so does kickboxing attract the wrong sort of people personally i am thinking kind of when i went to a boxing club to train half of the people where ex prisoners or drug addicts (or hung around with drug addicts) also i knew a guy that did muay thai and he beat his girlfriend!!!

does violent sport attract violent people? (i like violent sport but im the most not violent person there is)

Answer 1

Yes, I agree. Violence is going to attract some violent personalities. I have also witnessed fights breaking out in the crowd at martial arts matches, boxing matches, football games, basketball games, and even parents fighting at little league baseball games.

But, I have also seen fights break out at music concerts. It seems wherever you have mobs of people, some are going to misunderstand the energy of group dynamics and turn it into violence.

Some people are attracted to violence for the sake of violence as you described. Some of them even get into the martial arts just so they can inflict more damage. My guess is this has always been the case. But, this personality profile usually leads to prison or death.

Ancient armies would recruit lifetime soldiers who fit this personality profile, and not many survived very long, so they were used as pawns in the front line. The ancient Celts called them "Beserks" and used them as I just described. Most ancient cultures made some use of this personality type. Modern cultures have no real use for them so they end up in prison or die when they come face to face with someone just like them, or just someone who is more skilled. Modern military units need people who can operate more complicated weapons, and keep a calm head in the midst of a battle where hundreds of civilians are running around.

I am not at all a violent person and I don't associate with the type if I can avoid it.

Answer 2

Believe me, this is not the first time a martial arts fighting event has turned ugly. It has happened many, many times over the years and at many different types of events from National and International Karate Tournaments to kickboxing events to boxing events to Sport Karate events to MMA events and more. This may be your first experience at witnessing something like this, but it is not that uncommon. It really sort of goes with the territory.

Several years back I promoted a full contact, Sport karate event where the main event nearly ended with a brawl outside the ring. One fighter had just been disqualified for excessive and illegal contact on the opponent who was down on his back at the time. The two corners began hurling insults across the ring and then started making their way around the ring toward one another. I had to place myself between them to keep them apart. If I had not been close enough to do so it could have erupted into something big and nasty.

What can you expect at a fighting event? I am amazed that it does not happen more often than it does.

Answer 3

You can say that of most contact sports as well, but the violent competitive nature of kickboxing which feeds off the macho culture, as well as the partisan atmosphere that entices gambling aficionados makes it more of a magnet for the troublemakers as compared to say a Karate or Judo tournament. Plus the simple gross motor skills of Kickboxing makes it easier for the rough and musclebound type to take up than the more technically difficult techniques of TKD, Judo or Chinese Martial arts. Besides, majority of Kickboxing students are usually older and in their 20s and up as compared to Karate or TKD which have a lot of kids from 8 to 16, as such a TKD tournament audience would usually be comprised mostly of parents and people who know each other in the local community as opposed to a crowd of mostly strangers in a Kickboxing match who just like watching two guys trying to knock each other's head off their shoulders with punches and kicks in the ring.

Answer 4

interesting question...the people i have met through muay thai/kickboxing are quite violent (a small minority of them) one of them beat somebody up because the dude gave him the finger, so he smashed him up with a pr24 (nightstick/tonfa)...

Also most of the people are comming from a "Im tough/hardcore" background...they dont take anything from nobody, some of these people are H A R D, because thats just the way they are, its a sport that favours the people who dish out pain, the "fighting" culture respects people that can fight/tough...I think only when you get in the wrong side of them, at all other times they are pretty friendly and straight up.

the people you mentioned were gangsters, big difference...Most of the Muay Thai/kickboxers I know are quite nice in general although prone to violence only if youre on the wrong side of the equation, they just wont beat you up because they can.

does violent sport attract violent people? OFCOURSE, like minds like minds haha, made a pun...as for myself, Im not really into physically harming people, I like it for the fitness and the way it shapes my character...I think as I mature somemore, like my older muay thai friends, they all look hardcore, but they are generally quite friendly people.

Answer 5

samething here in NZ mate , alot of the gangs represented by the fighters, a mate of mine got offered a harley ,house, if he took up a patch,after winning an oceania title, disgusting!!!!

Answer 6

these people are violent because they don't have discipline. if a trainer/instructor wants his students to be good, he would discipline them.

Answer 7

dude, in australia people kill each over over leftover dingo dung.

it was founded by criminals what more do you want?