I Don’t Fight for Sport (An Addendum)

gregorymaness
Oct 30, 2025
2 min read

This is, as the title implies, an addendum to a previous post, “I Don’t Fight for Sport” (https://www.apirateontheprairie.com/post/i-don-t-fight-for-sport). I don’t want to hurt or kill anyone. But if you put me in the position to where I reasonably believe that you intend to do me or someone that I love great bodily harm, your health, safety, and welfare have just become a distant, insignificant concern to me.

I have casually followed martial artist, Paul Vunak, for decades. Mr. Vunak trained under Dan Inosanto who himself was a student of Bruce Lee. Mr. Vunak understands that there is a difference between what works (and is acceptable under the rules) in the classical martial arts dojo and the combat sports arena and what works in environments where one’s opponent isn’t working under any constraints beyond what will be effective and allow him to get what he wants.

If you seriously think that a cop or a civilian shooting some thug threatening him or her with a knife is an “overreaction” or that with proper training an individual with a knife can be easily disarmed without significant risk by an unarmed individual, I would argue that you have seen too many unrealistic portrayals of such encounters on television and on the big screen. I have seen videos of more than one stabbing that resulted in the person being stabbed dying. They were bloody and the deaths were shockingly horrific and sudden.

In the first video (click the first link below), Mr. Vunak demonstrates what a knife can do to a piece of meat. A knife doesn’t care if the meat that it cuts is a part of your body. A knife is a tool. In the hands of a criminal, it can be used to coerce, intimidate, rob, rape, wound, maim, and kill the innocent. In the hands of a decent, peaceable man, it is only a threat to the violent criminal seeking to do harm.

In the second and third video shorts or “Reels” (click the second and third links below), Mr. Vunak demonstrates two ways to approach defending yourself from someone threatening you with a knife. One is likely to result in a successful use of force in a self-defense scenario. One is likely to result in your death or serious injury.

In a fight for your life and/or the lives of your loved ones, you may have to use tools and tactics that are brutal and likely to inflict serious injuries that could result in catastrophic harm to the person or people threatening you and/or your loved ones. But the alternative outcomes to using such tools and tactics are far worse for you, your loved ones, and arguably society at large.