Weight classes are important in professional bouts, but in a street fight, even a small teenager can defend himself against a grown man, if he or she has developed legitimate martial arts skills.
There is an old adage in fight sports - “A good big man beats a good little man.” That fits when a combat sports matchup features two competitors with roughly even talents but uneven size differentials. However, in the real world, most people have no real martial arts training, and that can make all the difference.
In the video below there has been some controversy over the backstory. The teen in the video is believed to be Hunter Joffre, then an amateur MMA fighter from Memphis, Tennessee, who fights in the flyweight (125 pounds, 57kg) division. The Flyweight had been trying to get the return of an allegedly stolen television from the big dude, who said, “f@$% you and the TV.”
The teen’s extreme exasperation is evident.
What Happened
The two are going to fight, and there is a loud discussion about how it will start, with Big Dude refusing to take the first shot, and Flyweight refusing to strike a man with his hands down. A quick elbow from Flyweight opens the action, and Big Dude immediately charges.
As Big Dude barrels forward, Flyweight instantly gets an underhook, and goes to the back. In a classic sign of not having even a day on the mats, Big Dude appears to go for a headlock, with of course no luck.
Flyweight gets one hook in, and, realizing his opponent is hopeless, does not even go for full position, before applying a rear naked choke. Big Dude then tries two more instinctive defense methods with woefully low success rates.
Big Dude tries to back slam his way out of the trouble he is in. There are ways to potentially make that work, but they can’t be faked. If an untrained individual tries it, it only makes things worse. On the first slam the second hook goes in, and on the second slam the choke sinks in.
Big Dude also tries to punch at the person in back mount. If the punches land, it’s annoying, but won’t stop the attack. And if the punches are not thrown very carefully, it opens up the neck, and that’s what happened.
Once the choke is in, Big Dude - hilariously - taps.
As Rickson Gracie explains, “If we fight for money, I’ll stop hitting you when you ask me to. If we fight for honor, I’ll stop hitting you when I feel like it.” The return of a stolen television may not exactly constitute honor, or maybe it does.
Flyweight explains it succinctly, “There’s no tapping in a street fight.” After putting Big Dude out, Flyweight scrambles on top, and throws nine punches, all of which appear to land. In a stark example of the effectiveness of jiu-jitsu vs. striking on the ground, Big Dude actually wakes up in the middle of the punches, and is allowed to rise and stumble off, getting two more punches to the face.
Flyweight then explains, “I f***ing had mercy on you.” As Big Dude advances, Flyweight practices distance management, with head movement in case the first defense method was breached. Then Flyweight says, “Shake my hand and leave it at that.”
Big Guy declines, and lumbers off, one hopes, without a lot of confidence, that he’s wiser for what happened.
The Lesson
The jiu-jitsu aspect of mixed martial arts on display here is a tremendous reminder of its efficiency vs. a much larger attacker. In this context, once on the ground, jiu-jitsu is so much more effective than striking that the strikes thrown actually woke up the giant thief.
Lastly, please remember, fights like this on a hard surface can and have ended in fatality, which devastates any number of lives - the deceased, their loved ones, felony charges for the “winner,” etc. This article is not an attempt to glorify streetfighting, It’s an attempt to understand what works, and what doesn’t.