2. Fight Philosophy- Combat sports and Honor

In this post, I will be exploring the relation between fighting and honor and link it to modern sanctioned combat sports. First, I shall define "Honor" which is the evaluation of a person's trustworthiness and social status based on that individual's espousals and actions. Honor is the external expression of a person's character: whether or not the person reflects honesty, respect, integrity, or fairness. Accordingly, individuals are assigned worth and stature based on the harmony of their actions, code of honor, and that of the society at large in our concerned arena of Fighting.

Next, I trace the roots of modern fight sports which are derived from hand-to-hand complements to shield bearing and weapon slashing combat systems. This is because in ancient war (and even now), empty-handed combat has its relevance in keeping the individual alive. All modern combat sports are watered-down versions of such fighting systems and have come to be through the implementation of rules so as to limit fatalities and make it more culturally acceptable and in turn economically viable in a the modern world context. Also modern sanctioned combat sports are means of outlawing legally and culturally deviant forms of dueling in a world of state sanctioned violence. But ironically and perhaps intelligently, modern sanctioned sports borrowed many rules from the various sets of Code duello that existed. A code duello is a set of rules for a one-on-one combat, or duel. As we can see, Codes duello laid the foundation for modern sanctioned combat sports in their role of regulating dueling and assuring that non-violent means of reaching agreement be exhausted and that harm be reduced, both by limiting the terms of engagement and by providing medical care. Very importantly, they also ensured that the duels be witnessed. The witnesses would allay doubts of foul play to grieving members of factions and help provide testimony if legal authorities become involved. This would be the pre-modern equivalent of referees and medical doctors who could call decisions and for the fight to stop.

Moving away from Dueling and refocusing on warring, we find that it is precisely in the context of warring that honor came about as a linked concept. For one of the main purposes of fighting was the assertion or testing of one's masculinity since warring was predominantly a male occupation. The secondary implication was also that success in fighting and winning one's enemy meant that one could increase his economic resources which would indirectly add onto one's social status within his group and confer somatic and reproductive advantages. This still holds relevance in the world of modern combat sports.

Honor has to be validated by an audience. This was why private challenges often occurred in ancient warfare and was viewed and cheered on by their brethren on both sides. Successes and failures alike would be recorded down into folk cultures in the form of stories and songs and be re-consumed and passed on down to future generations. Thus "Pain was temporary while Honor and Glory was forever" but many fail to recognize that this phrase would not hold through without audience validation. Losing could mean the infliction of a negative social response upon the loser whereby others would take him to be weak and exploit him in the future. Thus honor was a very valuable social commodity that would be guarded to great lengths. We see the modern recognition and conferring of honor upon combatants in the form of medals. In modern combat sports, marks of martial excellence are enabled by the keeping of fight statistics and in turn can be constantly assessed and reassessed by fight audiences.

Honor is also dependant on one's enemy. The more skilled one's opponent is and the more spirit that one's opponent displays adds to the overall difficulty and value of the fight and confers upon the winner more honor for the act of subduing such a worthy opponent. Thus the modern conception of weight and skill classes which pit "equals" against each other. No or little honor is to be gained by defeating a minor.