Bristol Group

Great idea.

When I was in my first year at university during the 1980s, a bunch of us lads started a very informal ‘Friday night fight club’. It started off just within our friendship group, then slowly grew as more people heard about it. It lasted only about four months, with a brief resumption the following summer – but was a helluva lot of fun. Most Friday evenings, we’d gather in one of our rooms – anywhere between 4 and 10 of us, with a handful of girls occasionally observing – and watch/participate in fights which had usually been arranged earlier in the week.
Man, knowing who you were going to be fighting on Friday night added a frisson to the week’s studies. One guy (maths student, obviously) opened a book on the bouts, so most of the observers were usually rooting for someone: either because there was money involved, or in the case of the girls, because they fancied one (or both) of the fighters.
Most of us were more academic than sporty, so the standard of these match-ups wasn’t especially high. The bouts started off as free-for-alls, but no-one wanted to get badly hurt and so we soon started to sketch out some rules. One wet winter afternoon, three of us sat down and codified ‘College Rules Fighting’. The aim was to devise a fighting format which could be done relatively safely in a confined space with unforgivingly hard floors; didn’t rely too much on technical skill; and led to clear, decisive outcomes (including ‘knockouts’) without resulting in serious injury. We hadn’t heard the term ‘safe and sane’ back then, but that’s probably what it was really. Whether through luck or judgment, there were never any serious injuries - other than to pride – although there were plenty of bruises. My personal favourite move was to pin my opponent in a corner so that he couldn’t go down whilst I rained down a barrage of body blows on him.
In the first couple of weeks most fighters removed their shirts before a bout, so it was all bare torsos and jeans. As we got more serious, trunks and trainers became the order of the day (well it was the 1980s!). One guy, who couldn’t fight for health reasons, proclaimed himself ‘the Ref’ and everyone went with it. He was clearly into the theatrical side of wrestling because he also acted as MC, arranging staredowns in the centre of the room before the fight began and doing whatever he could to encourage trash talk.
Most bouts took place in a relaxed, fun atmosphere, but one or two stick in the mind where grudges were settled in decisive fashion. The audience would really get into it, joining in the counts as they occurred. Stakes (money, girls or otherwise) were sometimes part of the fun, negotiated before the fights and - as one might imagine with young men in a testosterone-filled environment – could get pretty wild. Later on, guys would sometimes issue odds-based direct money challenges to each other. All stakes were negotiable but Winner Takes All was always the rule.
Fights lasted anywhere between two minutes and 20 minutes (excluding round breaks), and we aimed to have between 2 and 5 bouts on any given evening – no-one fought more than once in an evening though. I can’t remember how many fights I must have had during that time: six or seven I guess, losing only once. The wins were exhilarating, especially with the crowd cheering you on to finish it with a KO, and people treated you with a whole new level of respect – including people who weren’t even there but had somehow heard about it. But man, that loss was humbling and stays with me today. Just in case you were wondering: there never was a girl fight. It wasn’t as socially acceptable back then, but I would have dearly loved to see one.
I’m in my 50s now, and still look back on college fight club with excitement. If anyone wants to recreate it, give me a shout. I’ll send you the rules and we’ll take it from there…

To those of you asking me why the club finished:

I don't think there is a definitive answer to this question. We just had lots of other things to be getting on with. It's not that we ever met up and said 'this is our last fight club'. It just fizzled out, and the main reason for this, I think, was that we had established a pecking order. Remember, this was about lads starting out at uni, in a new and unfamiliar friendship group, and there was this inbuilt need to establish a hierarchy between us men, both for ourselves and for the women attached to that friendship group too.

By the time each of us had had handful of fights, it was pretty clear what that pecking order would be.

The group was briefly rejuvenated the following year when a guy who hadn't previously been part of the friendship group heard about it, and challenged me. A few new guys from his friendship group also expressed interest and it was on again, briefly. However, I think we only had a couple of meets that summer and it didn't have the same feel to it, maybe because they took place outside in a garden setting.

To those of you asking me what the rules were:

College Rules Knockout Fighting

Legal moves
• Punches/slaps/knees/elbows/forearms to torso/legs/arms only
• Standing holds
• Open-palm slaps to face
• Hairpulling
• Throws and slams (if suitable flooring – mats, sand or grass)

Illegal moves:
• Any other type of strike to face and neck
• Headbutts/gouging/biting/choking/kicking/stomping/small joint locks/armlocks/choking
• Attacks to genital regions
• Striking after a break

This is a no-submissions knockout contest, fought over ten two-minute rounds, with a time-unlimited ‘decider’ 11th round if required.

Breaks, counts and rounds:
When any part of a fighter’s torso touches the ground, fighters must break, and a count is initiated by the referee. Where there is no referee, a fighter initiates the count against their opponent. If the torso does not remain in contact with the ground long enough for the count to begin, the fight continues without stoppage. In an apartment setting, beds and furniture do not count as 'ground'.
During a count, the opposing fighter must return to a neutral corner.
The fight resumes from a standing start when the count reaches 10 - a fighter who is not standing and ready to resume by a count of 10 is deemed to have been KO’d, even if the round ends while the count is underway.
Fighters may ground themselves voluntarily only when directly under attack - a count immediately begins. A fighter who goes to ground voluntarily when not under direct attack (e.g. from exhaustion or the effects of an injury sustained earlier) is automatically deemed to have been knocked out, and no count takes place.
Grounding can occur as part of the natural sequence of the fight (e.g. following a throw).
Fighters in sitting, kneeling or ‘all fours’ positions are not grounded and are therefore open to further attack. In order to continue an attack, fighters may try to prevent their opponent from grounding the torso.
A fighter under attack who wants to submit (and forfeit the match) must ground their torso and take a 10 count so that the fight ends in a KO. Verbal submissions have no place in this fighting format and need not be heeded by the attacking fighter unless and until the opponent’s torso is grounded.

Attire:
Negotiable between fighters
Trunks/speedos/boxers and trainers is standard.

Rounds:
- Ten three-minute rounds with 2-minute intervals
- If there is no winner after 10 rounds, an eleventh deciding round takes place with no time limit

Victory conditions:
A fight ends in any of the following events:
- KO
- Retirement (e.g. fighter not ready to come out for next round)
- Disqualification (DQ)
- Accidental injury from unintentional illegal move

Disqualifications:
Fights abandoned due to injury following an illegal move:
- Injured fighter declared victor by DQ if the illegal move was clearly intentional
- If the illegal move was unintentional, the fight is declared a draw.
A fighter who, intentionally or unintentionally, uses an illegal move that does not cause sufficient injury to stop the fight continuing will receive ONE warning only. Any further infringement will result in immediate DQ

Great post mate - sounds good set up !