Poll: The Fighter and Morals

[A.A.K]

So we've all established that it's not the style, but rather the person.
It's how good you are at what you do, vs how good they are at what they do...what about morals?
I personally can't break the sense of honour I have, I simply cannot step on someone when they hit the ground or stomp 'em for example, and this is considered a disadvantage apparently.
So do you think the moral ideas have a serious impact in a fight or a spar?
A friend of mine said that in a fight you have to be the lowest, scrappiest, dirtiest person if you ever want to succeed...something I personally disagree with - but that's my opinion.

 

[Total LOLige]

It's not right to kick a man while he's on the deck, but if you're going to get killed by all means do it.

 

[TonyVonTonyus]

If a man falls to the floor I will curb stomp him, to be fairly blunt. But I think the morals of fighting apply more to why you fight than how you fight. A person who believes surrender or flight is not acceptable will stay there until he's dead or knocked out or the other person is and therefore swaying the way a fight goes. Why you fight is just as important as HOW you fight.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

No nut shots. Unless he goes for my nuts first.

 

[HerbertTheHamster]

Hold that thought while I knee you in the balls.

 

[emeraldrafael]

I think it depends on how strictly the idea of morals was ingrained into someone. I have a high sense of morals, but I'll break them from time to time. I'll never fight a woman, but I'm not above hitting a man when they're down.

Now, you can be honorable and still win. If you dont want to hit them while they're on the ground, its all about how much damage you cause before they fall. Ideally, you should break their means to get up before they go down.

...

Really, morals arent so much a bad thing, but with the advance of guns and how easy it is to obtain/conceal, in the modern day its betters to fight till you know they cant react rather then assume they wont react.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

The only time I would be in a fight is in self-defense and in that scenario I've got sympathy for the aggressor. Fuck him, he threw out any modicum of morality when he started assualting me. So in other words no and I find it stupid that there's any sort of sense of morality in fighting when there's nothing remotely civilised about it.

 

[Draken Steel]

If its friendly sparring then sure, not going to go all out in that situation, but in a actual fight do whatever it takes (though I admit I am hesitant about nutshots).

If some1 is seriously trying to injure you though I dont see anything wrong with making sure they stay down....

 

[Nieroshai]

I'm an honorable person, but in a fight it depends on the stakes. If it's life or death that sonofabitch will die no matter how dirty I have to fight. If it's a fist fight, depends on the scenario. If I'm sparring, I fight clean. If I'm being beat up for some reason that guy is going to eat dirt. But I will back away and let him get up, because I want him to have a chance to leave

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

If it's a contest to determine who's the better fighter (i.e. Street Fighter) then I'll stick to common standards of morality. However, if it's a fight to the death (i.e. Mortal Kombat) then all bets are off.

 

[RussetRanger]

In all integrity and to the bitter, pragmatic end, morals must make the fighter last long enough to look back with erudite experience. Pain mixed with equaling what oponents may do brings about what fighting should teach.

That is boxing in a nutshell if you ask me.

 

[StormShaun]

I wouldnt kill a man unless I know he is going to kill me, if he trys to beat me up ill break his leg/s and kick him in the head, but yeah morals do come in, I couldnt kill a man that wasnt going to kill me or anyone around me, but try killing me or a person close to me and I will lauch a f**king sword at them.

 

[Ultrajoe]

What sort of fight? A scuffle is not a duel to the death, a shoving match is not an eye-gouging hatefight. Defending yourself is a far different scenario to having a violent disagreement with somebody.

At the point where somebody is on the ground, why would you *need* to stomp them? Can you not run away? Are they not beaten? Where, really, is hitting somebody in the nuts a really important move? The reason people consider these moves dirty is that fighters really need to go out of your way to make them happen, instead of just liquefying their opponent's face some more.

 

[BrassButtons]

Depends on the situation. If it's a sparring match where the goal is to see who has the better skill, then everyone should agree to a set of rules and follow them. No one should be in an unreasonable amount of danger.

Anywhere else, fight with everything and anything you have. The other person isn't trying to show off superior skill, they are trying to hurt you. And even if they don't intend to do serious harm they might anyway. They may cause a brain injury, broken bones, internal bleeding, or even kill you. One punch is all it takes to end a life. And you have no idea if this person is trying to kill you, or if they're unskilled enough to do so on accident (as an aside: if you're going to do full contact sparring with someone, make sure you know what NOT to do if you want to both walk away from the match). In this situation your life is in danger, because someone else decided to put you in danger. Anything you have to do to eliminate that threat is acceptable in my opinion.

 

[Thespian]

Now this is interesting. See, in my opinion, if you're in a fight at all you've gone wrong somewhere, but that might be personal preference more than anything else.
As most people have said it really depends on context. If it's for my life, or defending someone I care about, then yeah, I'll do absolutely whatever it takes to make sure that persons stays down if they're down.

If it's somewhat less serious but I'm still fired up, it's hard to say.
It also depends on whether I put the guy down or if he just stumbled and fell or lost his footing or something due to an injury. Anywho, to me a lot of it is about appearance, and there's nothing cool about kicking a guy's face in when he's defenseless. I might let him get back up or whatever just to let it be a more interesting fight, but...
Really, it wouldn't be out of morality but rather out of pride.