# 2. Don’t fight their fight, fight to win!

One of the biggest mistakes you can do in a street fight is to allow the attacker to “fight their fight”. That means you allow them to do what they want, when they want, wherever they want to you. You allow them to use their best techniques and best attacks against you. If they are boxer type fighters that means you allow them to stand in front of you, jab and punch you. If they are Karate type fighters that means you allow them to kick and punch you from a karate stance. If they are street type fighters that means you allow them to attack you with wild swinging punches, knees and grabbing. In other words, you allow them to fight their fight. You can’t do that and win the fight.

You have to stop the other guy from being comfortable and doing what they do well. You have to not allow them to dictate the conditions of the fight. You have to take control of the fight and you have to dictate the terms of the fight. If you are fighting a boxer, you keep them from punching you in the head by lowering your head, bending you knees and kicking the crap of their legs. A hard side kick is very difficult for a boxer to defend against and a vicious round house to the knees, back and side of the head will definitely drop them. A hard thrusting front kick to the stomach or groin area will stop any and all boxing attacks. A true boxer has no chance against someone to does viscous kicks with bad intentions the minute the boxer squares up.

If you are fighting a karate style fighter, you want to stay very close to stop his kicks and you want to tie him up and take him to the ground.. 90% of karate students have no idea of what to do on the ground and you can easily mount them and pound them into submission. They simply can not withstand a hard take down and a tough ground fight. They don’t have the training to respond, in about 30 seconds they will be exhausted and you can easily take control of the fight and finish it.

If you are fighting a street fighter who is doing wild punches and unconventional attacks, you should take him to the ground with a hard kick to the knees, groin, and a wrestling or judo take down. You have to withstand his initial wild attack, and you have to make your counter attack devastating to finish him and the fight quickly. A street fighter is open for a hard side kick and their groin and stomach are always open for a front snap or front thrust.

The point I am trying to make is that you can not get into a “sparring match”. You can win a fight by letting the other guy get comfortable. You have to do something they are not used to seeing and have no idea how to defend. You keep them off balance and keep them guessing what you are going to do next. Don’t get into a bad boxing match like you see in so many UFC fights now. The reason these guys are standing up and doing “bad boxing” is they are afraid of the other guys ground game, and don’t know how to kick. So they both “agree” to stay standing up and try to outpunch the other guy. They would never do that in the Street. They would never get into a bad boxing match. A trained UFC fighter would do some viscous kicks and then take them down, mount them and destroy them. They only reason they don’t do that in many UFC matches now is because they don’t want to go to the ground with the other guy. 

BJ Penn is one of the greatest ground fighters in the World but for some reason he likes to stand up now and be a bad boxer. That doesn’t’ mean he is better than most other UFC fighter, but he is not better than World Champion Boxer. If he were to try that boxing style against Shane Mosley he wouldn’t last 1 minute. But if he took Mosley to the ground, Mosley wouldn’t last a minute.   Just look at the “great street brawler” Kimbo Slice. He could not make it in a real UFC fight even against very weak UFC type opponents. He simple was never comfortable in the UFC style of fighting because the other fighter never allowed him to fight his fight. They forced him to fight their fight and he couldn’t match up.

You keep your opponent from getting comfortable in a fight. You keep them off balance and on the defensive. You control the conditions of the fight and you will control the outcome of the fight. Don’t let the other guy fight his fight, you fight to win and that means you don’t allow the other guy to do anything but get beat up because you never give him the chance to fight his fight.