Do you call matches "fights"?

Chris Beeby said:
When speaking of BJJ (or other grappling competition), do you call a match a fight? When it's convenient? All the time? Only when it means saving syllables?

This is a pretty big joke among MMA guys. I have no personal problem with people saying they "fought yesterday" or whatever, but I think it's very funny when BJJ competitors will say "I had 6 fights" because that just SOUNDS preposterous without context. IMO a "fight" means there was a chance you could have been seriously injured/maimed/killed, and while a strong choke or a deep leg lock can cause bodily harm, IMO a fight includes striking.

I have also noticed it's mostly BJJ guys that do this. Judo/wrestling do not say "fights". Perhaps this is because a fight can be executed like a BJJ match i.e. early Demain Maia MMA fights (choosing not to strike much in lieu of getting the submission).

This will probably devolve into a flame war, so let's try and keep it civil and include logical explanations as to why or why not.
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IBJJF refers to the matches as "Fights" on their official brackets. For example:

"Day 1 Mat 4, Fight 4 start at 09:51h"
 
Count me with the no group. A fight should involve at least the possibility of getting punched.
 
claytongray said:
Count me with the no group. A fight should involve at least the possibility of getting punched.
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Its not a fight if you can't get shot, knifed, or hit over the head with a club :icon_twis

Seriously, the word "fight" can mean almost anything where there is some conflict. People refer to heated debates as fights. If you want a really strict definition, you could disqualify anything with a referee (that includes MMA) - my CO in the military used to say that "there are no rules in a fight". That means weapons, tactics, whatever goes.

Having said that, I generally call them matches, just because that's what they're called in judo and wrestling (my backgrounds). But I don't care if they're called fights, or wars, or whatever.
 
Wikipedia's BJJ entry has 31 instances of the word fight, fighter and fighting, starting with the phrase "ground fighting". Seems to me you have to try pretty hard to avoid it.
 
It is strange to use the term fight for Mma or BJJ. It seems bout would be more apt.


bout (bout)
n.
1. A contest between antagonists; a match: a wrestling bout.
2. A period of time spent in a particular way; a spell: "His tremendous bouts of drinking had wrecked his health" (Thomas Wolfe).
[From obsolete English bought, a turning (influenced by about), from Middle English, from bowen, to bend, turn; see bow.]
 
I would consider a competition where my goal is to dislocate, break, strangle and cause pain to my opponent a "fight."
 
WNYguy said:
It is strange to use the term fight for Mma or BJJ. It seems bout would be more apt.

bout (bout)
n.
1. A contest between antagonists; a match: a wrestling bout.
2. A period of time spent in a particular way; a spell: "His tremendous bouts of drinking had wrecked his health" (Thomas Wolfe).
[From obsolete English bought, a turning (influenced by about), from Middle English, from bowen, to bend, turn; see bow.]
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Hardly strange since so many people use the word all the time in reference to these two sports/arts.

For starters the number one MMA organisation by far is the Ultimate FIGHTING Championship. Before that we had the Pride FIGHTING Championships. People enjoy watching The Ultimate FIGHTER.

As mentioned Wikipedia uses the term 31 times in describing BJJ

Looking at Metamoris's bio's for the fighters involved:

"considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the women
 
Nozza said:
Hardly strange since so many people use the word all the time in reference to these two sports/arts.

For starters the number one MMA organisation by far is the Ultimate FIGHTING Championship. Before that we had the Pride FIGHTING Championships. People enjoy watching The Ultimate FIGHTER.

As mentioned Wikipedia uses the term 31 times in describing BJJ

Looking at Metamoris's bio's for the fighters involved:

"considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the women
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Nozza said:
Hardly strange since so many people use the word all the time in reference to these two sports/arts.

For starters the number one MMA organisation by far is the Ultimate FIGHTING Championship. Before that we had the Pride FIGHTING Championships. People enjoy watching The Ultimate FIGHTER.

As mentioned Wikipedia uses the term 31 times in describing BJJ

Looking at Metamoris's bio's for the fighters involved:

"considered one of the best pound for pound fighters in the women’s game today"
"establish himself as the top jiu jitsu fighter in the world"
"A resourceful and well-respected fighter,"
"the very best of the young fighters to come up in the last few years"

Rodolgo Viera fights for the Grappling FIGHT Team

Practically everyone inside and out of these sports is using the term fight and that makes it not strange, not odd, not egotistical but entirely appropriate and normal.
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That's just marketing. We're talking about this as peers that participate in the combat sports community as a lifestyle, not viewers that have never trained or barely trained and think all they need to do to beat a UFC champion is get mad enough at him. It is well know that the best term for marketing to viewers and hobbyists is "fighting", this is why you can see this example everywhere from NAGA to UFC.
 
jujijimmy said:
Any combat sport is the same, it is defined by the rules. Mma is no more a fight then a grappling match. Boxers don't have fights either because the ref steps in. What a bullshit topic.
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Possibly the dumbest thing I've read all week.
 
I call it a match (also called my MMA matches "matches" as well), but IMO it's all semantics and if someone calls them fights whatever. If the goal of something is to choke the crap out of someone or tear an arm off I don't really have an issue with someone calling them fights, even if no punches are being thrown.
 
20zbek9.jpg
 
RyanR said:
I call it a match (also called my MMA matches "matches" as well), but IMO it's all semantics and if someone calls them fights whatever. If the goal of something is to choke the crap out of someone or tear an arm off I don't really have an issue with someone calling them fights, even if no punches are being thrown.
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Actually, your opinion is fact. It is definitely semantics.
 
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