Battle has been an unavoidable element of life since the beginning of time. Animals have always fought for food and survival, and humans have waged war for innumerable reasons since the advent of our species. Territorial, political, religious, and other bases for bloody conflict have written violence into our blood. Violence is so much a part of us, in fact, that we have developed a recreational instinct for it and created games in order to slake our evolutionary bloodlust.

The following are some of the means by which we scratch our bloody little itches. Some may have come from long ago, but all are presently practiced. Here now, for our sadistic glee, are the ten most brutal modern-day fighting sports.

10 Catch Wrestling

Catch wrestling, for those unfamiliar with the term, is basically a combined form of grappling, allowing for techniques from wrestling, judo, and jujutsu. It values both pins and submissions while focusing more on the power of wrestling as opposed to the finesse-oriented principles of judo and jujutsu (the names of both of which translate roughly to “gentle way” in reference to their focus on technique over strength).

A unique element of catch wrestling is that victory comes through a best-of-three system (in which individual wins are referred to as “downs”) rather than single-win determination, essentially forcing competitors into three submission grappling matches rather than one.^[1]

Though catch wrestling does not carry the threat of concussive and blunt-force damage, the slams and submission holds carry a great risk if they are not executed carefully (and still to a significant extent even if they are). This, accompanied by the requirement of the “downs” for a victory, earn catch wrestling a spot representing grappling arts on this list.

9 Bare-Knuckle Boxing

Recently returning to the US is the art of bare-knuckle boxing. This new iteration, known as the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), features a new rounded, four-rope “squared circle” but is otherwise the same brutal sport that was banned in 1889, Broughton rules and all.^[2]

The immediately possible injuries in boxing are largely obvious, including damage to the skull, eyes, ribs, and hands. (Broken hands by the puncher are very common in fight sports—a risk greatly exacerbated in bare-knuckle context.) But the biggest threat to a boxer is cumulative brain damage from continued blows to the head over time, which can lead not only to common forms of brain damage and “punch-drunk syndrome” but also to a greater risk of brain illnesses such as Alzheimer’s later in life.

8 Sambo

Russia has a reputation as a cold, hard, unforgiving place, and the fight sports that come from there are no different. Sambo isn’t just a fight sport but also a military combat system as well, with separate training systems for each version (military, sport, self-defense, freestyle, specialized). “Sambo” is a Russian portmanteau meaning “self-defense without weapons,” and it is essentially the official fighting system of Russia. It is used by everyone, including soldiers, police, athletes, citizens, and, presumably, bears on unicycles.

Sambo was formed in the early 20th century by a series of Russian martial artists by combining the effective elements of various fighting styles. Vasili Oshchepkov—a karate and Russian wrestling master who was also one of very few non-Japanese in the world with a black belt (second-degree) from Jigoro Kano (the creator of judo) himself—teamed up with Victor Spiridonov—a master of various grappling martial arts who focused on finesse and redirection of force over power due to a left arm lame from a bayonet wound—to form a new hand-to-hand combat system with the knowledge they’d acquired from their unique combat training and experience. From here, they joined up with Vseobuch, the general combat training system of the Red Army under Vladimir Lenin. In this context, they combined their studies with Anatoly Kharlampiev and I.V. Vasiliev—both extensive students of world martial arts systems and Vseobuch leaders—to complete their martial arts concept. Thus, Sambo was born.^[3]

The use of headgear and gloves may allow for greater protection against the cumulative brain damage that can be caused by some other strike-oriented combat sports, including bare-knuckle boxing, but the added danger of immediate injury from kicks, knees, elbows, judo throws, and submission holds earns Sambo a place on this list.

7 Muay Thai

Muay Thai is a form of extremely aggressive kickboxing that originated in Thailand. It evolved from an earlier, more military style called Muay Boran. As warring with neighboring nations decreased, its military nature declined in favor of sport combat, and Muay Thai was born. It was always an important national pastime in Thailand but gained worldwide popularity in the 1970s and 1980s, when Muay Thai fighters gained a reputation for readily defeating kickboxers of other disciplines.

Affectionately known as “the art of eight limbs,” Muay Thai gets this notorious nickname due to its use of elbows and knees in addition to the typical punches and kicks of other forms of kickboxing. (More ancient rules also allowed for headbutts, but those have since been banned.) The sport also contains a technique known as “Thai Clinch,” in which the hands are locked behind an opponent’s head in order to control their movements and deliver a series of difficult-to-defend-against knees to the face and occasionally throw them to the ground.^[4]

The elbows and knees make Southeast Asian forms of kickboxing especially brutal as a fight sport, even in the face of other types of kickboxing. There are many versions of kickboxing from this region of the world with similar rules—such as Kun Khmer and Pradal Serey—that could be included on this list, but for the sake of maintaining variety, Muay Thai, the best-known of the bunch, has been chosen as a representative.

6 Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)

Mixed martial arts (MMA), is largely exactly what it sounds like: a sport in which competitors of various fighting styles compete against each other in a unified context. The rules, or relative lack thereof, are what make this type of competition one of the most brutal on Earth. A fairly accurate way to describe it would be to combine the rules and allowances of Muay Thai with catch wrestling, and it thus carries the combined risks of both. But there’s more: there is no pinning in MMA, so any victory in grappling is achieved by the much more dangerous act of submission holds or, even more brutally than that, the “ground-and-pound.” This term refers to the act of throwing punches and elbows—almost always to the head—at an opponent who is pinned to the ground. It is as difficult to defend against as it is brutal.

The few techniques that are banned from this sport are kicks or knees to the head of a grounded opponent, downward strikes with the point of the elbow, groin strikes, and “dirty fighting” techniques, such as biting, eye-gouging, and so on. Beyond such things, almost anything goes.^[5]

5 Historic Medieval Battle (HMB)

Saying “medieval” may cause one to question whether or not this is a modern sport, but the term actually refers to a modern sport intending to simulate medieval combat for modern athletes. The sport essentially involves competitors donning armor and wielding steel weapons, simulating the nature of medieval fighting as closely as possible without killing each other. The armor sounds like it might remove a good deal of the sport’s brutality, but the axes and maces put it right back in. A competitor being held against a rail by two opponents as another beats on his helmet with an ax is quite a sight to behold.

One forgiving element of the sport is that the rules for elimination of a team member are rather merciful—essentially, hitting the ground means you’re out.^[6] The competition is decided on a last-man-standing basis, with teams consisting of five to 21 fighters. There are also substantially less brutal (but still pretty rough) one-on-one fights based on traditional rules for competitive dueling.

4 Medieval MMA

This sport, just as it may sound, is essentially an MMA equivalent to HMB. Two fighters enter a ring in medieval equipment very similar to that worn by HMB fighters. From here, many elements are similar to what would be a one-on-one HMB match, but with one drastic difference: You’re not out when you’re knocked down. Victory in medieval MMA is claimed through means similar to hand-to-hand MMA—knockout or submission—except with weapons. The brutality of this is displayed well by Rustam Kukurhoev’s vicious knockout of Vitaly Kravchenko in an early event by taking Kravchenko down and bashing his helmet with the edge of a shield. (You can watch it above.)

Originally created as a bit of a sideshow to divide the undercard from the main card at an M1 MMA event, the attraction was so well-received by fans that the sport has grown to where entirely medieval fight events are now being held.^[7]

3 Eskrima

Rounding out the section on weapons is the national martial art/sport the Phillipines—Eskrima, also known as Kali or Arnis. Some may argue that the three are technically different styles with different focuses, but they all fall under the category known as FMA, or Filipino martial arts, and are largely interchangeable.

The art was admired by colonial (1521–1898) Spaniards but was banned by 1596 and completely forbidden by 1764, due to it being too dangerous. The Spanish attempted to wipe out FMA, as well as most of Filipino culture, but the natives found ways to keep their traditions alive and hidden, with FMA concepts specifically being hidden in forms of dance.

Unlike most martial arts, which focus on hand-to-hand conflict first and integrate weapons later, FMA emphasizes weapons—particularly modern available weapons such as sticks of various range, knives, longer blades like machetes, chains, and even projectile weapons like guns—and uses unarmed techniques as only one part of the mix.^[8]

When engaging in sport Eskrima, the most commonly associated form is single- or double-stick fighting styles. Most, if not all, professionally sanctioned FMA organizations use heavy padding to protect fighters from serious damage, making the sport decidedly less dangerous, but the version that gets FMA onto this list is the unarmored type. It is not uncommon for FMA practitioners to engage in semiorganized competitions in which they beat the bejesus out of each other with wooden sticks almost completely unprotected (often with the exception of their hands). The unsanctioned nature of these competitions make them especially dangerous, as well.

On seeing these bouts, this form of Eskrima is clearly more fight than sport, and it’s incredibly brutal. Though not associated with an official sports league, there is a wealth of organized competitions for unarmored FMA. There are many instances of a few individuals engaging in unarmored weapons practice in other styles, but these, unlike unarmored FMA, are not widely organized enough to constitute their own sport.

2 Calcio Storico

Originating from a game designed by the Romans to keep their legionnaires fit for battle (harpastum), Calcio Storico is commonly referred to as “the most violent sport on Earth.” Though the previous entries on this list have all been martial arts competitions, this sport is a predecessor of modern soccer and also shares many similarities with American football and rugby. The ball is carried much like in rugby or American football and then thrown into one of a series of spaced-apart goals on the far side of the opposing team’s territory.^[9]

What qualifies Calcio Storico as a fight sport, however, is that martial arts are still regularly used—and with far less regulation and protection than in martial arts sports. It features no wearable protection and very few rules. No attacking from behind, ganging up, or striking a downed opponent. That’s about it. The lack of shielding from harm, accompanied by the vicious nature of interaction, leads to a staggering 50-percent injury rate! This is what earns Calcio Storico the notoriety of being the world’s most violent sport.

It must also be noted that participation in this sport is strictly an act of passion, as the competitors don’t even get paid!

1 Lethwei

Though Muay Thai has already been used as a representative for Southeast Asian boxing, Lethwei is being listed separately, and for a very brutal reason. Firstly, Lethwei is “bare-knuckle” (although handwraps are used), and in response to Muay Thai’s nickname of “the art of eight limbs,” Lethwei is referred to as “the art of nine limbs,” as it is the only combat sport remaining that allows for headbutts.^[10] Those facts, however, are little more than incidental in the face of the real reason for which Lethwei is the number-one item on this list, that being its handling of the concept of a “knockout.”

In Lethwei, when a fighter is knocked out (unable to answer an eight count), rather than the fight being called, the unconscious fighter is dragged back to his corner, revived with smelling salts, and given the option to continue! The fight is not called until a fighter chooses not to continue or until the fight runs out of time, in which case the fighter who knocked out the other more times wins. In the case of no or equal knockouts, the fight is determined a draw. Essentially, what we have here is sport with the most vicious of existing contact rules, where what would be considered an outright victory in other fight sports merely constitutes a single point. It is astonishing that people survive this sport, let alone the fact that it is legal and gaining popularity!

Bloodthirst has been a favorite human pastime for a good long while, and with the popularity of the items on this list, that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. We may no longer allow gladiator battles to the death, but some of these warrior athletes come awfully close.

Jason Karras writes, therefore he is.

For all Hollywood tries to tell us otherwise, in real life the ‘little guy’ rarely wins. More often than not, the guy who comes out on top is the guy with more money, the bigger army or better connections than the plucky underdog. That’s why it’s so gratifying to occasionally stumble across tales of people at the bottom of the pile who take one look at the lemons life has handed them, and decide to punch their oppressors in the balls. Here are ten such tales:

What happened: Indian Women Learn to Kung Fu their Abusers

As I’ve mentioned before, India isn’t a great place to be born female. Child marriage, depressingly-high rape statistics and frequent stories of abuse all add up to a culture where lacking a Y chromosome is seen by many as an invitation to harassment. So this makes the story of the Red Brigade all the more awesome.

Formed in 2011, the Brigade is a 100-strong vigilante group of karate-trained girls who patrol the city of Lucknow, dispensing fist-based justice to local perverts. And I mean ‘girls’: the group’s age range is around 11-24, which means they’re routinely called out to ‘settle’ men about twice their age. Best of all, their methods are less violence-based and more about humiliation. A standard punishment for a guy who gropes a member is to be hoisted out into the street, pinned down and hit with shoes while everyone looks on and laughs. And it’s working, as of April 2013, the Red Brigade are planning to spread their operations to every ward in their city.

What happened: Libyans Take on Terror (and win)

If you pay any attention at all to politics, you’ve probably heard of Benghazi. Basically, it was ground zero for a political disaster that included the death of the American ambassador at the hands of terrorists. With cries for action from all quarters, the Libyan government sat on their hands and did nothing—leaving it up to the Libyan people.

On the 21 September 2012, the citizens of Benghazi decided they’d had enough of terrorists running the show and stormed the militants’ compound. To be absolutely clear: these were ordinary, unarmed people attacking a base protected by enough weaponry to keep the army at bay. And they won. In a frenzied 48 hours, these angry protestors managed to drive the entire Ansar al-Sharia terror group from their city and make the Libyan army look like total wimps. Things may not be exactly safe in Benghazi now, but for one weekend in September it was the terrorist’s turn to feel terror. Whichever way you cut it, that’s an awesome moment.

What happened: Anonymous Stand up for a Bullied Girl

Depending on what mood they’re in, Anonymous can be either hilarious or absolutely terrifying. But occasionally, they band together and pull out something so awesome you have no choice but to stop and cheer.

In 2011 15 year old Rehtaeh Parsons got drunk at a party and was sexually assaulted by four high school scumbags. Over the next year, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police slowly bungled the investigation so badly no one was ever arrested. Earlier this year, the resultant bullying and humiliation got too much and Parsons killed herself. There this depressing story would have ended, had Anonymous not got wind of it.

Within two hours of deciding to get involved, they’d uncovered the identity of two of the rapists, along with a shit-ton of evidence against them. Brilliantly, they held back from publicly releasing the names on the condition the RCMP re-opened the case and did their jobs. At the time of writing, that’s exactly what’s happened. While it’s too early to say for certain whether justice will be done, it’s a hell of an improvement on the RCMP’s original ‘no evidence’ verdict.

What happened: Two Hippies Humiliate McDonalds

Most of us can take an insult without throwing a massive temper tantrum, but McDonald’s executives aren’t ‘most of us’. When they found out a bunch of unwashed environmentalists were handing out a low-circulation pamphlet insulting their brand, they had their lawyers try to silence them with the threat of legal action. Big mistake.

Rather than rolling over like the company had hoped, two of the group decided to defend the case in court. McDonalds, evidently having never heard of David and Goliath, threw their best legal team and millions of dollars at the case, only to realize most of the claims in the ‘insulting’ pamphlet were objectively true. What followed was a twenty year legal battle that resulted in McDonalds blowing millions and soaking up consistent bad publicity all for a partial win and a £20,000 award the defendants couldn’t pay. To add insult to injury, the European Court of Human Rights awarded the defendants £57,000 on appeal, meaning McDonalds both took a pasting and wound up with less money than the penniless hippies it was trying to sue.

What happened: The ‘Spam King’ Gets Spammed

Meet Alan Ralsky; if you were online around 2002, he almost certainly clogged up your inbox with brain-melting levels of spam. He made the internet an objectively worse-place to be and, worst of all, made millions in the process. Then he made the fatal mistake of boasting about it.

Thanks to the magic of modern telecommunications, users everywhere quickly learned of his boast. In the subsequent orgy of revenge, Slashdot tracked down his home address, posted it and then the fun began. In no time at all, the ‘spam king’ was deluged with a landfill’s worth of catalogues, charity envelopes, adult video offers and every other conceivable kind of junk mail. Best of all, Ralsky got so angry he threatened to sue the people involved—at which point humanity gave a collective guffaw and ordered more catalogues. Eventually Ralsky kicked up such a fuss it came to the attention of the FBI—who arrested him for breaking anti-spam laws.

What happened: Steven Slater versus Life

Everyone reading this who has ever worked a menial job will remember THAT customer. The customer who cursed you out for going too slow, or went out of their way to make you feel small. Well, this entry is for you.

In 2010, Steven Slater was stressed out by life. His mother was ill, he was ill and his job as a flight attendant wasn’t exactly rewarding. So when a passenger on his plane started swearing at Slater for no reason, he did what all of us in that situation would have dreamt of doing.

First, Slater got on the plane’s intercom to give the passenger a very public chewing out. Then he grabbed a beer, activated the emergency slide and leapt from the plane; thereby quitting his job in the most awesome way possible. When police finally showed up at his house several hours later, he came out with a smile on his face and was willingly arrested. The result: Slater was ordered to pay his former employer $10,000—but the incident also turned his life around and landed him a book deal. So in answer to the question “was it worth it?” the response has to be a resounding “hell yeah.”

What happened: College Thief gets Humiliated, Big Time

Some of you may recognize the phrase “don’t steal computers belonging to people who know how to use computers”. If not, simply watch the clip above to refresh your memory. See that guy, the one dancing like an idiot for the entire world to see? Well, he completely deserves his humiliation—and here’s why:

In 2011, Mark Bao found himself unwillingly relieved of his MacBook Air. Too bad right, but what’s a guy to do? Well, you could always access the stolen computer via Backblaze and download the thief’s personal data. And, if you just happened to stumble across a homemade video of said-thief dancing like a moron, you could definitely post it to YouTube and make him the subject of international humiliation. Want to guess what Bao did?

The thief’s embarrassment was so total he returned the laptop and sent Bao a message begging him to take the video down. Apparently not a ‘forgive and forget’ type, Bao published the message too, along with a mocking commentary—proving you should never, ever mess with a nerd.

What happened: Roger Pion Fulfills Every Man’s Dream

Unlike most of the people on this list, Roger Pion may have deserved what was coming to him. Last year, Pion was arrested for marijuana possession—which technically remains illegal despite the strong case for decriminalization. However, not being the sort of guy to waste time debating the finer points of law enforcement, Pion decided to fight back– and fulfill every adolescent boy’s dream.

Commandeering his father’s comically-large tractor, Pion drove to the local police station and proceeded to crush every single car in the lot, before high-tailing it off into the Vermont sunset. The best part of his cathartic revenge act? The cops had nothing left to chase him with—meaning Pion got to blow off steam and make them look ridiculous.

What happened: 9 Year Old Gate Crashes a Westboro Baptist Hatefest

Plenty of people have counter-protested Westboro Baptist Church pickets. But what makes this protest especially awesome is it comes from a nine year old.

Josef Miles was just wandering round Washburn University Campus with his mom one day when they bumped into a classic Westboro hatefest. Now, at the age of nine, most of us would probably have just asked our parent what a ‘fag’ was and started an intensely-awkward conversation, but Miles was having none of that. Instead he quickly constructed his own ‘God Hates No-one’ sign and launched a one-kid counter-protest. Did it stop the Westboro morons from continuing their protest? Of course not. Did it give the rest of us some hope for the future? Heck yes.

What happened: The Singing Revolution

So we’ve seen some good stuff, but ultimately, these are kind of one-offs. It’s not like anyone’s ever kicked back against an entire government and won, is it? Not against a vast, oppressive government like, say, the Soviet Union. Well, read on.

For most of the 20th century, Estonia was pretty-heavily under Russia’s thumb. Since glorious Communist utopias tend to be anything but, a large part of this involved Estonian culture being effectively outlawed. Everything from flags to chants was banned by the Moscow-controlled government; as was singing patriotic folk songs. Unfortunately for Russia, Estonian’s really like their folk songs.

In 1988, 300,000 Estonian’s gathered together to sing outlawed songs at their tormentors. A year later, people across the country and into Latvia and Lithuania joined hands to make a 360 mile human chain. And once again, they sang. Even though Tiananmen Square had just happened, even though the Soviets could stomp them into oblivion without a second thought they just stood there, unarmed and sang old songs. When they saw what was happening, Russian high command shat a brick—but by then it was too late. Spurred by the wave of peaceful protests, first Lithuania then finally Estonia declared their independence; contributing to the total collapse five months later of the USSR.

Now that’s some impressive fight back.