My brother and I were into ultimate fighting before it was even
invented. Our version was called 'mercy fighting' and the rules were
simple we fought until the other guy said 'mercy' end of round and on
to the next one. Our very favorite move was what we called the
sleeper choke with leg scissors around the body. We would slap that
on any chance we got and go for the submission. We renamed the move
the 'Lesbian Death-Lock' when I was in the seventh grade because that
is what my friend Cole and his friend Mark called it. I think in retrospect the funniest part about that new name was that we had no idea what a lesbian was it was just a name that came from a cooler kid than me so it had to be awesome. These days the move is
called the 'rear naked choke' in the world of MMA but it is still the
exact same unbeatable move it has always been.
We would play this fighting game all the time for as long as we could
and usually it was just fun but on occasion someone would get their
body or feelings hurt in what they thought was an unfair or excessive
way and mercy fighting would turn into just regular old fashion
fighting. Usually it was just a grappling type fighting game with no
punches or weapons but once it crossed over it was a no holds barred
type of battle that usually ended in blood and troubles. When friends
or cousins came over we would get them involved with a loose
tournament feel where winners could fight winners and losers could
fight for redemption. I had assumed that everyone knew about 'mercy'
fighting so I would just call it that when I was telling people what
we were going to do if they came over to my house to play. It turns
out that not every kid in the world likes to have running submission
battles with their brother and especially the wimpy kids would be a
little disconcerted by the level of violence the game entailed. I
think we did 'mercy' fighting until we had one massive fight when I
was 14 and Matt was 12 and then we never really fought anymore.
