Have you heard of the Dog Brothers yet? If you haven’t you soon will. The Dog Brothers are a group of underground fighters who are currently challenging the supremacy of the established UFC tournaments by staging their own even more brutal and “real” tournament fights.
I had never heard of the Dog Brothers until I watched a TV reality show on them recently. The show was billed as “The Real Fight Club” and as it turns out, this description wasn’t too far from the truth. The Dog Brothers’ own unique style of match fighting has more in common with the fictional fight club from the movie than it does with anything anyone else is doing, especially the UFC. Indeed the only similarity the Dog Brothers’ type of fighting shares with the UFC is the “no holds barred” approach it takes to fighting and the “anything goes” philosophy that originally under- pinned early UFC fights, though as we all know, this philosophy is no longer relevant when it comes to commercial cage fighting thanks to the many rules and regulations now imposed upon it.
In a Dog brother fight, anything does usually go, including the use of various weapons and whatever unarmed tactics a fighter wants to employ. In this sense it is more “real” than the UFC fights ever were. That’s not to say the fights are brutally thuggish affairs (though blood is often shed). Fights are still controlled to an extent but there is enough free play to ensure a large degree of unpredictability and the chance of being injured along with it.
Check out this video before we go any further and see for yourself.
Who the Hell are These Guys?
The Dog Brothers, as they are collectively known, came together at the Inosanto Academy in California, the school formed by legend of Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) and long time friend of Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto.
Eric “Top Dog” Knaus, Marc “Crafty Dog” Denny, Arlan “Salty Dog” Sanford were all FMA enthusiasts who decided one day to take their sparring sessions a little further and put their techniques to the test under a little more pressure than they normally would. They thus began full contact stick fighting (or Real Contact Stick Fighting as they like it to be known now) with little or no protective gear on. The only real piece of protective equipment they wore was a fencing mask, which all participants still wear to this day.
The Brothers also trained under the Machado brothers in BJJ which had a major influence on their eventual style of fighting, so much so that they eventually coined the term Full Contact Stick Grappling. It seems that grappling is making its presence felt in everything these days, even on the underground fighting scene which these Brothers frequent.
As far as I can make out the Brother’s style of Real Contact Stick Fighting is still very much an underground subculture. The gatherings themselves attract only a few hundred people and have a very tribal feel to them, something the Brother’s try to cultivate as much as possible. Very much like the film “Fight Club”, people go to these gatherings because they have something to prove to themselves, not because they want to make a name for themselves (although I’m sure some of them do). The Brothers’ motto is “The greater the dichotomy, the profounder the transformation; higher consciousness through harder contact.”
The way the fights are organized only serves to reinforce this notion of self discovery. There are no rules to speak of and no referee to enforce them. Fighters arrive at the gathering and basically size each other up. Fights are then initiated by simply walking up to someone and asking if they want a match. If they take up the offer, it’s on. That’s it.
That’s not to say the glory factor doesn’t exist. Even though there are no prizes fighters do get the chance to move up the ranks of the tribe. The more fights you do, the higher up the ranks you go. The difference here though is that rankings are based on mutual respect, once again reinforcing the tribal feel of the gatherings.
Weapons
Weapons are a big part of what the Dog Brothers do, especially the use of sticks. The majority of the fighters use sticks in their fights and they don’t hold back in using them either. In the documentary that I seen a lot of the fighters ended up with nasty cuts to the head having taken a full force blow from an opponents stick. Even with the fencing masks on fighters still get hurt, but it doesn’t seem to bother any of them. Most of the fighters see it as all part of the experience, another avenue to self discovery.
Sticks are not the only weapon used either. In fact, fighters are free to use any weapon they choose (within reason). Whips, Bo’s, Nunchaku’s and even lengths of garden hose are used. Knifes also come into play, although they don’t use real ones. Shock knifes that deliver a burst of electricity when they contact with something are used. These were pioneered by law enforcement agencies to train officers in knife defenses. Unlike wooden or rubber knifes, with shock knifes, you really know when you’ve been caught.
So all of these things are used throughout the fights and used with full contact. The only thing that stops fighters going over the top on one another is the crowd. If you happen to break your opponents defenses to the point were they are at your mercy, nasty finishing blows will not be tolerated. The crowd soon lets you know if you are about to cross the line. Again, the tribal rules coming into play here.
Does RCSF Have a Future?
At the moment the Brother’s style of fighting is still very much an underground pursuit, but the popularity of it is spreading. Many of the fighters are starting their own contests in garages and open air locations all over the country and beyond. As a cultural phenomenon Real Contact Stick Fighting shows no signs of slowing up. It appeals to a certain section of male society who feel that fighting is a good way to express themselves and discover more about the inner them. Whether it will catch on in martial arts circles remains to be seen. It certainly doesn’t have the pulling power that MMA does to get people involved because it offers nothing in the way of materialistic gain, something that will put many fighters of straight away.
I do believe though that the Brothers have been in contact with the UFC with a view to organising televised bouts but the UFC turned their offer down on the grounds that RCSF is too extreme even for them at the moment. Indeed if you go to the Dog Brothers website you can read the letter that the UFC sent back to them for yourself.
Personally I believe this type of fighting has a commercial future, despite what the UFC are saying at the moment. Sooner or later cage fighting is going to take a drop in the popularity stakes and when that happens the money men in the board room are going start looking around for something more spectacular and exciting to replace it with.
It will not surprise me at all if a few years down the line we see guys in cages holding all manner of weapons and going at each other full force with the cheers of massive crowds behind them, baying for blood. I have visions of guys with hockey masks on fighting each other with chainsaws and machetes in televised matches reminiscent of the fights till the death in “The Running Man”.
Okay maybe I’m just joking there. Sort of. Who knows what kind of society we will be living in soon?
What about you? Do you want to see Real Contact Stick Fighting on TV? Would you take part in a fight yourself? Let me know by leaving your comments below.
