In high school a large group of boys (myself included) thought it would be cool to start a fight club. We would fight both with gloves and bare knuckle in different spots, the most intense of which a giant concrete bowl in a forested watershed. The club lasted for nearly a year, we would set up fights, people would get beat-up (I walked away with no less than 3 concussions) while others would prevail, but win or loose we all walked away from the fights with a feeling of euphoria.
At the time “fight clubs” and “backyard brawls” were big in the media and it seemed like we could have kept up this behavior forever. Unfortunately though or irresponsible actions came with a price and one night during fights someone died. The cause was a brain aneurysm and I thank god I wasn’t there, but the reality of what we were doing set in and we never had another unsanctioned fight.
I think the point is it is easy to romanticize things like fight clubs or ultimate fighting, however UFC and MMA organizations (the real fight clubs) take extensive precautions to keep their fighters safe. In fact the precautions they take are so extensive that they have had only one death in the history of the organized sport, far less than boxing or even football.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBgtccZgrbc