Fighting is currently viewed in our culture as something deplorable, even the recourse of lesser minds.

Fighting — seen as an extension of violence — is regarded as an unproductive waste of energy akin to the behavior of savage cave men. As a result, we no longer educate in the arts of war or expect men to face the realities of combat. Mixed martial arts holds for us an opportunity to recapture the warrior spirit.

The two most common questions I get regarding mixed martial arts are:

“What is gained by having two guys beat the hell out of each other in a cage?”

“Why can’t you engage in safe sports?”

The first benefit of brutal combat is that it teaches the supremacy of action. How, you may ask?

In the cage, any misconception you carry of your ability, any fear you have of injury or pain, any burdens on your mind are brought into the harsh, physical, reality of your opponent’s fists and feet. Thoughts of anything but the moment, thoughts of pride or weakness cease to have any meaning. Only what you do and how you act ensures your outcome. That should be repeated. Only what you do ensures your outcome.

Action is real, and in a fight action is all that is real. Good intentions don’t block punches, and your feelings about being beneath a 200-pound mass of muscle as he tries to punch your face in have little bearing on the situation.

Your actions, guided by strategy and courage win the fight. In a society that is more and more bound up in the emotions of situations — and these things should be considered — it is of the utmost value to have the necessity of action brought to the foreground.

The second benefit of brutal fighting is perspective. This unfortunately cannot be separated from pain and danger. The fear one feels when faced with the possibility of pain and the reality of danger is infinitely greater than that which is derived from embarrassment, stress or insecurity. It is by facing fear and conquering it with courage that our lives may know new and better freedom, and fighting is a gateway to that freedom.

If we remove the danger and the pain, we are left with something much like any other athletic experience and something much less potent. No offense is intended to other athletic endeavors, for I have the greatest respect for all sports and the athletic spirit. But the athletic experience is not the martial experience. This is why whole religious philosophies have been constructed around the martial arts, and this is why they will always be relevant to society.

The martial mind is born of fear surmounted by courage and pain defeated by purpose. It is a clear picture of our world that engenders unbiased action, action based upon necessity and efficacy rather than the fragility of our feelings. In a fight, we learn the cost of wasted energy in the currency of fatigue. We discover our mistakes on our own, with no team on which to blame them.

We see in the swollen, bleeding eyes of our adversary a common struggle, a common passion and a common pain that is perhaps the clearest picture of our mutual humanity.

So when I am asked “What is gained by having two guys beat the hell out of each other in a cage?”

I say, “If you want to know, train and take a fight.”

—Adam Bohl is a senior in chemical engineering