The idea of being attacked in the street is something that terrifies many.
The randomness, being in the wrong time at the wrong place nature of being assaulted in public is enough to keep some up at night. In recent years high-profile attacks have shocked and sickened the nation, drawing attention to the realities and dangers that can lurk in our streets.
The reasons someone might be attacked vary, from robbery to sexual assault. Some groups are more vulnerable than others, but the cold truth is that anyone in the wrong time and place could fall prey to an attacker.
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Even if you don’t think this applies to you, knowing what to do is unlikely to be a bad thing. To find out what this was, the Daily Star sought the help of someone who understands what being a fight with your life on the line means more than most.
There are countless martial arts tutorials and courses out there if that’s what you think is right for you. But for the many who are not martial artists and don’t have the means to learn, practical no-nonsense tips may well be of more use.
To find out more about this The Daily Star sent its resident crash test dummy Hazard Harry into the training ring with no-rules street fighter Bachir Fakhouri.
“Bash” is a prizefighter. He fights for money, he fights to feed his family. He doesn't care if he wins, all he knows is that he will try and hurt his rival until one of them can't get up anymore.
Bash has gouged eyes “until they piss blood,” and felt other men’s thumbs behind his own. He has bitten chunks off ears and had his head jumped on more times than many would care to know. If there is anyone who understands what fighting to survive in unarmed combat means, it’s Bash.
“You've got to make them fear you,” he explained. “Even if you are scared, make them feel scared. Make them think ‘f*** you know what, I got an animal [here], an animal.’ And you know what? You have to sometimes turn into an animal to scare off s***bags.
“Turn that fear into anger… turn it into ‘you will not beat me,’ turn that fear into power.”
He wanted to make it clear that this was only for desperate moments of survival – not someone “mouthing you in a pub”. The things he discussed would likely end you up in jail.
"Grab their head very aggressively and put your thumb deep into their eyes as you can – they will panic and run. If they do not you keep pushing until one of them comes out. If not, you bite anything you can get hold of, anything, like a savage dog. Bite their whole f***ing nose, everything their chin, their lips, they will panic and run but this is real survival, not somebody mouthing you in a pub… because you’re going to go to prison.”
If that’s the situation, one of genuine survival, Bash explained: “Pull them and bite them as quickly as you can all over their face, their lips everything just bite their nose, take it clean off and I guarantee that they will run – it's called survival, a.k.a primal animal instinct.”
The same, he said, goes for any fingers that end up near your face.
He said: “Put your finger up their nose and pull it, rip the whole nose off. Rip everything you can… Worst case [if you’re] on the floor. Grab their ear, twist it right off… keep biting like a dog and you know what they will run as soon as they know that they're in trouble, like they're trying to do to you. They will run.
“A punch and a kick won't work. Break their nose, won’t work. If you really have to survive, and I mean really, grab their head towards you by their hair, control their head and bite their nose clean off or bite their lip and stick your finger right up their nose and rip their whole nose off. Rip the whole f****** nose off. They’ll run, run, run like a dog… I guarantee they’ll s*** themselves”.
And what if someone comes up behind you and tries to grab you? For Bash the answer is easy. “Just headbutt backwards. If they're not used to real violence [then this] is normally enough.”
He said you should do this repeatedly and if that gives you the opportunity, try and run.
It might be clear by now, that for Bash the secret to surviving this unthinkable situation, is to convince the person attacking you that you are more terrifying than they are. Bash, who has often described himself as a fighting dog, continued: “Become a dog, if people want to treat you like a dog you become a dog… people are scared of dogs… They want to be an animal, you become an animal.”
Rationalising the whole bloody saga, Bash explained: “I don't care who you are – and I’m a no-rules fighter. When you're in [that situation] you're fighting for your life. You have to see it as ‘I'm fighting for my life.’
“So what would you do if you're fighting for your life? You won't kick somebody in the balls, have a little runoff and have a lollipop… If you want me to fight for my life, if you're going to put me in that situation I will fight.
Hazard Harry, staring at Bash in pure shock, had had the colour drain from his face at this point, but Bash concluded: “That's real fight or flight. Real fight or flight, and [if you fight] you will fight until the end”.
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