USA TODAY ARLINGTON, Texas � The video shows two bare-knuckle brawlers brutally punching each other until one slumps, beaten, to the ground. The fight doesn't end there: The victor straddles the chest of his fallen opponent, firing rights and lefts into his face. This is not a scene from the Brad Pitt movie Fight Club. Instead, it involves real teenagers in an underground video called Agg Townz Fights 2. Their ring: the grassy schoolyard of Seguin High School here. They're engaged in a disturbing extreme sport that has popped up across the nation: teen fight clubs.
This year, authorities in Texas, New Jersey, Washington state and Alaska have discovered more than a half-dozen teen fight rings operating for fun � or profit. These illegal, violent, often bloody bouts pit boys and girls, some as young as 12, in hand-to-hand combat. Some ringleaders capture these staged fights with video or cellphone cameras, set them to rap music, then peddle homemade DVDs on the Internet. Other fight videos are posted on popular teen websites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com.
Some bouts are more like bare-knuckle boxing matches, with the opponents shaking hands before and after they fight. Others are gang assaults out of ultra-violent films such as A Clockwork Orange, with packs of youths stomping helpless victims who clearly don't want to fight.
Posts: 7 | Location: Austin, Texas, USA | Registered: February 13, 2006
quote:Originally posted by Adam Muery: USA TODAY These illegal, violent, often bloody bouts pit boys and girls, some as young as 12, in hand-to-hand combat.
Wait a minute, did they say GIRLS?
Posts: 2578 | Location: The Great State of Texas | Registered: December 26, 2001
love it when the news thinks they have discovered some new epidemic. Advances in technology have helped spread it, but this has been going on for a long time.
Over ten years ago in one of those supposedly upscale, safe, "not my litle darlin' kid" type communities in Galveston/Harris County where I used to work, we acquired a video of such a staged, paid admission fight. Right after school, in a back yard, probably 50-75 kids in attendance. Neighbor calls about all the noise, kids flee, dump the tape, one of our officers found it -
Posts: 145 | Location: Bryan/College Station | Registered: April 23, 2003
