Mandatory: This happened last Saturday, March 25th. So, it’s quite fresh. And this is a throwaway account, I won’t post something like this with my real account…

Disclaimer: I don’t come here looking for sympathy. Not in reddit of all places. What happened (what I’m about to tell you) was 100% on me. 100% my fault. I just wanted to share this with the universe… Hopefully, someone will learn something from this.

A little bit of context first: I’m a normal guy, 47 years old. I’m married, have two kids, normal life, normal job, middle class. An average guy in every sense of the word.

I’m quite fit for my age, I eat well, I work out twice a week. I practiced TaeKwondo and Kung-Fu when I was young, but I haven’t trained in martial arts in 30 years. Still, I can handle myself well in a fight. I know the basics at least.

And now, the juicy part. This Saturday started like any other day. I was planning on going to Chinatown to get some toys for my kids, spicy food and grape flavored Fanta. I was in a good mood actually.

When I left my house, I was walking in the street and crashed into another guy. This happens usually because there’s a supermarket in that street. So… lots of people, always. It’s common to crash into someone, cause people are always in a hurry.

So… I hadn’t even turned, but I heard this guy yelling at me and insulting me. I was going to keep walking, but this guy kept insulting me and… some demon inside me just woke up. Thus, I turned and started insulting him. At that point, we were both still walking in opposite directions, putting more and more distance between each other, but we both kept insulting the other. But then, he said a couple of things that really pissed me off, so I turned and started walking towards him. From this moment on, he stopped talking. He kept walking turning every once in a while, without saying anything, and I kept walking toward him and yelling… It was like… as if he had realized this was going to end in a fight and he didn’t want to get involved. But it was too late for me… I was already on fire.

In his last effort to avoid the fight, he got into the supermarket. I was beyond pissed, So I was standing just outside and yelled at him: “Are you a pussy now?” and raised my guard. This was the point of no return.

The guy stepped outside, and because of the way he moved, I instantly knew he was trained in some kind of MMA-like discipline. He was using an all-out, aggressive brawling style. I, on the other hand, opted for a more traditional kung-fu approach. We engaged in combat, and the guy was able to land a few punches on my face. I, on the other hand, was able to land only one straight punch to his nose, and I made it bleed. After our first clash I understood something. His punches didn’t hurt me. He was not strong enough. Even though he was about 20 years younger than me, I was heavier than him. In my estimation, he was about 132 lbs, while I am 180 lbs. I was able to whistand a few punches, while just one of my punches made him bleed.

So, there I was, pretty confident at this point. I was like: “I’m gonna teach this motherfucker not to insult random people in the street.”

The guy touched his nose and wiped the blood. For a second, he looked at his bloody hand without believing it… How was is possible that an old fart made him bleed… right?

I was there, standing in front of him, with my arms extended in a right line, assuming that in order to hit me, he would have to come within range… and while he would be able to land a few punches, I believed my next hit would end the fight. I was aiming for the throat this time.

And then… He did the one thing I was not expecting. From the distance, he kicked me in the left knee. It was a lateral kick, deadly accurate. The kind of kick that you just don’t throw randomly. The kind of kick you practiced a hundred or a thousand times before.

At that very moment, my left leg couldn’t support my weight anymore and I fell. I tried to get up quickly, but my leg didn’t agree with me. I was done for.

Luckily for me, God exists somewhere, and some random guys in the street, grabbed him and prevented him to keep hitting me. Since I was already on the floor and unable to get up, the fight was over. He was yelling like a madman, that I went looking for him at the supermarket… to fight. Which was true… 100% true… what happened, happened because I was provoked, and I was unable to control myself… I had a lot of opportunities to walk away, and yet, I didn’t.

And of course, I paid the price. Now I have a broken knee. It will take 3 to six months to recover, and (the worse part), It might need surgery. The knee if an awful place to get hurt.

The first few hours after the fight I kept thinking, over and over, what could I have done to get a different outcome. My first thought was… “I should have kept hitting him when he was injured, I’m a fool, I stopped attacking”. But hey, as you have probably realized by now, this is not a tale about how could I have won the fight. This is a cautionary tale. This is about a stupid choice that can change your life. This is about learning from it… so kids… don’t be like me. Think before you act…

I want to end this post on a happy note. Not everything is bad, So I now try to focus on good things. For example, due to my leg injury, I won’t have to go to the office for 3 months at least. 100% remote work… And Since I cannot take a normal bath because I can’t get into the bathtub, now I get Japanese style baths. That’s me, sitting on a chair, and my wife washes me… Japanese style baths have their perks you know?

TL;DR: I pick up a fight with a random guy and he turned out to be a MMA practitioner. Now I have a broken Knee... and get Japanese style baths ;)