The first rule of fight club: Don’t talk about fight club

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Jack Heenan, Staff Writer

“Run!”
Underground fighting and boxing groups have been spontaneously emerging week after week in the streets of San Ramon and Danville.
Rendezvous points are posted online and students gather to watch the fights. Some of these fights are planned, and other times, they are not. Spectators can place bets on who they think will win, motivating participants.
Most times, these fights are last-minute. Someone posts a location on their snapchat story, users gather at the spot, and the fights ensues. If two people want to fight, they only have to let others around them know, and it’ll happen. There’s no real leader. People get in as many fights as they can in one night until the police arrive. The crowd mostly consists of high school students and a few college students as well.
On one of the nights, two females in the crowd had gone to the fight, having previous resentments towards each other. They were unaware that the other would be there. In the intense environment, one of the girls began swinging at the other. Many viewers joined to support their friends and took videos of the fight. In this instance, the police showed up after hearing screams. All groups fled the scene before the police stopped to instigate.
Police shut down the fights as soon as they find out. For this reason, meetings are held at different locations each time. Participants have mixed feelings about police involvement.
“I’m kind of sad, but what can you expect?” spectator Samantha Rowe said. “No good thing can last forever.”
Big Fella, a tall, high school participant around the age of seventeen has his own motivations for involvement in fights.
“Well, as my name suggests, I’m a pretty big boy and I thought I could do some damage on another fighter,” he said.
“My friends also motivated me to participate.”
Mr. Fella often stays very engaged in fights which helps him come out victorious.
“When you’re boxing with someone, you’re so focused and you go into a zone,” he said. “I heard my friends screaming my name and that helped motivate me to finish off my opponent. After I won, I felt great, especially in front of all those people. It’s all in good fun, we shook hands after.”
Rowe enjoys attending these underground events with her friends.
“I thought they are super fun,” she said. “It’s really entertaining and fun to go with friends.”
Sometimes, fights become very violent, but most of the time, they are for entertainment purposes.
“I don’t think it is morally wrong,” Rowe said. “It’s always a fair fight and people are very civil. The only thing that I thought wasn’t okay was when people start fighting out of anger, instead of for fun.”
Congregations in Danville and San Ramon have caused a lot of attention and controversy; some say that these should be broken up while others say let it happen. The excitement is coming to a close as the law is cracking down on these underground events.