As ESPN analyst Max Kellerman put it, fighting is the “imposition of will” and all sports are a metaphor for that. Sports are a demonstration of two teams or individuals trying to impose their will on one another, each striving for one goal where one’s victory is another’s loss.

In an ice hockey game, the moments that garner the most attention (arguably) are not the goals or stick skills, but the fights. In baseball, it’s (again, arguably) the bench clearing brawls. In football, the big hits. It’s not to say that the defining skills of these sports are not celebrated and appreciated, but rather to point out that the moments that people are most engaged by happens to be the most combative ones. The sport itself is a controlled version of that “combat”, which, in intense instances, can break from those bounds (rules of the game) and devolve into an actual fight, shoving match, etc.

Fighting (i.e., boxing, MMA, etc.) is entirely comprised of those moments of “breaking the bounds”. From this one could argue that fighting is the rawest form of sport.