The War of the Worlds and The Human body

Warning: We're going to talk a lot about fighting today, and how humans might actually be designed to punch each other in the face, but we're going to couple this with a caveat - do not go around picking fights. Just because your hands are built to be able to punch, does not mean you should.

In June of 1976, a fight was held in Tokyo, Japan, that was hailed The War of the Worlds. It was between the undisputed heavyweight world champion of the world, Muhammad Ali, and the Japanese national wrestling federation champion, Antonio Inoki. The War of the Worlds lasted 15 rounds and had a worldwide audience of 1.4 billion viewers.

The match was incredibly dangerous, and the physical beatings that Muhammad Ali took nearly cost him his boxing career. He suffered two blood clots and an infection in his left leg, which led his doctors to consider amputation. I bet many of you have never heard of The War of the Worlds fight. If you're a casual fan of Muhammad Ali or boxing in general, you remember fights like the Thrilla in Manila against Frazier. But nobody talks about the match that Ali fought to a draw against a Japanese wrestler, a wrestler who spent 15 grueling rounds on his back, but scooting across the mat kicking Ali in the shins until he could barely walk.

Today's episode is all about fighting. We're going to discuss the evolution of the human body and ask the questions are humans designed to punch each other, and if humans are factory-built to bust heads. We'll also discuss how the match between Ali and Inoki went off the rails so spectacularly and why it hasn't gone down in history as the fight of the Millennia.

Myth 1: Jocks are Built for Fighting and Nerds are Built for Chess Club

Anyone can throw a fist at anybody. You don't have to be a professional boxer to punch someone in the face. According to the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, testing the pugilism hypothesis of hominin hand evolution, also known as the metrics of punching with a buttress fist. In their words, "Our results suggest that humans can safely strike with 55% more force with a fully buttress fist, then with a non-buttress fist and with twofold, more force with a fist than an open-hand slap.”

Thus, the evolutionary significance of the proportions of hominin hand might be that these are the proportions that improve manual dexterity while at the same time making it possible for the hand to be used as a club during fighting. We're all born with these two clubs. We're born with clubs on the ends of our hands. Your fingers slide into that locked position in your palm, and the bones line up in your hand. That's a maneuver that other creatures can do too, such as chimps and gorillas. They don't throw a punch as we talked about, they are six times the strength of a human.

The fist also protects the hand. It makes the muscles around the bones tense up, and it protects the bone, which it doesn't do that for other creatures on Earth. So, we are uniquely built to punch.

Why do we have this feature? A leading theory is that it's the competition for mates. Essentially, we want to be the better predictor, but we don't want to kill anybody. We still need everybody, so it's kind of like our version of deer antlers. Deer will fight each other with their antlers, but they're not trying to kill; they're just trying to wound and scare other deer off and leave my lady alone.

There was another study by David Carrier from the University of Utah about how male cheekbones and jaws might be designed to absorb a fist below. If you look at the cheekbones of a man, they're generally denser than women. With the jaws and the way they sit in the face forward impact. If you compare this to like a football helmet the way it's got that brace across the front. It's basically what our cheekbones are. Because of that, David came out and said our faces might be made to take a punch. However, National Geographic wasn't having it. They published a counter article called Our Skulls Didn't Evolve to Be Punched that said this is nonsense.

Myth 2: The Belittle Generation Is Weak and The Generation After Them Will Be Weaker

Many older generations are saying that kids are getting softer. There is a Hand Therapy Journal study that came out in 2016, also published in USA Today, and put out on CNN on seeing if kids are really getting weaker. They found that the grip strength in Millennials had been lower, 20% weaker than past generations: less climbing trees, less laborious jobs, and more computer stuff. 

Then more studies came.

Initially, this came out like a bomb, preserving kids as weak, trying to prove that Millennials are worthless. Come to find out, it just is because your average person is weaker, not just Millennials. It's anyone that hasn't worked a factory job or manned a shovel in their life. In summary, good news. We may have Millennials who haven't used muscle in a while, but humans have generally been domesticated. It's not that they are weak or a generational thing, it is sort of the bigger picture kind of thing.

When I say domesticated, check out the self-domestication Theory. There's a great Science Mag article called early humans domesticated themselves new genetic evidence suggests. To clarify, domestication means that a creature has been socialized like it's been bred and selected throughout generations to be more social than it is aggressive. Another definition is that for thousands of years, females and males have gotten together not because they were more aggressive because they were better at picking nits off each other's backs and talking around the fire. This was our first clue that domestic staycations were a rapid process and prove what it does.

Myth 3: How Do You Actually Win A Fight? Strength? Training? A Universal Philosophy?

If you are inexperienced and you land a punch on a wrestler who knows what they're doing, you're in trouble. Training is key to fighting. It is not about who punches harder. For instance, Ali was not a hard puncher, but he was quick and powerful. Good strikers have what we call “being in the pocket” and what that means is that they can hit you, so you have to get in there and hit them, and then get back out. That tends to take a long time to learn, nailing down the timing and space.

In the end, it’s all about fundamentals and skills over who's tougher.

Final Thoughts

Technically, The War of the Worlds was a draw, which means they both lost. That's why we've never heard of this because everyone was upset afterward. It's not a happy ending.

Fighting isn't just a last resort; It should never be a resort at all. However, if you find yourself balling your fist out of anger, remember as a human, you may be built for punching, but you're emotionally equipped to find a better solution.

Lastly, if you ever found yourself in a physical altercation, remember that there is always a way out. Simple bodily distancing can get you out of a lot of physical and financial pain. And if none of those techniques work, you can always try to butt scoot at them and kick them in the shins until they give up like Ali did.

Written by Todd Lemense presented by Joe Anthony

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