10 Facts About Fighting That Action Movies Always Get Wrong

9. It's A Bloody Mess

Speaking of repeatedly getting hammered in the face, you ever notice how boxers tend to be pretty bloody after taking more than a couple of punches to the dome? And then, to stop the bleeding between rounds, there's a person in their corner whose sole job is to stop lacerations from pumping out the insides of their face? That happens all the time. And those guys were thick, padded gloves. Curiously though, this rarely happens in a Hollywood fight sequence. Aside from a few nicks and scratches, even the loser of the fight looks like someone who just started putting on make-up for their zombie Halloween costume. Those involved get the "cool" scars, not the "I can no longer grow any hair on my left eyebrow" scars. After even a few well-placed (or just lucky) strikes to the head, there's going to be some gushing. And that doesn't even take into consideration the gory realities of getting gouged in the eyes or swallowing some teeth. The results of a slug-out are not cleaned up with a paper towel and a couple of Band-Aids. Most of the time it takes a mop and whole lotta elbow grease. So that fight scene that everyone seemed from the Roberty Downey Jr. version of Sherlock Holmes that everyone was praising for its physicality and gritty realism? Note that there's barely a drop of blood on either one of them by the end of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGCMfprPJoA