histories greatest fighter.

[Colodomoko]

Nothing could best a Spartan, they were born to fight and raised to fight and with those massive shileds not even a Ninja with his magic tricks could beat a Spartan.

 

[RagnorakTres]

Single weapon combat, I'll take a samurai over just about every single other trained warrior in the history of the world. Best idea? Probably not, but I like 'em, and katana have been proven to shear straight through plate metal.

I don't think "Shear through" is quite accurate. I mean, just look at the impact tests on Deadliest warrior. It was a katana swinging full strength at a chainmail. The chainmail pretty much absorbed most of the blow.

Hence my qualification of "plate." Chainmail and similar armors were specifically designed to absorb slashing damage but transmitted blunt force like a *****. I've worn chainmail and believe me, getting hit hurts, no matter what. Plate armor, on the other hand, was designed to completely shell the warrior and prevent all damage.

Also, I have zero respect for "Deadliest Warrior." Their process is far from scientific or complete, but they present it as such. Until they remedy their process, I will neither watch their show nor take anything they say as truth unless I already know it.

Single hand-to-hand combat, let me put it this way: Muay Thai (Thai boxing) has gone up against almost every Chinese martial art ever developed and only lost to one, Choi Li Fut, and even then it was a close thing.

Muai Thai can beat most Chinese martial arts because most Chinese martial arts you see are DEAD schools. Just as European sword fighting has pretty much lost it's proper lineage is now dependent upon enthusiasts to reconstruct it from scratch, most Chinese martial arts have not been taught in deadly combat capacity since... well... since the Taiping rebellion. The only exception to this? Sanshou, which is what is taught to the Chinese law enforcement and the style that MMA fighter Cung Le practices.

...MMA? MMA is brawling. There is no style to it. Period. It's a couple of big sweaty men dancing around for twenty seconds before winding up on the ground wrestling to get a submission hold on the other.

And I believe Bruce Lee was speaking of ancient China and Thailand when he made that particular observation. Actually, here's the quote:

Choy Li Fut is the most effective system that I've seen for fighting more than one person. [It] is one of the most difficult styles to attack and defend against. Choy Li Fut is the only style [of kung fu] that traveled to Thailand to fight the Thai boxers and hadn't lost.

 

[RagnorakTres]

Single weapon combat, I'll take a samurai over just about every single other trained warrior in the history of the world. Best idea? Probably not, but I like 'em, and katana have been proven to shear straight through plate metal.

Source, please. The Japanese were stuck with notoriously poor quality steel altogether, by virtue of their geographical position in the world, and I believe that plate armour was designed in certain circumstances with a noticeable curve to the metal to deflect sword impacts.

http://www.thearma.org/essays/knightvs.htm - Read.

Mm...I don't remember exactly where I saw it, but I'll try to get a source for you. And, if I'm remembering it correctly, it was literally just a piece of plate metal, not plate armor.

Actually, given the lack of scientific integrity behind a test like that, I wouldn't be surprised to discover that it originated from Deadliest Warrior. *rolls eyes*

EDIT: Alright, the Internet is not cooperating. I did skim that article, and I have to say that that guy clearly knows what he's talking about, and I wouldn't dismiss a European sword, even against a katana. I'll retract the bit about shearing through plate (though I swear to you, I have seen a katana cut through a sheet of metal somewhere) until I can find my source.

 

[Ekit]

That japanese soldier that died standing in a fight.

 

[gamer_parent]

Single weapon combat, I'll take a samurai over just about every single other trained warrior in the history of the world. Best idea? Probably not, but I like 'em, and katana have been proven to shear straight through plate metal.

I don't think "Shear through" is quite accurate. I mean, just look at the impact tests on Deadliest warrior. It was a katana swinging full strength at a chainmail. The chainmail pretty much absorbed most of the blow.

Hence my qualification of "plate." Chainmail and similar armors were specifically designed to absorb slashing damage but transmitted blunt force like a *****. I've worn chainmail and believe me, getting hit hurts, no matter what. Plate armor, on the other hand, was designed to completely shell the warrior and prevent all damage.

Also, I have zero respect for "Deadliest Warrior." Their process is far from scientific or complete, but they present it as such. Until they remedy their process, I will neither watch their show nor take anything they say as truth unless I already know it.

Single hand-to-hand combat, let me put it this way: Muay Thai (Thai boxing) has gone up against almost every Chinese martial art ever developed and only lost to one, Choi Li Fut, and even then it was a close thing.

Muai Thai can beat most Chinese martial arts because most Chinese martial arts you see are DEAD schools. Just as European sword fighting has pretty much lost it's proper lineage is now dependent upon enthusiasts to reconstruct it from scratch, most Chinese martial arts have not been taught in deadly combat capacity since... well... since the Taiping rebellion. The only exception to this? Sanshou, which is what is taught to the Chinese law enforcement and the style that MMA fighter Cung Le practices.

...MMA? MMA is brawling. There is no style to it. Period. It's a couple of big sweaty men dancing around for twenty seconds before winding up on the ground wrestling to get a submission hold on the other.

And I believe Bruce Lee was speaking of ancient China and Thailand when he made that particular observation. Actually, here's the quote:

Choy Li Fut is the most effective system that I've seen for fighting more than one person. [It] is one of the most difficult styles to attack and defend against. Choy Li Fut is the only style [of kung fu] that traveled to Thailand to fight the Thai boxers and hadn't lost.

Eh, I wouldn't say that. MMA is a combination of grapple with striking arts, which is why you see a lot of brazilian jiujitsu stuff in the MMA. The reason why a lot of it are submission holds is because it's actually surprisingly effective in that particular setting. (When you can't eye gouge or fish hook or perform small joint manipulation, that is)

and while I have nothing but respect for Bruce Lee, I think I would need to see more contextualization to understand what exactly he means by that statement. I don't know, I'm just skeptical that a country with such a diverse martial art tradition can be discounted against a single martial art. Of course, I can totally believe him if he meant that there has been Chinese martial art domination in the recent era. I mean, like I said, since the Taiping revolution, a lot of martial art traditions kind of died with the advent of people wanting to modernize their military.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Spartans are for me the greatest figther ever, I believe thet even a Samurai wouldn't have any chance against them. Also knigths, and I also believe that they would have beaten the samurais easy, nowadays, with asian culture being popular, we tend to grant ninjas and samurais with skills that are extraordinaire, yet the knights had their own, if you look in youtube for videos about the german swordmanship school, you will see that the European sword was far for clumsy, and was indeed a very effective weapon, and I don't see how a samurai could have beaten a charging knight

 

[Interrobangin]

The Black Death.

 

[Omegatronacles]

*snip*

ahh, nifty. didn't know that it sends you PMs for replies.

well, I suppose that's a valid point. But then... that's kind of like giving them a rather arbitrary handicap. I mean, I get it, but that just turns it around to the circumstances that they fight in.

I can see how it appears to be an unfair handicap, but even if we even it up and take the breastplate away from the Fencer, the results would still be the same.

A suit of what most people would consider Samurai armour weighed at least 30 kilos. (The term Samurai armour is a bit misleading in itself, but that is a whole other conversation.) This was dead weight, and was not worn constantly. It would be brought out for certain occasions, mainly guard duty and actual all out war. The rest of the time it would be stored with care at the home of the Samurai, either in a war chest or on an armour stand out of the way somewhere.

 

[Naeo]

Bruce Lee or the Mongols. Maybe a Mongolian Bruce Lee.

 

[Shpongled]

Single weapon combat, I'll take a samurai over just about every single other trained warrior in the history of the world. Best idea? Probably not, but I like 'em, and katana have been proven to shear straight through plate metal.

I don't think "Shear through" is quite accurate. I mean, just look at the impact tests on Deadliest warrior. It was a katana swinging full strength at a chainmail. The chainmail pretty much absorbed most of the blow.

Hence my qualification of "plate." Chainmail and similar armors were specifically designed to absorb slashing damage but transmitted blunt force like a *****. I've worn chainmail and believe me, getting hit hurts, no matter what. Plate armor, on the other hand, was designed to completely shell the warrior and prevent all damage.

Also, I have zero respect for "Deadliest Warrior." Their process is far from scientific or complete, but they present it as such. Until they remedy their process, I will neither watch their show nor take anything they say as truth unless I already know it.

How much more scientific do you want than swinging a katana at chain mail. It's about as scientific as you can get man.

 

[kiwi_poo]

since technology has progressed phenomenaly since the discovery of fire, and anyone who is behind on technology has a fair chance of not having a chance, I would assume that, temporarily, the current (I'm sad to say this American army is probably the best in the world. (though they haven't really won a war since ww2)

 

[LamborghiniJackson]

Spartans... or Bruce Lee

 

[MrNickster]

When I think great warriors, I think Gladiators. War criminals who kill men and beasts for others entertainment, whose lives are dedicated to fighting-That makes a fiersome warrior.

Most Gladiators were slaves with little to no combat experience, although there were disgraced members from the legions in their ranks. Gladiator schools did exist, but these generally focused on how to put on a good show for the audience, and the martial training provided usually amounted to "hold it by the non pointy end, stick the pointy end into the other guy", and the equipment they trained with and used in the ring was most likely battlefield pickings.

If a Gladiator showed particular skill and promise, then further training and higher quality equipment may have been provided, depending on who owned him. Occasionally an experienced fighter would enter into the Gladitorial ring for the challenge, to prove a point, on a dare etc.

This is not to say that Gladiators were weak, as from day one there would be a high degree of learn quickly or die quickly, and a desperate man is a very dangerous man, but in a one on one encounter with a fighter with serious training, the Gladiator would usually come out worse for wear.

I know that this is a gross oversimplification of the entire Gladiator class, but I could type on for hours if I tried to go into serious detail.

I don't know that any one group could be labeled histories greatest fighters, but if I had to vote it would be Jimmy McPerson.

I wasn't expecting to run into an Ancient Roman history expert on The Escapist.

I still think a Gladiator is a very dangerous fighter, but another type of warrior comes to mind-Shaolin Monks. Their whole lives are dedicated to peace keeping and mastering unarmed and weapons based martial arts (Mixed messages a bit, eh?). They were and still are extremely proficient fighters.

 

[Moggs]

Single weapon combat, I'll take a samurai over just about every single other trained warrior in the history of the world. Best idea? Probably not, but I like 'em, and katana have been proven to shear straight through plate metal.

I don't think "Shear through" is quite accurate. I mean, just look at the impact tests on Deadliest warrior. It was a katana swinging full strength at a chainmail. The chainmail pretty much absorbed most of the blow.

Hence my qualification of "plate." Chainmail and similar armors were specifically designed to absorb slashing damage but transmitted blunt force like a *****. I've worn chainmail and believe me, getting hit hurts, no matter what. Plate armor, on the other hand, was designed to completely shell the warrior and prevent all damage.

Also, I have zero respect for "Deadliest Warrior." Their process is far from scientific or complete, but they present it as such. Until they remedy their process, I will neither watch their show nor take anything they say as truth unless I already know it.

How much more scientific do you want than swinging a katana at chain mail. It's about as scientific as you can get man.

I agree there. The only good thing (and most fun to watch) with Deadliest Warrior is the part where they test the different weapons and armor. Their facts about history is twisted like a cork-screw in many places, a good part of their fighting-technical experts are so-so at best, at least when you look at the historical warriors, I don't have much to say about SWAT or GSG-9.

I don't have any proof for it, but my thought about shearing armor with a sword is that it just won't happen. There is a reason that other techniques and weapons were 'invented' to tackle plate armor. Like warhammers with long, spikey bits and half-sword techniques.

...blabla, anyhoo.

My take on greatest warrior is the priest that wrote the 13th century fencing manual that is now called I.33. That man is badass.

Can't say that I'm really fond of this kind of discussion, since there are so many uncertainties when two different warriors meet. Different cultures train differently and have different goals with their fighting wars, battles and duels, even though both the European and Japanese ways of training (just an example here) with weapons are very much alike when you look at them.

 

[Wrists]

Spartans were pretty much a warrior race. Pretty much built for killing from birth.

But they never really went to war, so it's difficult to say how deadly they really were.

OT: I'd say the British riflemen in the colonial era, shortly before the American war of Independence. Not that great individually, but in a line and facing the right direction we pushed the French out of Canada, if that's not deadly I don't know what is.

 

[Marmooset]

now i wonder what others consider to be the greatest warrior, please tell me who you consider the best fighter ever.

The Ultimate Warrior.
I think, legally, if someone were better, he'd have had to go by the name 'The Penultimate Warrior', wouldn't he?

 

[Zenichi]

spartans or ninja's both trained to adapt into any situation (ninjas more than spartans)
and didnt have any hindrance like bushido or any other kind of "Fair Play" mentality to fighting
(atleast to my limited knowledge)
so i want ninja spartans or spartan ninjas whichever kills the other first

give ninja modern equipment and set him loose in "pickwhatevercountrythatyourcountryhates" (sweden)

put tv on

/popcorn

 

[Wayneguard]

There can be only one correct answer and this is it:

Russel... Crowe...

 

[Tallim]

It's very situational. Ninja were incredibly good at taking on samurai as they were the main "enemy" they came up against.

One on one it comes down to training and equipment.

The Zulus in the Battle of Isandlwana or most of the the Anglo-Zulu war.

It also comes down to motivation of the warriors.


Modern time I would go with the SAS, which is uncharacteristically patriotic of me.

 

[fgdfgdgd]

Simo Hayha
Mad Jack Churchill
Audie Murphy

just give me an army consisting of clones of these men, them i'm set.