Jake Hanrahan (29:03)
Le Marseille ends finally. The two fighters bump fists and head to opposite corners of the room. Leon signals by nodding at Victor. Victor gives the go ahead. It's on. Fight. Two fighters meet each other in the center. Louis throws a badly timed roundhouse kick that bounces clean off of Warren's leg. Warren throws two jabs straight into Louis face, catching his chin. He's Dave. His guard drops. Warren shifts in, grabs Louis, picks him up, drops him down to the concrete. Louis tries to throw some defensive punches, but Warren is all over him like dog. He rains down, elbows into Louis face. Louis goes fetal, covering up his head. Leon moves in from the sidelines, ready to see if the fight needs to be ended. The crowd is wild with excitement. They want blood. Warren continues dropping elbows. A few miss, a few smash into Louis forehead and temple. Louis throws up his hands and taps the floor. He's done. Leon grabs Warren and pulls him off of Louis. The the fight is over. Louis is helped up off of the concrete by FPVs lads. Welts, bruises and bumps already pat on his face. He's got blood at his lips. He's well and truly beaten, but he's smiling. So is Warren. The two fighters embrace sincerely and the crowd cheers even louder. Win or lose, respect in this world is essential. You're brave, man. You're brave. The fight lasted about one minute total. Louis got battered, but I'm not sure the outcome really mattered that much for him. He showed up, which counts for a lot when you consider the stakes. That's part of the notoriety of this. There's something uniquely daring about no rules. You could end up permanently disfigured, brain damaged or dead, or way easier than every other combat sport. Norules isn't sport. I ask Louis how he's feeling as makeshift FPVs, medics, whoever's holding the plasters and antiseptic tend to his wounds. He tells me he feels good. He says he lost, but that's part of it. He's got blood in his mouth and knuckles have grazed the skin around his eyes. But it'll live. Could have been a lot worse. No serious damage. Half joking, I ask what his family might think when he comes home with his face bashed up, and Louis pauses for a second. Then he laughs and says, don't tell my mother. In contrast, Warren is completely unscathed. Not a mark. He's barely even broken a sweat. He tells me he traveled overnight for this and wants to fight again. He's a nice lad. They both are pretty normal other than this. Outside of the Chaos of clandestine fighting. Warren works as a laborer on a building site and Louis is a waiter in a restaurant. These violent young men build homes and serve food. They keep the world turning. The clandestine FPVS event was a success. News of the fight club is spreading fast across France already, all across Instagram and Telegram. Afterwards, I head down to a pub in the city with Leon and Victor. Out of one world into another. Hours ago we were in the Bando watching two fighters try to incapacitate one another. Now we're in central Cannes amongst Rolex shops, Palme d' Ors, Marm and the ugliest Italian sports cars ever built over a Guinness. The FPVS lads tell me how they're different to COTs in that they never pay anyone to fight. No one involved gets a penny. If anything, they're in a deficit. After preparing it all. It's just for sport, they say. Somewhat ironically, however, Leon and Victor explained to me that whilst they're different from Kots, they are of course, inspired by them. All of the new Norwell's fight clubs across Europe wouldn't exist if it wasn't for them. All roads lead to king of the streets. Before they started King of the Streets Hypocr was one of many active football hooligan firms in Europe. They'd meet mostly in the fields and forests of Scandinavia, fighting their rivals in packs of 10 against 10, 6 against 6, 15 against 12, 25 against 25. Whatever was agreed on between organizers. This kind of activity takes place in secret all over the continent every single weekend. It's nothing new. Hype crew, though, was when they started fighting. They were unique from the get go. They're a football hooligan firm without a football team. They're just all about the violence. This is not as unusual as it sounds amongst the seeing. It's an open secret that plenty of football hooligans in mainland Europe don't actually care that much about the football. It's the aggression, camaraderie and sense of belonging that they love. Football is a base to gather for young men looking to be part of something the world over. For hooligans, the fighting sets that in stone. No matter how advanced or progressive or civilized life gets, it will always be true that there is something primordially special about forging bonds of friendship through fighting together. People might say they have your back, but do they? Perhaps your best friend remembers your birthday every year, calls you when you're lonely and supports your endeavors. But would they stand and fight if you you were attacked, would they run? Would they abandon you to get your head kicked in? The vast majority of people will never have to find out and probably don't even think about it. And that's a good thing, I guess. But things like this don't matter until they do. For hooligans, they already know their friends would stand and fight every single time. This is the foundation of their bond from the get go. It's almost like the course of a friendship in reverse. The most literal form of backing your friend up is what they begin with. Anything else is a bonus to your average law abiding citizen. This is a horrible way to live. They have no decorum, etc. Etc. But honestly, who cares? They don't. They're choosing to live outside of society now. My point is, the reason King of the Streets is so clandestine yet so well organised and so influential is likely because it started off from this base of arranged fighting hooliganism. Some hype crew members were hooligans for various different firms in Sweden before forging their syndicate of what is essentially a freelance firm with no loyalty to anything but each other. This, I believe, is a big part of what's kept King of the Streets so consistent and so well respected in the underground. When I get back home to the UK, the lads from FPVs contact me and let me know that everything went well, they haven't been arrested, all the fighters are happy, and their fight club is getting dozens and dozens of new applications to fight now that the footage is all across Instagram. All in all, despite the pretty basic fight, things were a success. It also turns out the word has gotten out in the clandestine fighting underground that there's a reporter trying to make a film about Norul's fighting little old me. Some don't like it, some don't care, but others are pretty interested. It seems in general that these people trust what I'm doing and understand I don't have some snitch ulterior motive to out them as lunatics or whatever. I'm just interested. Also, to be honest with you, I don't really see what's wrong with grown adults deciding to fight each other consensually in private, in a controlled setting. That's their business. Just because it's illegal doesn't mean it's wrong. There's also some irony in the way states condemn no Rules. For example, one fighter who's undefeated on Kots was banned from fighting in professional MMA in his own country for doing no rules. The state decided he was too violent. Meanwhile, that same government sent millions to a foreign country to assist them in carrying out daily war crimes in the Middle East. You tell me what's more violent. No Rules fighting or bombing children? Now, I don't mean to be dramatic, but this is something else I find fascinating about no Rules. It unintentionally exposes human nature's undying connection to violence. No Rules is just unapologetically honest about it. Now, as you can probably tell, this is a male dominated scene. However, I've got word since returning from Cannes that there's about to be the very first female no Rules fight. It will be happening soon in Germany. More on that in the next episode. You've been listening to the Away Days Podcast next week, Episode three To watch independent Away Days documentaries, subscribe to our channel at YouTube.com@awaydaystv. YDEZ podcast is a production of H11 studio for Coolzone media reporting, producing, writing, editing and research by me, Jake Hanrahan Co producing by Sophie Lichterman Music by Sam Black Sound mix by Splicing Block Photography by Johnny Pickup and Louis Hollis Graphic design by Laura Adamson and Casey Highfield.