I know this is beyond ARMA's time range, but its still definitely western so here's my question.
I've read a lot about bare-knuckle boxing, form both modern and contemporary sources. Obviously, these guys were serious about their "noble science of self-defence" - if you weren't you'd be dead! I'm also aware that England, and esp. London, was a tough place during this era, (just read your Dickens). So these BKB masters taught you how to defend yourself, but I never hear mention of defending yourself against, knives, or weapons in general, from them. I know that Figg taught weapons skills, but am not aware of bare-hand defences, and later material neglects the matter as well, and don't tell me the hooligans all fought nicely toe-to-toe with their victims. Was it just assumed that the BKB techniques, slightly modified to account for a blade, were effective? When I compare the BKB techniques to my WWII U.S.M.C. hand to hand combat manual's knife defences, it does seem that there is some crossover, esp. when it comes to keeping distance, and using kicks/knees to attack, and the BKB parries for punches seem pretty much identical to the knife blocks in the USMC manual. Anyone here have info on this I don't?
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