When I was in my late teens/early 20's I trained as a sparring partner for a professional kickboxing fighting team and even though I was the guy who always got beat up (since I wasn't fighting professionally) I liked the fact that it helped me to become more aware of the concrete reality behind the abstract philosophical aspects of the martial arts and the "way of the samurai" since philosophy had always been a strong interest of mine. But I really didn't care if I could beat up the other guy or not since I didn't train 24/7 like these guys did and wasn't in their league and couldn't defeat them physically even if I wanted too. But what mattered to me the most is that even though I always got beat up, I was never defeated in my mind and still stood up to them and realized I was a "fighter" and that was all that mattered to me. So I don't think that one has to go the route of the martial arts to be a "fighter." I think that it's a state of mind and can be applied to whatever difficult endeavor one may choose to undertake in life.
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