Modern Gladiators

Sports, concerts, and modern entertainment in general is good and all, but nothing is more entertaining than a live fight. Boxing has been a dying sport for several decades, and in it's place an arguably more brutal (and more exciting)form of fighting, MMA, has taken its place. UFC and MMA has generated huge audiences, and yet I think that many people want more. While many people cringe at the idea of modern gladiators, I think if it were established there would be a huge demand for it. And nothing would be more exciting than watching people fight to the death right in front of your eyes.

Who Would Qualify

Death row inmates who pleaded guilty to their crimes.

How It Would Work

The worst criminals in American society come together in a battle to the death, with the hope that they can either make a name for themself with a glorious death, or in victory, because victory means potential freedom. The battles would consist of a variety of fights including hand-to-hand combat (like Roman gladiators), survival (Hunger Games), extreme car races to the death (like Mario Kart).

For hand-to-hand combat inmates would fight each other with bows and arrows, swords and shields, spears, axes, chains, etc. like in the old days.

For survival games they would be confined to a large area and would have to use nature to survive and to kill their enemies.

For vehicle games, there would be a racetrack with obstacles all around like random walls, and spikes coming out of the ground, and each car has a driver and fighter. The fighers get guns, grenades, flash-bang grenades, and smoke grenades to try to make the other vehicles crash.

Inmates would have to volunteer to participate, because otherwise it would de-incentivize people to plead guilty to capital crimes. In this way, inmates can pay back the society they wronged through pure entertainment.

Advantages for Inmates

Instead of waiting around for a silent, unglorified death, they can die a glorious death, or achieve nation-wide fame in victory. If they win a certain number of fights they can win their freedom from death row. The process for gaining freedom would be long... they would serve in the military for an indefinite amount of time, and may only leave if their superiors sign off on them saying they have performed their duty exceptionally and with good behavior.

Advantage for Military

The military will recieve several men who are not afraid to kill, and are not afraid to be killed. They are incentivized to behave well because of the possibility that they can be free. They will be treated with respect by fellow soldiers because of the brutal nature of the gladiator fights that they had to get through.

Advantage for Society

Citizens in Ancient Rome enjoyed gladiator battles, I don't see why Americans also wouldn't. We cringe at the idea, but if they existed in society, I think we would be quick to embrace it. There would be no entertainment more thrilling and adrenaline-pumping than watching real people right in front of you fight to the death. For each fight, there would be odds on which fighters had a better chance to win, and spectators could bet on fights and try to make money off of it.

I could try to convince you that having modern gladiator fights would have some profound impact on society. But really, it's just for entertainment value, and to empty out our prisons of their most dangerous convicts.

Do you seriously think this will be a good idea? Convicted killers, killing again to gain freedom?

reply to post by Wang Tang


You want to watch and bet on people killing each other?! There is something wrong with you.

Have it be like the Hunger Games but the reaping would come from that prison population...and in the end they wouldn't be completely free- just more free than a prison cell. Maybe a prison compound, where they could have a little house and garden- but no way out of the compound.

It would create jobs too!

Originally posted by Wang Tang
Sports, concerts, and modern entertainment in general is good and all, but nothing is more entertaining than a live fight. Boxing has been a dying sport for several decades, and in it's place an arguably more brutal (and more exciting)form of fighting, MMA, has taken its place. UFC and MMA has generated huge audiences, and yet I think that many people want more. While many people cringe at the idea of modern gladiators, I think if it were established there would be a huge demand for it. And nothing would be more exciting than watching people fight to the death right in front of your eyes.

Please!!! MMA and UFC fighters would not last one round in the ring with one of the Glitchko brothers.. The other way around they would be knocked out in 2.1 seconds.. UFC and MMA is more of a lets grapple and hold each others ass's then an all out fist fight... Also I think if you need something more brutal than boxing or "UFC " to get your rocks off then you need to be put away somewhere...

2 men enter,1man leaves..just had to throw that in.
While I have watched MMA a few times,it really isn't for me. I don't think any human rights groups would let this happen.

we already have this type of entertainment and it's freely available on the web constantly updated daily.

you got your foreign civil war, your ghetto beatings, home invasion and robbery footage....

the list goes on and on, and you want more?

Originally posted by mugger
I don't think any human rights groups would let this happen.

bbbbut then they will just outsource the jobs to China!!!

From The Running Man:

Damon Killian: This is television, that's all it is. It has nothing to do with people, it's to do with ratings! For fifty years, we've told them what to eat, what to drink, what to wear... for Christ's sake, Ben, don't you understand? Americans love television. They wean their kids on it. Listen. They love game shows, they love wrestling, they love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give 'em what they want!

Lots of movies made over the years using this kind of idea
Rollerball
Deathrace
Gladiator
the list goes on but i cant remember there titles

Basically the survivor goes free. Yes im all for it!. These movies all have common subliminal plot that there is never an intention to give them their freedom, the game is rigged so that chances of freedom are one in a million. Actually what your describing sounds like unreal tournament. The games could also have useful purposes for weapons development testing.

What you are proposing is a giant leap back from civility. How about we start treating our doctors and scientists as the juggernauts. After all, it's the mind that is stronger than the body. Violence is never a good thing, but a good race to curing a disease or traveling through space would be far more interesting.

Using criminals really isn't a good idea. Most of them are not in shape and wouldn't last long enough to make a fight interesting. You'd have a handful of people that excelled at it and the rest would just be cannon fodder.

On top of this, criminals are there to be punished, not have a chance at freedom or to bask in glory from winning.

You would need people that train professionally for this combat and there is no need to make it to the death.

Sure it will be unrestricted open combat and injuries and deaths will happen but either person should be allowed to call it and give up and a referree/judge should be able to end it when there is an apparent victor.

Also make the weapons random so nobody can become masterful at any single one since they never know what they are using. Put it on pay-per-view and give all the money after operating costs to the victors.

Honestly though, it would probably be really boring. Kind of like watching a Tyson fight in his prime.

I imagine with one good whack of a longsword and most people are down. So basically your going to have a bunch of one-hit fights and a lot of guys with missing fingers and limbs.

reply to post by Wang Tang


There's no way I'd ever endorse this.

Anybody that comitted a crime that got them the chair doesn't deserve a chance at redemption

as one member has already said there are many movies and books out there that match what your saying.
but the closest that comes to it is



did you catch the i'll be back line?

Here's some counter points I would like to address

Most would not last long enough to provide good entertainment

Gladiators have nothing else to do all day but train for fights. The purpose of their lives is to provide entertainment to the masses. So after weeks and months of training I do believe that they will be ready to provide a good fight.

It is immoral to watch criminals kill each other

Yet it is moral to let criminals kill innocent people as long as we don't know about it. People want to distance themselves from the extreme prevalence of capital crimes because they don't want to believe how crime-ridden America has really become. I say accept the fact that these crimes happen, and let the criminals die the same way they killed their victims.

Releasing victorious gladiators into society is a bad idea

It is hard to wrap your minds around the idea that a victorious gladiator will be a completely changed man from when he first became a gladiator as a criminal. There is a reason why certain gladiators were set free back in Rome. Because after fighting and killing people you train with, and after experiencing so much death and suffering in the arena, you become tired of killing. You develop a new sense of the value of human life... and you make a name for yourself in society that you never could have had before, and you don't want to tarnish that name. Also, as I said, when you win enough fights to be set free, you first go through the military service before you are released into society.

And you are assuming that very few gladiators will win enough fights to be set free. There will be some fights where the primary determinate of victory will be chance, not skill, like a car race across a race-track studded with mines and random explosions. It should be a rarity that a gladiator actually survives long enough to get out.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Genious! Use gladiator games for weapons testing. I love it.

Here is a question for all you unbelievers to consider: does violence in entertainment directly increase propensity for violence in society?

I believe that all humans inherently have a strong propensity for violence, and it is violence in entertainment and violence in video games that subdues this propensity. I really don't think violence in entertainment has affected propensity for violence negatively at all.

In fact, felony crimes have been steadily decreasing in New York City since 1990. This link shows the crime rate for the 7 felonies from 2000-2011.

Crime Rate in NYC