It’s not every day that we find an interesting scientific poll. New survey from YouGov took a playful approach and asked people which animal they could beat in hand to hand combat.
Surprisingly 6% of the interviewees believed they could go a few rounds with a grizzly bear and come out ahead. Considering none of them share the last name Nurmagomedov – we’re highly doubtful of this estimate.
When it came to a gorilla even more subject thought they had a decent chance – 8%. Crocodile was one step ahead with 9%.
On the other hand only 72% expressed belief that they could beat a rat in an unarmed fight. House cat trailed just below at 69% expressing that they believe they could beat a domesticated cat.
Which of the following animals, if any, do you think you could beat in a fight if you were unarmed?
RAT – 72%
HOUSE CAT – 69%
GOOSE – 71%
MEDIUM-SIZED DOG – 49%
EAGLE – 30%
LARGE DOG – 23%
CHIMPANZEE – 17%
KING COBRA – 15%
KANGAROO – 14%
WOLF – 12%
CROCODILE – 9%
GORILLA – 8%
ELEPHANT – 8%
LION – 8%
GRIZZLY BEAR – 6%
This poll was also given in the UK – and the answers differed slightly.
UFC Hall of famer Khabib Nurmagomedov famously grew up with a pet bear – which his father had him wrestle.
“Father put me [into] wrestling with [a] bear when I told him, ‘Hey, this bear tried to bite me.’ And I remember when he told me like, ‘Bite him back! No problem. You have to wrestle. you have to keep going.'”
“I remember when I grow up, father make me compete like freestyle wrestling, Greco-roman, pankration, grappling, amateur MMA, combat sambo. Even he make me wrestle with the bears. This is how he teach me.”
Khabib explained the bear he was wrestling with was a circus bear and thus, was somewhat trained.