You absolutely go into an exhibition match expecting to not attempt to destroy your opponent and vise versa. When Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr happened it was extremely apparent that Tyson was much better prepared for the fight, but he didn't attempt to kill the man because it was a fucking exhibition. I don't think the creator clash is billed as exhibition fights though, so it's a moot point.
You're probably right, not an exhibition, but pretty much the same spirit I guess.
Anyway, I think that many people underestimate how hard it is for amateurs to have a "friendly" yet entertaining match where someone needs to win.
Obviously, each one wants to win. And the only way to make this happen is to play to your strength or prey on your opponent's weaknesses.
Putting on a friendly show only works where both are versatile enough to still put up something good to look at without exposing themselves too much. It's an art of some kind. And you need to both have a perfect understanding of what playing it nice looks like to the other for it to work for more than a minute.
In an amateur fight, if you know you gas out too fast, or if you know you can't handle punches, you have no choice. You can't just compromise, because you know you'll get smoked for it in the end.
At the end of the day, it's still a competition. He did not win because he was too aggressive, he won because his opponent was not prepared well enough to this type of aggression and basically had no plan.
It's most weird that dad claims this is a friendly event but then he goes in and fights as hard as he fucking can. If I was one of the people he had gone against I would definitely be pissed, there's nothing friendly about the way he fights lol.
I don't care about the dude tbh. But I see his point. A friendly competition is still a competition, even if it means your opponent might get hurt.
At the end of the day, it is a fight. If it was a tennis match, you would not be complaining that he was serving too fast, if he was dog shit in exchanges and that was his best way to win the match.
They both knew what they signed up for.