Okay Blake, as far as legalities go, this is always a bad thing. You are begging to be sued if things go your way, and have provided the first piece of evidence for the plaintiff, particularly if there are witnesses about who are sympathetic to him. I will remind you though that the ScyFy Channel TV series in which I played a lawyer was cancelled, so don’t trust me, ask a law school graduate.

Let’s set the liability thing aside, as, I gather from the context of your question that you are wondering if the announcement of your training to a challenger/aggressor might minimize the violence, and hopefully negate the mess of combat altogether.

I would like to regal you with some stories of what happened to some Baltimore area badasses of the prize-fighter and black belt variety when those with which they found themselves at odds were appraised—mostly by reputation and third party heads’ up—that they were dealing with a highly trained and dangerous empty hand combatant.

Marc, a pro kickboxer with 27 wins, was a member of the Black Avengers, the ‘baddest man on the street’. When I met him 10 years after his heyday he had to drag himself to the men’s room on crutches, courtesy of a bullet to the spine. He was so feared they would not even shoot him to his face!

Mike, a heavyweight boxer, got in a fight over a girl and was stabbed, having his guts literally spill out. He recovered. I was among the hundreds of local boxing people that donated to cover his medical expenses.

Mike once again became embroiled in a female-fueled disagreement with someone who knew how dangerous his fists were—not to mention his standout high school wrestling ability—and was gutted again, for good.

Eddie Van Kirk, a welterweight contender from the 80s and 90s, was gunned down outside of his house in the Pig Town neighborhood of Baltimore, last year I think. Nobody who knew Eddie, even other boxers, wanted to throw hands with him on the street.

A doorman at a Baltimore club, who worked with a friend of mine and was known to be a martial artist, was killed in a drive by shooting, as an example to others who might stand up to the local gang bangers at a night club door.

A young Tae Kwon Do fighter was recently threatened and pushed in the basement of a house that he had been invited to for a party. He kicked to the man’s head and stopped his foot, just to let the guy know he could have knocked him out. Out came the guns, and fortunately he escaped with his life.

Andy, a lifelong martial artist, had a verbal altercation in the line at a movie house just last year. It was a conversation along the lines of what Blake suggested as a confrontational scenario. Satisfied that the punk who tried to cut in line in front of him was no longer a threat, the black belt of 20 years waited his turn, which never came, as he was soon shot in the back of the head by the punk he had backed down.

Blake, your prize-fighting experience and or martial arts training may or may not provide you the edge you need to prevail in a given encounter of the violent kind. Announcing it ahead of time takes much of that edge away, ups the ante to a likely weapon or group encounter, and increases your legal liability.

Take a page out of the Lakota playbook. They wiped out Custer precisely because he thought he was just going to be murdering women, children and old men in their camp. Those very same warriors were unable to wipe out Benteen and Reno and their men even though they were the second and third string troops of the 7th Cavalry, because they knew what they were up against. Conversely the surprised elite troopers of Custer’s command were easily accounted for.

Any trained fighter who announces to an antagonist, ‘Hey, back off, I’m a black belt’ or because ‘I have my pro card’, has just made the ages’ old fatal compound error of martial hubris, of simultaneously underestimating and informing the enemy.

Play it cool and close Blake.