 Today's episode is going to attempt to break away from a lot of the tension and anxiety that much of us have felt with recent events. So we thought it would add some levity and be a fun exercise to look at a different type of presidential fight. Which American president would beat all others in unarmed combat? Who would win in a hand-to-hand presidential fight? So right off the bat, I just want to ask that we don't delve into any political debates or fights on this topic. This is just for fun. We're trying to add some levity to the situation and this is in no way a commentary on current events. So I'm asking that we leave that out of this. This is looking at the martial arts and the presidents that may have studied them in practice them, so I trust you guys, I trust this audience with this topic, let's keep it civil, let's keep it fun, and let's get into it. So the conditions for this list is we are looking at presidents who have known martial arts experience or some sort of hand-to-hand combat training. Many were athletes and many also fought in wars. The presidents on this list are our picks of those with unarmed hand-to-hand fighting experience and at the end of this video we're going to pick who we feel would win among the group. We are also excluding both candidates that are currently in the news. First of all, like I said, this is supposed to be fun and this is not an attempt to capitalize on either name so you're not going to see either one referenced in the topic, in tags, in thumbnails, or in the description. This is just for fun. And second and even more importantly, neither one of those candidates, we could even find any martial arts experience on so they wouldn't even have made this list anyway. So with that out of the way, let's have some fun. So one quick note is that most of the presidents on this list are old school, which means they were exposed to a very different fighting landscape than what we see in America today. So that means topics such as Kempo, Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu all came after their time or most of their time. So that's just something they keep into perspective is that we're talking about different eras here. However, you know, even that being said, many of them were still very skilled grapplers and wrestlers. So let's take a look at our player roster. This list is composed of presidents that we were able to find any mention or specific history involving grappling or striking skills. But before we can crown one of these commanders in chief, let's do a few quick rounds of elimination. Round one, fight. The first two to be eliminated are presidents Calvin Coolidge and Andrew Jackson. Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, had a long history of practicing law and politics. However, while he makes a list of wrestlers, he was known to have wrestled in his youth, but since we placed the condition of the fighters being in their prime, it seems like his experience would have paled compared to the others on this list. There is a quote from his father, Colonel John Coolidge, that says that his son was a tolerable, good wrestler until around the age of 14 when he took the duty in a round and daydreaming about being a big city lawyer. In one such instance, he challenged one of his critics, Charles Dickinson, to a duel, with the strategy of allowing Dickinson to turn and fire first, hoping that in his rush to shoot, he would be less accurate. Dickinson did in fact fire first and the bullet struck Andrew Jackson in the chest. Unfortunately, under the rules of this duel, Dickinson had to stand still while Andrew Jackson took his turn, which means Jackson took his time, aimed carefully and fired, making and killing his challenger. Although Jackson survived the shot through the chest, he earned himself the reputation of being a vindictive, cold-blooded killer. In any case, regardless of any skills he may have had with a firearm, this list is really committed to those with hand-to-hand combat, so unfortunately, that's not enough for him to make this list. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the 34th president, as well as holding the rank of five-star general during World War II. He was also a fan of boxing and wrestling. Gerald Ford, the 38th president of the United States, also held an affinity for boxing and served as a boxing coach at Yale, as well as the United States Navy during World War II. Barack Obama was the 44th president and also only one of two presidents on this list to hold a belt rank in a formal martial art. President Obama practiced Taekwondo and earned his way to Greenbelt. In 2009, he was given an honorary black belt, making him the only one on this list to technically hold a black belt of any kind. So we already did an episode on honorary black belts, so if you're interested in a further discussion on that topic, go check out that episode. Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th president and often engaged in casual wrestling. Okay, so while these four took a little bit more consideration compared to the rest of the combatants on this list, this is as far as they go. Barack Obama is definitely focused on fitness, and I feel that his experience in Taekwondo was more fitness-based than combat. And while Ford and Eisenhower seem to have good boxing skills in their prime, they are products of a more contemporary time and more civilized fighting. Ulysses S. Grant is from an older and rougher time, but he didn't have the formal wrestling experience as some of the others and was of a smaller stature, standing at about 5'8". When put up against who's left on this list, it's my personal opinion that these four men wouldn't go much further than this. So now it gets harder to eliminate because the guys on the left come from a much rougher time, roll around in the dirt type of time, and many of them are known for their aggression, unwavering focus, and sometimes just their sheer size and stature. Also many of these presidents engage in an older, Irish-style type of wrestling called collar and elbow. Now this may be a topic we can expand on further if that's something you guys want to see, but collar and elbow wrestling is very different than what you might find today in high school or collegiate level wrestling. Typically, each opponent would wear jackets or thick garments that could be grabbed and pulled, and the objective was to throw your opponent onto their backs. Collar and elbow wrestling also typically allowed trips, kicking, throws, chokes, and submissions. The first president, George Washington, was very well versed in collar and elbow and grew up using his wrestling to fend off bullies. Zachary Taylor was the 12th president, a career military officer, and also skillful collar and elbow wrestler. Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, not only was also versed in collar and elbow, but his size, reach, and sheer strength made him a formidable foe. James Garfield was the 20th president, and grew up an avid wrestler. His father was the grand champion wrestler in Northeast Ohio, and Garfield himself was the unofficial champion at Hiram College. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president, was known as the Rough Rider, and he had extensive experience in boxing and grappling. Along with Brock Obama, Roosevelt held a formal belt, earning a brown belt in judo. William Howard Taft was a large man, adept at collar and elbow, and was a heavyweight wrestling champion at Yale. Now, picking who would advance to the final round was a little bit more of a challenge, because many of them were sizable, and pretty much most of these guys here had some sort of experience and some really rough fighting. So after careful consideration, the presidents that we choose to advance to the final round are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt, which, coincidentally enough, all three of these men are on Mount Rushmore. Maybe it's because they're stone cold. So quite honestly, what it came down to is that these three men not only had good fighting skills, but they were also known to be scrappy, no nonsense, and quick to join a fight. Finish him. As they used, George Washington found himself faced with bullies at the age of 15 when he entered finishing school. But the thing is, the bullies did not have much success, because with Washington having experience in collar and elbow, he made quick work out of them and he put them in their place, and later went on to become a wrestling champion. Oh yeah, and there was that whole revolutionary war thing in which Washington helped defeat the British and established the United States, so credit where credit is due. Abraham Lincoln also did not take any crap from bullies, and he was actually known as a bully hunter. As a young man, he was recruited by his town to take on a local formidable bully. They agreed to a wrestling match, and Lincoln supposedly folded them into a pretzel. Honest Abe was a large man, a veteran of the Black Hawk War, and known to be very strong. During the war, he defended the native that his troops wanted to kill, but everyone was too afraid to challenge Abe. He was also very proficient with the axe, and it was said that he showed off his chopping skills and one-arm swinging techniques. Oh, and he also hunted vampires, so there's that. Now, as rough as both of these guys are, personally speaking, I feel that we have to give the title of champion to Rough Rider Theodore Roosevelt. Now, this guy, in my opinion, is the epitome of toughness. He was not only a wrestler, a boxer, and a judoka, but he never let anything stop him. He was frail and weak and stricken with asthma as a child, and the doctors did not expect him to live past age four. His father encouraged him to engage in athletics, and Roosevelt was able to get stronger and defy his prognosis by working out with weights in the punching bag. This man braced the combat arts, often taken on champions of his day, and even if he didn't win, he put up a hell of a fight, and both men would emerge bruised but respecting each other. Even when he served as governor and disapproval of his staff, he often held secret wrestling matches. He sought out to learn judo as a more serious art and an effort to lose weight, as well as to learn the way of this new Eastern art that was gaining a lot of attention at the time. He sustained several injuries while fighting, including a detached retina on his left eye for boxing, but this man was known first and foremost for his unwavering determination and assertion. This is a man who once had his boat stolen, and he responded by hand building another boat, chasing them down, catching them, beating them up, and walking them back to authorities over the course of 40 hours. This is also a man who rode on the back of a moose through a river. This is also a man who was shot in the chest in an assassination attempt on a way to a speech, and he went he did the 90 minute speech anyway, bleeding and delivering a badass quote, it takes more than that to kill a bull moose. He died at age 60 in 1919 of a blood clot that traveled to his lungs, and one of my favorite quotes ever was from Thomas Marshall, governor of Indiana and vice president to Woodrow Wilson. He said that death had to take him in sleep, for if Roosevelt had been awake, there would have been a fight. Mr. Roosevelt was one tough dude, and I personally feel, given the combatants on this list, it is my personal belief that Theodore Roosevelt would have taken the title. Thank you so much for watching. Like I said, this was just a fun exploration topic, and I'm curious to know if you agree with my assessment or if you feel a different president would emerge victor. So please let me know in the comments below. Again, please keep it civil. Any flamethrowing, any political debates or anything, any ugliness will be deleted. So I'm asking you guys to all be civil, because there's no reason not to be. So thank you so much for watching, and we'll see you guys next week.