I wonder if our society today has anything to do with that. When I was in grammar school, schoolyard fights were pretty common. Nowdays one will get you suspended. We had boxing and wrestling in high school PE, many don't anymore. Many many people, of both sexes, have never been in a physical confrontation of any kind, and therefore have no idea what to do, where to start, how to take a punch and ignore it (unless of course it is a real good punch), etc.

In a knife fight, even if you have a knife of your own, you have to expect to get cut. That is totally foreign to most people. But, at least in my opinion, far superior to trying to learn how to fly...