There is a Real Pillow Fighting League and It Looks Awesome

Remember pillow fighting with your brothers and sisters when you were younger? Someone turned it into a professional sport. Seriously.

My brother, sister, and I would pillow fight from time to time as kids. As the oldest (and dare I say, wisest), I would make sure to grab the down feather pillow as my weapon of choice. You remember those, right? They were always a little more heavy and dense than the foam or cotton-filled pillows, and once you swung them around enough times, good old centrifugal force would do its thing and pull all the stuffing into one end of the pillow making it feel like you were swinging a punching bag. One well-placed shot to the side of the head would usually send my brother or sister to the ground. It would also usually send them crying to mom, but whatever. I had already asserted my dominance.

Like you, I grew up, and outside of knocking my kids around a bit when they were younger, pillow fighting became a thing of the past for the most part. For Steve Williams, pillow fighting doesn't have to stop just because we become adults.

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Steve is the President and CEO of the Pillow Fighting Championship (PFC), a professional sports organization that began holding pillow fighting matches in the Fall of 2021. According to their website, the PFC was an idea, "to develop a real fighting sport that would appeal to the international family." Each bout consists of two competitors each wielding an official PFC pillow. Now, these aren't pillows the combatants brought with them from their own beds. These are official PFC pillows featuring the company's logo and sturdy straps sewn-on so the fighters can keep a strong hold on their weapon while they swing away. And swing away they do. Take a look at one of the matches that took place during their Pay-Per-View tournament, PFC Pound Down, a couple of weeks ago in Florida. These guys are trying to knock the other's head off.

As you can see the fights take place in a standard boxing ring, and the competitors aren't everyday people like you and me. Most of them are boxers and MMA fighters. Each fight consists of two rounds of 90 seconds each and the winner is determined in the same way as your normal boxing or MMA match, by knockout, technical knockout (i.e.. a fighter can no longer continue for whatever reason and the ref ends the fight), or by the judge's decision.

Competitors aren't just doing it for fun. The Pound Down PPV tournament crowned both a female and male champion, awarding each their own title belts and $5,000.

While most of the competitors keep their ring attire pretty simple, some like to jazz it up a bit by becoming a character. In the case of this match, both competitors went with a Joker-themed look. Maybe that's why they were fighting?

I can't lie. I would pay to watch this. I wonder what it would take to get it to come to the Ford Center or the Old National Events Plaza? Maybe 911 Gives Hope could incorporate an exhibition pillow fight into Guns & Hoses. Let two people get in there during intermission for a donation to the charity and duke it out pillow-style. I'd skip a trip to the concession stand to watch that.

Speaking of Guns & Hoses, round 14 is coming up on April 9th at the Ford Center in downtown Evansville. Tickets are on sale now at the Ford Center box office and Ticketmaster.com.

[Sources: News18 / Pillow Fighting Championship]