After a period of extended unemployment and you know, ‘hitting the gym’ due to not having much else to do, I’ve decided to pursue this hobby of violence that seems to attract far too many chuds. I’m hoping it’ll give me a thin veneer of confidence and security, and an ability to fend off fucking assholes with my bare fists 
In all seriousness, how do I become a better fighter, I truly suck at this. Any of you fight for fun? Practice a martial art, boxing, wrestling? What’s your opinion on the sport?
There’s no way to spar in kickboxing without actually sloshing your noggin around?
Not that I'm aware of. Light sparring is better than beating the brakes off each other, but one of the big breakthroughs in understanding CTE in combat sports was finding out that even light sparring does some cumulative damage over time.
EDIT: now that I'm thinking about it, I'm pretty sure there has even been research showing something as innocuous as "heading" the ball in soccer could cause some minor brain damage over a career. Basically, brain is just hella sensitive.
You can do body and leg only contact OR light head contact (not as good). Your sparring partners have to be in on itas well. So if you have a CHUD gym, you're in trouble...