Felony Fights: The Controversial DVD Series That Shocked America
Quick Facts
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Format | DVD series |
| Volumes | 6 main volumes (2005-2006), plus companion series |
| Tagline | "No Cops. No Rules. No Mercy." |
| Content | No-rules fights between felons, gang members, and street fighters |
| Distribution | DVDs via retail (Amazon, Best Buy, eBay), now available on Internet Archive |
| Status | Defunct, but retains a cult following |
| Related Series | Ghetto Fights (6 volumes) |
| Website | felonyfights.com |
Overview
Felony Fights is one of the most controversial fight video series ever produced. Released across multiple DVD volumes beginning in 2005, the series documented bare-knuckle, no-rules fights between convicted felons, gang members, skinheads, and street fighters in raw, unedited footage that made no attempt to sanitize the violence or contextualize it within the framework of legitimate sport. There were no referees, no judges, no rounds, and no pretense that what was being captured on camera was anything other than brutal, unregulated street combat.
The series arrived at a particular moment in American culture -- the mid-2000s DVD boom, when shock content found a ready market among audiences hungry for material that pushed beyond what mainstream media would show. Felony Fights positioned itself at the extreme edge of that market, alongside similarly controversial titles like Bumfights, and found an audience large enough to sustain six volumes of its main series, a companion series called Ghetto Fights, and enough notoriety to earn coverage in the New York Times.
Felony Fights is no longer in active production, but its legacy endures. The DVDs circulate on the secondary market, the videos have found new life on the Internet Archive, and the series remains a reference point in any discussion about the ethics of filming, distributing, and profiting from real-world violence.
History and Origins
The Felony Fights series emerged in 2005, a period when the DVD format was at its commercial peak and distributors were willing to stock content that would have been unthinkable in the VHS era's more tightly controlled retail environment. The series capitalized on the same cultural appetite that had made Bumfights a controversial sensation a few years earlier -- the desire to see real violence, featuring real people, with real consequences.
The New York Times profiled the series in 2008, telling the story of Shad Smith, who received a call from the organizers of Felony Fights shortly after his release from California's Avenal State Prison in early 2005. Smith's story illustrated the series' recruitment model: reach into communities of recently released prisoners, gang members, and street fighters, find people willing to fight on camera for little or no compensation, and document the results.
The first volume, subtitled "Sick & Twisted Games," established the template. The marketing copy pulled no punches: "No rules. No judges. Anything goes. Skulls cracked. Eyes split. Mouths busted. Heads stomped." This was not combat sports. This was street violence captured and packaged for commercial sale.
The Volumes
Volume 1: Sick & Twisted Games (2005)
The original release that launched the series. Marketed as featuring fights with absolutely no rules and no judges, Volume 1 introduced audiences to the Felony Fights format: raw footage of street fights between convicted felons and gang members, presented without commentary or context. The fights ranged from one-on-one brawls to multi-person melees, and the production quality was deliberately low -- handheld cameras, minimal editing, no post-production polish. The rawness was the point.
Volume 2: Return of the Games (2005)
The second volume escalated the content, featuring what the producers described as "ultra violent competitions, extreme weapon fights, and brutal knockouts." Volume 2 was notably marketed as "BANNED FROM RETAIL" -- a claim that, whether accurate or exaggerated for marketing purposes, signaled the series' awareness that its content was pushing against the boundaries of what mainstream retailers would carry.
Volume 3: The 3rd Strike (2005)
Volume 3 expanded the format to include two-on-one fights, fights involving intoxicated participants, and women's fights. The marketing materials advertised "eye gouging, throat choking, and vicious knockouts." The inclusion of multi-person fights and asymmetric matchups represented a further departure from anything resembling organized combat sports.
Volume 4: Down & Dirty (2006)
The fourth volume leaned into mixed-gender fights, two-on-two matchups, and weapon-related content. The producers touted it as containing "the bloodiest chick fight, craziest weapon scene, and the most brutal rumble ever recorded." At this point in the series' arc, the content had moved well beyond street fighting into territory that was difficult to categorize as anything other than filmed assault.
Volume 5: Business as Usual (2006)
The penultimate main volume continued the established formula with multi-person fights, mixed-gender matchups, and escalating violence. A featured segment included a four-way "last man standing" war. The title itself -- "Business as Usual" -- suggested a self-awareness about what the series had become: a factory for increasingly extreme content, churning out volumes at a pace that prioritized output over any remaining pretense of structure.
Volume 6: Bloodiest Battles (2006)
The final main volume served as a compilation, collecting thirteen fights including previously unreleased footage and two-on-two rumbles. As a capstone to the series, it functioned less as new content and more as a greatest-hits package for an audience that had followed the series through its entire run.
Distribution and Controversy
Felony Fights DVDs were sold through mainstream retail channels including Amazon, Best Buy, and eBay -- a fact that became a focal point for critics who argued that major retailers were profiting from the exploitation of vulnerable people and the commercial distribution of real violence. The series occupied an uncomfortable position in the retail landscape: too extreme for many stores to carry comfortably, but not explicitly illegal in a way that would justify pulling it from shelves.
The controversy surrounding Felony Fights centered on several interconnected issues. First was the question of exploitation. The fighters featured in the series were overwhelmingly drawn from marginalized communities -- recently released prisoners, gang members, people with few economic alternatives. Critics argued that the producers were profiting from the desperation and dysfunction of people who had no meaningful ability to consent to the commercial distribution of their fights.
Second was the question of legality. While consensual fighting between adults is not inherently illegal in many jurisdictions, the no-rules format of Felony Fights -- featuring weapons, multi-person assaults, and fights involving participants who appeared to be intoxicated -- raised serious questions about where the line fell between consensual combat and criminal assault.
Third was the broader cultural question of what it meant that there was a commercial market for this content. The Felony Fights audience was not watching sanctioned combat sports. They were watching real people inflict real damage on each other in uncontrolled environments, and they were paying for the privilege. The series forced a reckoning with the appetite for violence that exists in the entertainment marketplace and the ethical responsibilities of the distributors who serve that appetite.
The series drew inevitable comparisons to Bumfights, the earlier DVD series that documented fights between homeless people and generated significant legal consequences for its creators. While Felony Fights avoided the same level of legal scrutiny, it operated in the same moral territory and faced many of the same criticisms.
The Companion Series: Ghetto Fights
Alongside the main Felony Fights series, the producers released a companion series titled Ghetto Fights, which ran for six volumes. Ghetto Fights focused on street violence captured in urban environments, with content drawn from various cities across the United States. The series shared the same no-rules, no-commentary format as Felony Fights and was marketed to the same audience.
Notably, footage from the Ghetto Fights series reportedly appeared in music videos by prominent hip-hop artists including Lil Wayne and 50 Cent, a detail that underscores the cultural penetration of this type of content during the mid-2000s.
Legacy and Impact
Felony Fights occupies a specific and uncomfortable place in the history of underground fighting content. It was not a fight promotion in any meaningful sense -- there was no organization, no ongoing roster, no championship structure, no community. It was a content operation that treated violence as raw material to be harvested and sold.
The series' legacy is primarily cautionary. It represents the outer boundary of what happens when the documentation of fighting is divorced from any organizing principle beyond shock value. Organizations like Streetbeefs and even the Underground Combat League operated with philosophies -- conflict resolution, competitive opportunity, community building. Felony Fights had no such philosophy. Its only organizing principle was the camera, and its only audience contract was the promise that the violence would be real.
That said, the series retains a cult following. The DVDs are traded on secondary markets, the videos circulate on the Internet Archive and various streaming platforms, and the Felony Fights brand maintains a presence on social media through its website and an X (formerly Twitter) account. For a certain audience, the series' unvarnished brutality holds an appeal that more polished fight content cannot match.
The broader impact of Felony Fights -- and series like it -- was to accelerate the conversation about the ethics of fight content that continues to this day. Every time a new underground fighting organization posts a video to YouTube, every time a street fight goes viral on social media, the questions that Felony Fights raised in 2005 resurface: Who is being exploited? Who is profiting? And what does our appetite for this content say about us?
FAQ
Is Felony Fights still being produced?
No. The main series ended after six volumes released between 2005 and 2006. No new volumes have been produced, though the existing content continues to circulate on secondary markets and the Internet Archive.
Where can I watch Felony Fights?
Several volumes are available on the Internet Archive as free downloads. Original DVDs can sometimes be found on eBay and other secondary market platforms. The felonyfights.com website also hosts content and information about the series.
Is Felony Fights the same as Bumfights?
No. Felony Fights and Bumfights are separate series with different producers. Bumfights focused on fights involving homeless individuals and generated significant legal consequences for its creators. Felony Fights focused on fights between convicted felons and gang members. The two series are often discussed together due to their shared era, similar formats, and overlapping controversies.
Were the fights in Felony Fights real?
Yes. The fights depicted in the Felony Fights series were real, unscripted confrontations between actual participants. This was a central part of the series' marketing -- the violence was genuine, not staged.
How many volumes of Felony Fights exist?
The main Felony Fights series includes six volumes. A companion series, Ghetto Fights, ran for an additional six volumes. Both series were released between 2005 and 2006.
Were the Felony Fights producers ever arrested?
The producers of Felony Fights did not face the same level of legal consequences as the Bumfights creators, who were charged with felonies and ultimately pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. The legal status of the Felony Fights series remained in a gray area, with the no-rules content raising questions about the line between consensual combat and criminal assault.
How is Felony Fights different from Streetbeefs?
The differences are fundamental. Streetbeefs is a community-based organization with safety protocols, referees, weight classes, and a founding philosophy of conflict resolution. Felony Fights was a commercial content operation with no rules, no safety measures, and no purpose beyond capturing and selling footage of extreme violence. They represent opposite ends of the underground fighting spectrum.