Dog fighting of today is far different then it was in the past, it was once a suit and tie affair, the dogs didn't fight to the death....(for the most part)
they had rules and an opponent could call a "turn" if a dog turned away from the dog that he was fighting, they would break up the dogs and bring them to opposing corners(this is one reason why the dogs could never be human aggressive they actually put down any "man fighters" as they were called)....and then release the dog that had the turn called on it...if the dog didn't immediately Scratch (attack) (they called it scratching due to the sounds the claws make) the other dog, the fight was over...there were a lot of rules....they Loved their dogs....They were the first to keep official records of the dogs Lineage.
one thing people forget the dog is what it is because of its history...
the American Pittbull today is NOT the same dog ether, it lost its love of people due to mass modern bad breeding..(they were called the nanny dog...ww1 hero was an APBT) it was the most beloved dog in america and was exactly what america used to be..the originals were breed for the desire to fight....Their "Game"...or what some may refer to as "heart" in man.
that and only that was how they choose what dog to breed....
fighters don't "train" the dogs to fight, they do it naturally...you have to train them NOT to fight.
Morf knows all this.... 
I would never have fought my APBT but I respect were her breed came from.....I am glad because without her ancestors I would Never have had the greatest dog man ever made. I have owned a few dogs, and Mia a true 45 lb dynamo, was the only dog that never growled at my kids. By far the greatest Dog I have ever met.
Yes Ink,I've been a student of the fighting arts for over 50 years,this includes the bloodsports!
You were pretty close on your description of a match,but they actually had 3 lines in the"pit" the scratch line was in the center of the pit and the dog that had the "turn" called on had to cross the center line.
The term"he's not up to scratch" comes from this activity,so does being axed from the job and several other common terms.
Ink mentioned "game" this was the most desired trait and money was no object to obtain a dog that was game.While Ink is correct that most fight didn't end in a death there was a term "dead game" that was used to describe a dog with so much heart it actually crossed the scratch line only to die as a result of the fight. All of this was the "gentlemans" pastime andtremendous amounts of money were wagered.
You can read ads in the London Times about dogs standing at challenge and the cost of a match,5000 pounds was not uncommon! Sometimes animals other than dogs were used,even humans were matched in the pits against dogs!
Yes it's a brutal affair,something I would never get involved with but I have a keen interest in the history and mostly the types of dogs used. Most don't realize that dogs as small as 5 pounds were fought or that some of the smaller dogs would be placed in the pit to kill rats and these rats were often as large as the dogs!
IIRC the world record is 1 minute and 28 seconds to dispatch 100 rats........ wow!
It's a cruel and indecent activity but like anything lest we forget we are bound to repeat.
