The best way to tell if you can beat opponents in battle is always to fight them. Charge with everything you've got, hold nothing back, and, at the end of the brawl, you'll have your answer. The problem with fighting is it's dangerous. Sometimes the risk is simply a by-product of being distracted. Crabs are well protected from one another, since their exoskeletons are like armor, but fighting crabs are distracted crabs and they make easy targets for gulls and grackles. Other times distraction is deadly because of where the fight takes place. Bighorn sheep and ibex smack heads on narrow ledges of steep cliffs, and a single misstep can be disastrous. Even a broken leg is fatal, so males pay constant attention to their opponents and their footing as they fight.

Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evoluti…, loc. 368