I've never hit a woman before and I really doubt I could ever hit a woman. It is up there with cannibalism on the taboo scale, for me anyway. I have had an ex-girlfriend, who later learned she had some serious mental health issues, go off on me and start wailing on me with both open and closed fist hits. At first I was in such shock I just took the hits. Then that shit started to hurt and I ran into a serious road block because I didn't know how to diffuse the situation. I ended up just closing the space between us and then pinning her arms down in a bear hug until she seemed ready to stop.
Only if she had a knife and wanted to kill me. My father actually had that happen to him before he married my mother and dated this Iranian chick. I don't remember what he told me on why she was mad, but all he did was punch her straight in the face and had him and a friend carry her as she was knocked out onto the couch lol.By the time she woke up she completely forgot about it. Kinda funny.