Arrow season 6: Ranking its 10 best moments

9. Oliver and Diaz finally get physical

Over the years, Arrow has delivered countless memorable fight scenes. With epic music, multiple vigilantes and endless threats, you’re almost guaranteed to find a good fight in every episode. However, in one particular episode, Season 6 took things back to basics and delivered one of the show’s most violent brawls.

After being captured by Anatoly, Oliver found himself at the mercy of Ricardo Diaz. The Big Bad pounded on the bound hero like a school bully, until Anatoly persuaded him to fight with honor. Taking his colleague’s words to heart, Diaz freed Oliver and the two went head-to-head in a physical clash.

With no music in the background and a lot of close-ups, this brawl wasn’t your normal epic fight. In what felt like one of the few times that Arrow used its new later time slot to its advantage, this was extremely graphic, and at times, uncomfortable to watch. In many ways, it was reminiscent of Batman and Bane’s first collision in The Dark Knight Rises.

Although it wasn’t very logical (Oliver had been trained by both Slade Wilson and the League of Assassins and had also defeated Malcolm Merlyn, Slade, Ra’s Al Ghul, Damien Darhk and Prometheus in battle — all of whom were superior fighters), it was still a hard-hitting moment that reminded us how gritty Arrow could be when its allowed to be. And it also allowed Anatoly to see just how little honor Ricardo Diaz really had.