Hello I have no personal experience with traditional dog fighting, but I know a guy who's been living (and travelling around) East-Europe and Russia/Caucasus/Baltikum for more than 30 years. He's a journalist and has witnessed many dog fights. His impression was that people did this for fun/sport and honor...even in the mountains. He also believed that this "oh we do it to test the dog's ability to fight predators" was merely a poor attempt to justify the barbarism, or an excuse to keep on with the show. Ability to fight predators is only 1 skill among many required for a good LGD. Many people have two or three dogs as well, so often it's not necessary for a LGD to win over a wolf alone. In my opinion it's much more important that a LGD manages to work with other LGDs as a team. A LGD that runs away from a predator is not good, but you don't need dog fights to test that.