Fighting with weapons?

This is not a question of right or wrong. First let me explain that this was years ago and I was not a kid who was out looking for trouble or bullying people or in a gang (at least not a formal one). When we were kids (teens and early 20s) when we got into fights we would use weapons (namely blackjacks, chains, br knucks), often because it seemed we were always outnumbered or the other kids were fighting the same way. Now believe me we did not always come up on top and almost all of us have been to th ER and had jail time. Some people have recently brought it to my attention that they consider it cowardly (I am in a different location now). Growing up we never looked at it that way, it just seemed that that was the way things were done. So am I right in thinking that it is not an act of cowardice, but merely an escalation to a higher level?