I give Kirk’s bamboo cannon a pass as the Metrons were running the show and could have allowed it to work. (IIRC, one of the TNG novels mentions every attempt to recreate it in a holodeck simulation ends with the cannon blowing up in a cadet’s face.) And it’s the Enterprise CGI Gorn that looks like a dinosaur, not the classic man in a suit version. 😉
I don’t recall Kirk and the Gorn captain actually fist fighting, and that’s my personal favorite episode.