lol Corben - it was only you who mentioned black dressed ninjas now ;D
I've seen yellow/blue/red ones in some movies too

As for the hit-system i got another idea:
like i mentioned before - use the firemodes to switch between
defensive or offensive moves, and set some variables or booleans for the time, while the animation is running.
Now you have at least a reference point, which kind of hits
a unit could defend and which not. This in combination with
getdir and position of the units could make a good hit-detection
system.
Also i'd suggest to not only use fighting anims but to modify
all of the animations.
Then you would have a whole set of free animations: the
crouching ones, as they weren't needed in your style of mod.
Maybe you could turn those then into some kickboxing anims

(off course not kickboxing, but you know what i mean)
~S~ CD