Fencing, similar to real duelling?

Being a fencer myself I can say that fencing is definitely not an easy sport to master. You need extremely fast reaction speeds, a good cardiovascular fitness and the ability to remain cool-headed under pressure. As for the sports realism, in technique and required skill it is almost identical. However, as in fencing you often have to score as many as 15 points in order to win a match, it is said that many defensive acts are carried out that would never be done in a real duel as you effectively have 15 'lives'. Compare this to a real duel in which, obviously, you only have the one life and the duellers would be far more cautious. Out of the three potential swords that you can fight with (foil, epee or sabre), epee is most like what the weapons used in duels would have been like, similarly the rules reflect a more realistic fight in that you can hit anywhere on the body and there is no 'right of way' for scoring. I myself use a sabre but when I have fought with an epee I can safely say that it hurts like a bitch to be hit with one. It has even been said that the force produced by a fencers lunge with an epee is comparable to the force produced by a bullet. Whether or not this has any factual evidence is debatable but there is definitely no debate as to which is more lethal, i'd pick a fencers lunge any day of the week.