The best martial art for street fight [Real life vs Expectations]

Well, I still dared to talk about it – the best martial art for street fight. This subject is always on the surface. Always. All the way I remember myself in martial arts. But I thought I will never write about it.

Because it’s a tricky subject.

On one side, the answer is short and obvious and there is nothing to discuss here. But as soon as you only start to talk about it, especially to someone, a real talking battlefield may unfold right away.

Especially on the internet.

You never know at what count of comments it will stop. And we will never know how many threads on talk boards on this subject have been closed by admins already.

The best fighting style for street fights

But what we all know for sure, the internet and real life are two different worlds. And a street fight is one of those things that bring into the real world right away.

First of all, if talking about the street fight, one should determine two contexts of it:

• martial arts for street fights as self defense
• and street fighting styles as a, let’s call it, subculture or a phenomenon

Self defense martial arts is a way to be prepared (as much it is possible) to fight back if someone is attacking you on the street.

Street fights as a subculture or a phenomenon are usually organized by agreement in advance or before the fight takes place. The reasons for starting a street fight in this case can vary: a quarrel or a dispute, or a competition format to measure whose street fighting style is the best.

In this article today we are talking about the first variant – martial arts for self-defense.

What is the best martial art for street fight?

First of all, as I mentioned I was postponing writing about this subject all this way long. But eventually, this time came.

I don’t give expertise on what is the best martial art for street fight but combine my experience in sports with the experience of other martial artists.

In fact, I prefer to expose here the point of view of many other combat sports practitioners which are available to find on the internet.

What I have done in the format of research and to give the main messages in short sentences.

These presented basic conclusions below are not just about what martial art is most effective in a street fight but also what to expect from a street fight and therefore to consider.

But first, I want to point out the very basic and main thought:

No martial art style, black belt grade, or world champion title guarantee success in a street fight. A sudden onslaught from behind or another situation may break the scenario.

Unfortunately, we all know the bad scenarios from real life.

RIP Leandro Lo.

The best martial art style would be, if possible, to use your consciousness and run away.

Now, let’s jump to other detailed points.

Best martial art for street fight Reddit Opinions

Here we come again to our favorite source of minds and information.

Reddit threads are always a chest of useful thoughts and experiences of real people.

Let’s see what people share about the best martial art for street fight.

For instance, there was taken a poll among the r/martialarts subscribers “What is the most effective Martial Art in a street fight in your opinion?”.

The poll got 408 votes in total and here are the results:

So, the most effective martial arts for street fighting according to the poll are:

• boxing
• wrestling
• Muay Thai
• BJJ
• Karate or taekwondo
• other martial arts

In the comments on Reddit people also mention:

• judo
• any grappling combat style
• any of the mentioned martial art if you have any martial arts experience at all

And one more popular opinion regarding the best martial arts as self defense: