True AmmaElite, I will tell you one thing though, in the few street fights that I have been in throwing a Thai Kick has been pretty effective against an "untrained person" it really throws them off and especially with shoes on! People on the street aren't checking the rear Thai leg kick.
95% of streetfights can be avoided by acting intelligently, and not being overcome by pride.
Except when you're in school, where you are forced legally to go to a place with immature kids who could want to pick on you, and no real way to seperate yourself from them. Unlike the bar when you can just go to the other side.
Lets's see... in the last ten years or so I've only hand to tangle out of the ring a couple of times.
1st time: My wifes uncle, who is our age, came over to our then apartment drunker than hell at 6:00am on a Saturday. He wanted me to help him scrap a car for parts. while I went to my room to get dressed he starting hitting a focus bag I had hanging in my living room. It was 6:00am so I told him to stop, he didn't listen so I yelled at him to stop, he didn't listen. So then I walked up behind him and put him in a full nelson and told him to stop but he wanted to struggle with me so I cranked his head so his chis would touch his chest. I never hit him but I used some harsh force on him.... and he needed it. I think that was justified.
Sencond: After work went to my buddies house for a couple of beers. My buddie is flirting with his neighbor girl, yeah she is cute. It's close to midnight and this has turned into a nice little party. So other dude wants a peice of this girl which is fine but instead of flirting with her he tried picking on my buddy. So he's staring doing the mad dog thing to my buddy, and remember this is at my buddies house, so I ask this fool, "Do you have a problem with him or something?" He responds with "What if I do?" which of course translates to "yes". So I knee tap the fool (slap the back of his knee) and push his face back. He landed flat on his back hard and yeah, no mats. He changed his attitude. I never hit him but I did slam him hard. Any way, I think that was justified and kind of fun.
Sometimes you might have to fight but yeah otherwise street fighting kind of sucks, you don't get paid for it but you can still get injured and worse, you can go to jail. But anytime family, friends, and/or co-workers have a chance to see you in "justified" action, that can be cool.
This is a good thread. Unless you are pretty much forced to, you should usually avoid it. There is no real benefit to it, and people who do it to impress their buddies or feel tough need a reality check. Those types of people will eventually mess with the wrong person and usually pay the price.
The thing about MMA is it gives a venue for what most men do like - fighting, and fighting with some honour rather than resorting to kicking people while they're down, or like that fairly sickening curb stomp video that was here last week. The problem is not streetfighting, but the group mob mentality that goes along with streetfighting.
In saying that, the one on one fights in clubs and stuff I've seen, which is most of the fights, usually end pretty well actually, with people stopping anything to bad happening.