Actually there are martial arts that were created by watching street fights on youtube. There is much to be learned from watching a street fight because they are vastly different than what you see on tv in boxing and ufc matches. Boxing and ufc are combat sports. They are not what I would define as real fighting. Now I do not mean that I think they are fake or don't work. They absolutely do work, and knowing a form of competition style martial art is much better than knowing nothing when it comes to defending yourself in the street. However arts like boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, muay thai, wrestling, karate, tae-kwon-do, etc, are designed with a specific purpose in mind. While each of their purposes vary in some ways (I.E. boxing is meant to teach you how to punch well, jiu-jitsu is mean to teach you to grapple well) but their main purpose remains the same. They are all competition style martial arts. While they can be adapted for street self defense, that was not what they were designed for. There are key differences between real fighting and what people perceive as real fighting from watching too much ufc. If you watch enough street fights on youtube, you see that untrained fighters throw punches and kicks differently, they throw them from a mile away and often take their own balance in the process. They do rodeo style tackles vs. doing a trained wrestlers shoot or a proper hip toss. They also attack without warning, weather from the front, side or behind. In a ufc or boxing match it is clear who you are fighting, when the fight starts, and when the fight ends. In the streets ANYONE can be your next opponent, which forces you to be on top of your awareness. Also there are no set of rules in the street, if they want to kick you in the groin, they will. If they want to poke your eye, they will. If they want to grab your hair, they will. Every self defense martial artist knows that you can not rule out weapons or multiple attackers either. Alot of people advocate the ground and pound method. While this may be effective against one unarmed opponent in the street, the last place you want to be against someone with a knife and/or friends, is on the ground. In a street fight, mobility equals survivability. Also you must take into account your local, state, and federal laws regarding self defense and the use of excessive force. If you do what they teach you in alot of martial arts in the streets, then it will land you in jail weather you started it or not.
There are TONS of things to learn from watching street fights on youtube, because the reality is that sport, and street fighting are light-years away from each other. My suggestion is that not only should you continue to watch street fights, but also look into finding an art that is designed for real world self defense.....what is everyone elses thoughts on the best martial art of the streets?
