I'm curious how you arrive at that opinion. Your profile says you don't currently train. Did you train at one time?
Yes, I did. There are some observations I made from my own experience which, when put together, made my opinion on this fight clip and the OP's remark come naturally to me. Some of these observations are:
1) Fighting (for real) is a very uncertain proposition within which there are many variables involved, including skill among many others.
2) Skill is actually a variable of lesser importance. Power, speed, endurance, pain tolerance, motivation, psychopathy and experience have more to do with actual fighting than skill (which is why a brawl will never resemble a martial arts competition but may involve techniques learned in martial arts).
3) It's easier for the law-abiding and sedentary majority to develop fighting skill (i.e. isolated bio-mechanical skills) than to develop any of those other fighting attributes. It's the other way around for someone with childhood trauma or abusive parents, who find those other attributes easier to develop. This is for many reasons, including the predisposition to spend time, effort and money in a disciplined and orderly environment led by a teacher. This is a habit learned from school and college, and it's a successful habit in most areas of endeavour but less optimal
for learning how to fight for real than the brutal environments of prisons, broken homes, bad neighbourhoods, local boxing gyms, etc. It's not useless but it's less useful than those more chaotic, risky and unpleasant learning environments.
4) The OP mentioned black belts. Human beings are social animals, and the black belt represents the end of inferiority within any martial arts school that's imported the Japanese kyu and dan system (i.e. all other colours are inferior to black). Our complex social codes have resulted in a situation where the only martial arts grade that matters is the black belt. Having a black belt in anything confers authority through an apparent expertise. On martial arts forums, for example, nobody is advertising their kyu grade in any martial art. Unfortunately the motivation to get a black belt often clouds the judgment of the martial arts trainee, who may recognise deficiencies in his sensei's martial art but will say nothing because they're "due" for a kyu grade assessment in a couple of weeks and have paid the membership in their association for a year already. I once trained in a martial art that taught spinning away and turning your back on an opponent in a fight. They taught that as a technique from day one. I walked away but could have stayed, have a bit of moderate-intensity exercise and walked away as a "combat expert" for only £15 a week. Walking away and training elsewhere was good for my learning but didn't get me the credibility of having a credential in an obscure martial art that has a lot of forum kudos and which some people seem to think gives you an otherworldly spiritual aura (in case you're interested, it was kalaripayat).
5) The first martial art I trained in (not including judo) was Shotokan karate. I remember the black belts assembled during gradings, and while some of them seemed very good, others were more diverse. Less intensity and competence was required from children (in retrospect what were they doing giving dan grades to under-15s apart from lining their pockets?) and from all women regardless of fitness. A couple of the men were morbidly obese. All this was a long time ago (1990s). I see black belts today in many martial arts and I see many really awful fighters, who don't demonstrate an awareness of the realities of range, balance, power, etc. let alone proficiency. This is, I believe, because the dan grade is the only grade that matters in society, and martial arts that have traditional Japanese-style gradings aren't attracting "fighters" (who are, in my experience, generally really bad misanthropic types no matter what pedestal they're put on by others) but decent people (who are generally the products of successful conditioning, upbringing and education to live happily, healthily and responsibly in a peaceful society). On the other hand, plenty of people with "issues" hit a bag now and then, and some of them may attend a boxing gym or some other "fight club" type of martial art school that involves plenty of full-on contact and regular injuries. Two different worlds. One, unfortunately, turns out really challenging fighters. The other gives lots of respect and credibility (quite rightly so, because at least it proves someone is disciplined and perseveres for 3 years at something) but generally isn't a good return on investment in time and effort compared to more rough-and-ready training systems.
6) A lot of black belts aren't training in martial arts to be better fighters, or even to learn how to fight. They're performing techniques that require bodily control and a bit of mental concentration too. Swordsmanship arts are the best examples, although it exists in all empty hand arts as well. Also, for those people, it might not be just about discipline and learning movements that help externalise an internal conflict in a sort of therapeutic way, but it might also be about maintaining a link to a historic culture they're interested in or have inherited in some manner. I think that's an absolutely valid justification for studying a martial art, by the way. But again, it reduces the pressure on the art itself to be in any way combat-ready. The critical life-and-death environment isn't there. The evil/unjust psychology, cruelty, etc. never comes into it. Clowns on the street picking fights, especially in gangs, have lots of these problems giving them a fighting edge. In fact they never pick fights, only victims. The average black belt who likes the tradition, customs, social networking and other benefits of his martial art isn't a match for these guys. They are, unfortunately, better judges of physique, athleticism and fighting prowess than most martial artists, simply because they look for victims to hurt, without caring if someone is maimed or killed. And they don't train for these animal traits, they're born with them or have them beaten into them at some point.
