SoySoldier

As some of the previous postings have indicated, performance in a street fight really comes down to experience. The adrenal rush of truly fighting someone, especially a stranger, whom you have no idea about his full intentions, causes a large varity of fear responses and most of them are not good for a well-conducted fight. Martial arts training does very little for someone to prepare them for that, in general. But, the closest you can get to getting yourself ready for that, and feeling safer is to get involved with competing, and regular full contact sparring in your school. And I am not talking about point-sparring in tae kwan do or karate etc, I mean you put on gloves, shin guards and maybe headgear and just go full out with a training partner. You will do this scores of times in preparing for a ring fight, but getting one of those ring fighs under your belt goes a long way in preparing you. As far as what arts: a good mix of boxing, muay thai, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the best cocktail; most decent schools purporting to teach MMA should be working a regimen like this and it's great for staying in shape too. The more you train to fight, the less apt you will be to ever get in one...you'd be surprised how many street fights are egos looking to make sure that they aren't bruised and when you know in your heart that you could probably take this person out, you are much better prepared to walk away, ego intact....as well as everybody's face.