MMA - Applicable for self-defense?

[Ryan]

[jcheng14]

MMA is great for self defense. MMA sucks for self defense. If you're in a cage with another person in single combat you'd really want to know MMA. If you're a pro fighter and there is a dude trying to kill you with a shotgun from across the room MMA sucks. All situational see? Make it part of the toolkit. Empty hand techniques and ground techniques are necessary. Caution though, you see in boxing it's not realistic because they break fighters and no grappling etc. No punches to the back of the head and such.... the sport has gotten so specialized that sometimes boxers rely on the rules to protect them instead of protecting themselves. You are starting to see that in MMA now too, WRT soccer kicks or stomps to downed opponents (among other things)

[Eiffel]

Never heard of a situation where throwing strong punches, good kicks and knees, and having good grapple skills would hurt you. Obviously MMA is not perfect for tactical or self defense work but it's 80% there and I think it's probably one of the best ways to train H2H skills in the US. If you are good enough to fight at a decent level in MMA stuff then you're probably going to school some untrained guy, even if you follow your sport specific rules.

[tacticalguy]

I've said it before and I'll say it many more times. ANY martial art discipline is good for you. And yes, as Jcheng noted, it's also situational. Tai kwan do versus judo, aikido versus savate... It's all the same. MMA is just as good as any other system for H2H. It all comes down to how it's applied, effectively or not. Hell, tai chi chuan can hurt someone, if done effectively.