But that's not the question. The question is which is best. The answer is literally any of them (in the context provided by OP). If you train literally any martial art for 6 months and then go against a noob you will BTFO them.

Traditional Martial Arts reminds me a lot of the military.

You bow before and after entering class = saluting

You wear a uniform in class = wear uniform in the military

Forms/Kate = Military Drills

Saying 5 tenets of Taekwondo or the Karate creed = saying the solider's creed

Having ot give respect to higher belt ranks = having to give respect to higher military ranks

Kiyah's = warrior/battle cries

Sense of pride/accomplishment when getting new belt = sense of pride/accomplishment when getting a new rank

Yeah, but if we're strictly talking self defense then imo legit Judo is better - real Judo has serious ground skills along with all of those throws that can be instant fight enders. Granted Wrestling (particularly Greco) has some of those, but Judo definitely has it more refined and at a higher level. For a strictly one on one/controlled fight (ie MMA or the like) then I do think Wrestling is the best foundation for sure.

who cares about practicality when u can do dis hnnng

Jiu jitsu + boxing or lethwe

And what are you going to do when the fight inevitably gets to the ground?

Do you not think that bjj/wrestling teaches sweeps, reversals, and escapes as part of the everyday training? Those techniques will get you back up on your feet and you can decide what you want to do from there, whether it’s get up and run, ground and pound, or submit the guy.

If for one reason or another and I’m in a fight, and guy were able to land a takedown on me, most likely that guy will end up in my guard or half guard. Do you think I’m just going to hang out there in that position? No! I’m going to execute a sweep that I’ve drilled thousands and thousands of time in live rolls, and end up mounted on the guy or taking his back.

This right here. So many people are untrained so it doesn’t matter what you specialize in. Whether, it’s boxing, Muay Thai, lethwe, bjj, wrestling, you’re going to **** up a noob quickly. It’s when going against another trained fighter that styles come into play, even then, aggression, skill, managing nerves, and size are going to be factors as well.

training to fight isnt necessarily going to make you more confident in life, that requires a full dedication to self improvement as a whole, but i digress.

you want to know the best style of fighting to be able to defend yourself in a street fight? boxingtrain for strength, speed and hand eye coordination then if/when some dude starts a fight with you, youl knock him out easily, even with a jab.

thats not to say grappling has no place at all, but in reality you never want to let a fight go to the ground

But it’s going to go to the ground. Unless, you combine your striking with takedown defense, you are going to the ground. Most fights end up there. And the only way to train takedown defense is to train for it, which Muay Thai and boxing gyms obviously don’t do.

If you want to point out a single one, it's wrestling, I have zero doubt about it, if you can learn only one, learn wrestling, all consistent and dominant MMA champions have a wrestling background, you will acquire athletic superiority, crazy cardio, will dictate where the fight takes place and have gravity on your side, amongst other benefits, can beat all strikers in a 1 vs 1 99 % of the time, with some boxing can **** up any BJJ players without takedown abilities, most normies will be out of breath with a simple takedown (which btw can do heavy damage on concrete, it's pretty much a submission).

In the street, you wanna stay standing and not go down, having the ability to take your opponent down and keep standing is the most important thing you can learn on TEH streets.

I'm not trolling one bit here, wrestling IS the best single martial art without a doubt.

Now, if we are talking combining things ? Wrestling and boxing then BJJ, but at this point just join a good MMA gym, if you have access to wrestling, I would do that for a year straight or 6 months minimum, believe it or not, that will put you above 90 % of people minimum in terms of fighting abilities.

Sambo straight from the source (Russia) is superior, but it's still wrestling with their sauce, they combine it with Judo and submissions.

I would argue Judo is next.

For practical working martial arts : boxing / muay thai / judo / sambo / kyokushin karate / BJJ / wrestling.

Forget taewando, aekido, kwankido etc. and ALL martial arts which never do contact sparring at a light intensity against a resisting opponent, you can never REALLY know if your martial art works if you don't try it against someone who resist, how can you say I'm a car mechanic if you only practice replacing spark plugs in the air or replacing tires in the air, or replacing brake pads in the air without EVER replacing them on a car ? How can you say you're a software developer if you all you ever do is type on a keyboard in notepad ? How could you ever say you're a doctor if you never try treating any patient ? How could you say you're a farmer if all you do is pretend to plant the seed but never planting it for real ? How could you say you know how to skate without ever getting on the skate ? I could go on and on and on.

This is from a BJJ practionner btw, all answers besides this one are false, even back in the roman era, they knew that wrestling is king.

I mean obviously this, but I think combat sports are part of establishing that foundation-- they were for me anyway.I don't think going to the ground is an inevitability in a street fight. Again, there are a lot of countermeasures to a good takedown that a trad wrestler isn't going to be trained for-- I have a bottle in my hand and we go to the ground JFL if you think I'm not about to crack wigs with that chit. This is a street fight, not a tickling contest.Basically a more articulate version of what I have been saying ITT.

Wrestling specializes in pins. Judo actually does too on the ground, but its not the sole goal. Pinning has only one realized end in a real world encounter; subdue until LEO arrive. There is no lethality involved.

That said, this is why Judo would be better. You not only learn pins, you also learn things that can incapacitate, and even kill, the attacker. Arm bars, strangles etc, all give you the option of being lethal, completely take them out of the fight, and/or subdue until LEO arrives. A dangerous person should not be messed around with. A strange or dislocated arm would serve better in many cases.

On a final note, one has to be an very advanced wrestler to be that effective, where as BJJ, Muay Thai, and Judo have lethality at beginner levels

You know takedowns are drilled and trained constantly in bjj as well right? I’ll grant that wrestlers will be better at takedowns than a bjj guy though.

The problem with wrestlers though is maybe they get the takedown, but then what are they going to do? They aren’t accustomed to the attacks from the bottom, a good bjj guy is not going to allow the wrestler to posture up, and by not being be able to posture up, the wrestler can’t strike or escape the guard and now he’s in the bjj guys world.

I actually speak from my own personal street fight experience on that scenario as the bjj guy against a wrestler.

You would honestly be surprised at how fast you can learn a double and single leg takedown, after 1 month of consistently practicing them, you would be able at taking down most people and BJJ practionner, I would maybe argue Judo practionner, judo (and I have many judo black belts in my family) takes a long time to learn and apply, on top of that, if I'm not wrong, the judo federation made the takedown below waist level forbidden because wrestlers were winning judo competitions and I know MMA doesn't represent street fights, but it's a good representation, few judo grapplers are on top of the food chain consistently, few remained champions for a long time, wrestlers on the other hand have consistently been able to become champions and maintain their dominance.

Yea I know, if you're in a good BJJ gym, they drill takedowns, they work wrestling, that's a good BJJ gym, if you find one you're lucky, otherwise, I find it lame to learn how to fight on the ground without ever learning the most important thing : how to take the fight to the ground and keep standing, which is IMO the most important thing to know for self defense (staying standing).

I'm talking on the streets, there's concrete, which a good takedown, it will **** you up, there's a reason why IBJJF forbids hard takedowns (and that's softer than concrete), because they know it ends the fight in an injury.

I’d say a high school greco wrestler is dangerous enough to kill someone with suplexes, and it’s not too tough to get a body lock on someone.

Body locks have been my go to takedown lately over singles and doubles.

Boxing and/or Muay Thai + Some sort of wrestling. Those are the arts where they actually train somewhat realistically. Which is really what makes an art effective. You need to be able to practice/spar with actual intensity.

The worst martial arts are usually Wing Chun and Aikido.

Agreed, I hate guard pulling, and the scooting bull****. There’s three types of styles at bjj gyms imo: the casual hobbyist just there to work up a sweat and learn basic self defense, the sport bjj competitor (relies heavily on guard pulling, scooting, and points), and the submission style competitor (aggressive takedowns to ensure dominant position, attacks first rather than worry about points).

Yeah I’m worried about IBJJF ****ing up bjj like what happened with judo removing double legs. Suplexes should be allowed, but maybe at brown+, maybe purple. I’ve been digging more F2W comp styles though.

Edit: I also think wrestling is phenomenal, I incorporate a lot of wrestling into my game in order to be a well rounded grappler.

But a skilled wrestler or BJJ guy isnt going to blindly shoot in without a set up.

And lets be honest, any trained fighter in any discipline would wipe the floor with an untrained fighter.

For life.....i think BJJ is the most beneficial. It has the longest life span of learning, and it makes your brain work the hardest during all aspects of training and sparring. (takes the most analytical mind to be good) vs other combat styles of training.

Fuking crying at peasants in this thread who don't practice the GOAT art Wing Chun every day

I can understand where that instructor is coming from 100%. It also dependent on what that instructor is training for in his gym? At our gym, 100% the competition team goes hard. The owner is a IBJJF world champion in GI and is all about comp (both kids and adults)
But he also has a non competition regimen for those that just want to learn the art and drill. They still spar, but everyone knows if you want to go HAM you go to the comp classes.

Look y’all, I’m not about to argue fantasy, controlled circumstances like a fighting with with rules, and specific scenarios where wrestling might come out on top. I’m basing this on large scale tests and data on outcomes in the real world. Does the military use wrestling? Do police officers use wrestling?

FYI, the place I trained had optional nights for street clothing and all of the classic stuff, like leg take downs etc. does the police and military remove those? No. Are there any large scale testing on wrestling in the real world? Nope. The reasons why are simple. More options for lethality, more options for subduing, more options for incapacitating, all with less experience and knowledge.

Again, I’m not gonna argue that these other methods can deal with opponent in certain circumstances and scenarios, but a large scale, they are not as effective. That is a fact

Sambo

Good luck finding a legit school for it in the west though

Too bad catch wrestling isn't popular, its a more effective grappling art overall than bjj, judo or pure wrestling.

Better than being a top 10 heavyweight of all time, who has submitted the likes of Dean Lister and Ryron Gracie?