Best martial art for a real life street fight?
Well, your aim seems honest enough. I’ve been doing Tae-kwon-do for nearly 3 years now, and I’m 3 belts away from black belt, but I’m 90% sure I would lose in a fight against a random person in the street. It all depends on how you are taught, how strong you are, and whether your teacher trains you to react to attacks on the spot rather than doing just routine work. Try both, or even just watch the more advanced lessons, and ask how much free sparring they do. The more free sparring they do, the better prepared you’ll be in a real situation. If you don’t live somewhere TOO dangerous and just want to learn a martial art ‘just in case’, then just pick the one you feel is more fun.
Having been in a fight and being quite outnumbered and coming out of it without a scratch, just some swelling, the things that you want to keep in mind are 1. you will probably go to the ground so it is a good idea to have some moves for that, Most people you would fight in a street fight aren’t going to be blue belts in bjj, but they will try to fight dirty. 2. Being in great shape saved my behind more than any one move i believe. 3. Be proficient in all ranges, because if you have a weakness in one range, you can be exploited. I studied MMA for couple years and really only knew one ground move which was an arm bar and had to use it and it worked just fine. I used kicks to create distance from my opponents, and trapping when the punches started flying.
