Self Defense vs. Street Fighting - The Real Differences

There are two major differences between self defense and street fighting. Self defense is about protection and stopping violence; street fighting is a status activity that involves people betting or brawling for money and power. In street fights you get killed or brutally injured, but self defense is about ending violent attacks as fast as possible, with the ultimate goal of getting out alive.

Self defense is about reacting to a situation instinctively. When taking a self defense class or two, instructors will generally go over a couple of hypothetical situations that could occur and a few ways to deal with them. For this reason, self defense classes alone are not always effective.

Self defense is your responsibility and you should think about how you can be prepared most effectively.

Street fighting is the area where dogfighting is growing fastest. Street fighting is not just about mastering and executing the right actions to overcome the opposition or to live through your attacker; it is also about knowing how to stay up on your feet and fight 'dirty'.

Because street fighting is basically a quickly arranged and frequently violent confrontation, there are pretty much zero rules that apply.

Street fighting is hand-to-hand combat. Some people call this street brawling; they say the more experience you get the better you become, but the reality of it is that few people get to that point because they are too seriously injured or killed.

A street fight has no rules, and there may be no one to stop a person from continuing after their opponent is out - thus the high mortality rate. Street fight is deadly, and it is about survival, not honesty and honor like martial arts. Street fighting is not even anything like MMA style fights - there are still rules involved in MMA.