Best Martial Art in a Real Fight

This bracket asks a question that martial arts schools have spent a century avoiding, which is what actually happens when it goes off outside a gym.

The honest answer is that the last thirty years settled most of it in public. When mixed competition started, the styles that had never tested themselves against resisting opponents lost quickly and repeatedly, and the ones built around live sparring won. Wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu decide where the fight takes place.

Boxing and Muay Thai decide what happens while it is standing. Judo turns out to be enormously effective and enormously dependent on grip. The traditional arts have a much better claim to teaching discipline than to ending a fight.

The bracket is thirty-two styles wide, and the judgement is meant to be practical rather than loyal.

One thing worth keeping in mind while voting: nearly every real confrontation involves surfaces, footwear, other people, and no referee. A style that dominates on a mat may be a poor plan on concrete, and the reverse is also true.