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APES bodily self-defense theory is applied by APES self-defense practitioners to defend against intentional attacks by other humans.
Avoid
Prepare
Escape
Struggle (Strike/Stop/Stun/Subdue)
Scarce resources should be deployed where they give maximum benefit. Resources include: time; money; mental capacity (motivation, abilities to concentrate, learn, cope with and recover from stress); bodily capacity (energy to engage in strenuous activity, ability to recover from injuries).
Cost-benefit analysis should be holistic, such that intentional attacks by other humans considered against background of other possible causes of bodily injury/death: unintentional attacks (motor vehicles controlled by humans, training injuries); attacks by animals (dogs, rabid wild animals, sharks, poisonous snakes, disease carrying ticks and mosquitoes, microscopic pathogens); injuries by inanimate nature (falling trees, branches and rocks, lightning, rip currents); self-caused injuries and diseases (trips and falls due to carelessness, injuries while participating in risky sports like skiing or rock climbing, obesity, drug overdose); natural bodily decay due to old age.
Best option. Bodily health is valuable, so cost-benefit analysis justifies lower income or higher cost of living to reduce exposure to intentional attacks by other humans.
"Hope" is not a plan, so "Hope for the best" must always be accompanied by "but prepare for the worst".
Preparation for avoid: learn when and where attacks occur and avoid those times and places, recognize situations without possibility of escape and avoid them.
Preparation for escape: bodily fitness (ability to deflect sucker punches and push attacker away, run, scale fences), suitable clothing (no high heels), recognize approaching danger in advance, pre-arrange and/or constantly look for escape routes, prepare means of calling for help.
Preparation for struggle: bodily fitness; clothing suitable for fighting; training for unarmed fighting; training for armed fighting, including with improvised weapons; obtain concealed handgun permit; buy handgun and holster; practice drawing and shooting handgun under stress conditions; join self-defense oriented groups so as to outnumber attackers; invite law enforcement officers into group; establish relationship with defense attorney to deal with possible criminal charges in aftermath of struggle; put wealth into trust or otherwise pre-emptively protect wealth against possible lawsuits in aftermath of struggle.
Leave at first sign of danger. Back down from ego driven fights: goal is bodily self-defense, not ego defense or defense of reputation as tough guy.
Struggle can be pre-emptive attack before opponent attacks or it can be counter-attack after opponent attacks.
Strike can be with body alone, weapon that extends body (stick, umbrella, chair, rock, knife, rock in sock and other improvised flails), projectile weapon (thrown rocks, liquids or powders splashed in face to cause blinding, spear, bullet from firearm). Purpose of strike is to stop or stun.
Stop can be psychological/mental or physiological/bodily. Example of psychological stop: woman repeatedly tells man to stop touching her but he ignores her, then finally she slaps his face, and at that point man stops because his mental state has changed (versus because his body is physiologically stopped). Examples of physiological stop: temporary muscular cramping or paralysis, temporary blinding of eyes, temporary unconsciousness, superficial cuts, dislocated joints, broken bones, puncture wounds, permanent paralysis, permanent blinding, permanent unconsciousness (coma), death.
Stun is temporary stop, perhaps just long enough to allow rushed escape or to subdue opponent with compliance hold, perhaps long enough to allow leisurely escape or for help to arrive.
Subdue prevents opponent from continuing attack, but does not necessarily stop opponent permanently, so attack might resume when subdue ceases. Subdue often preceded by strike to stun opponent. Examples of subdue: hold smaller opponent down with body weight; several people hold larger opponent down with their combined body weight; compliance holds. Subdue requires closer contact than strike and so is risky if opponent is big and strong, trained in fighting skills, or armed with weapon, but might be less risky in terms of legal and other long-term consequences than severe forms of physiological stop: sometimes better to risk bodily injury while subduing opponent than prison for maiming or killing opponent.
Real-world fighters seek overwhelming qualitative advantages (superior number of fighters, weapons, size, ambush or other type of surprise) versus skill advantages, because qualitative advantages usually outweigh skill advantages. If gunman with average shooting skills opposes expert swordsman, gunman typically wins. If both fighters have guns, average skill shooter with ambush advantage typically defeats expert shooter. If group of average sized men with average unarmed fighting skills oppose single average sized man with expert unarmed fighting skills, group typically wins. If big man with average unarmed fighting skills opposes small woman with expert unarmed fighting skills, man typically wins. And so on. Also, qualitative advantages often apparent before fight begins, so possibility opponent will concede without dangerous fighting, whereas skill differences usually only apparent after dangerous fighting begins. Examples of real-world fighters: soldiers, police and other law enforcement personnel, prison guards, bodyguards, other security guards, psychiatric ward orderlies, nightclub bouncers, predatory criminals.
Unlike real-world fighters, who often must attack to accomplish their goal, self-defense practitioners often have option to avoid danger, escape danger by retreating, or defend only during struggles, which is easier skill to learn than attacking.
Entertainment/hobbyist fighters are subject to rules whose purpose is to reduce advantages of one fighter over other, thereby reducing risk of severe injuries and increasing entertainment value of fight. Entertainment fighters fight to please spectators, hobbyist fighters fight for personal satisfaction. Typically, entertainment/hobbyist fighting is one-on-one between similar sized fighters, either both fighters are unarmed or both are armed with equivalent weapons, both fighters have equivalent protective gear, some attacks are prohibited (eye gouging, head butts, stomping on neck, choking opponent to death), referee present to ensure rules are obeyed and stop fight if risk of severe injuries, fighters themselves can stop fight at any time by "tapping out", fighters subject to criminal prosecution for some types of rule breaking. Examples of entertainment/hobbyist fighters: fencers, boxers, wrestlers, judo and other martial arts competitors, MMA fighters.
Real-world fighters may be subject to laws or other rules limiting what can and can't be done while fighting (different rules from those that apply to entertainment/hobbyist fighters), however criminal real-world fighters typically ignore rules. Attacks by criminals who obey no rules are precisely what self-defense practitioners must prepare for.
Real-world fighters and self-defense practitioners think in terms of cost-benefit tradeoff regarding training: risk of injury while training versus risk of injury due to lack of training. Training injuries hard to justify for average self-defense practitioners, for whom probability of intentional attack by other humans is typically low, and probability of injury from such attack even lower.
For entertainment/hobbyist fighters, injuries during competition and training are justified by benefits of fighting: financial benefits for paid professional entertainment fighters and coaches, personal satisfaction benefits for hobbyist fighters. Minor injuries are common among entertainment and hobbyist fighters and severe injuries not uncommon. Repeated minor injuries often equivalent to severe injury (e.g. CTE or punch-drunk syndrome from repeated blows to the head, arthritis in joints from repeated minor sprains).
Jackass fighters have no logical reason for fighting, and are often under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Like criminals, jackass fighters might not obey laws or other fighting rules, plus some jackass fighters might regard injuries from fighting as benefit rather than cost, therefore very bad idea to struggle with jackass fighters. Fortunately, jackass fighters typically do not pursue those who flee, so if avoidance fails, then de-escalation and escape should work.
Determine risk of intentional attack by other humans. If high risk, consider moving to another location or otherwise changing life situation to reduce risk. Avoidance of danger is best.
Bodily fitness and clothing suitable for escape/struggle are both good things in their own right, so excellent benefit-cost ratio.
Mental preparation typically has high benefit, low cost. Read or watch videos about how criminals think and act, weapons and ambush attacks criminals use and how to defend against these attacks, consequences of using deadly force to resist criminals, etc. Think carefully about your own motivations. Under what circumstances are you really willing to die or be maimed for life? High motivation and decisiveness can compensate for poor escape/struggle skills, low motivation mixed with indecisiveness can eliminate advantage of good escape/struggle skills.
Firearms give overwhelming advantage against unarmed opponents and are only realistic defense against armed opponents (especially opponents armed with firearms themselves), and therefore are good option for those who are forced into situations of danger and who are legally allowed to own firearms.
If unable to legally own or carry firearms, then carry improvised stabbing weapon that is legal to carry everywhere: umbrella with sturdy shaft and sharp point, pen with thick shaft of metal or sturdy plastic held against palm of hand, etc. My hiking stick is my stabbing weapon outdoors. I have never considered using my stick against humans, but it is a great comfort in my hands when encountering wild boar, bears or vicious dogs, as happens to me frequently while hiking. (What I lack are weapons against small rodents who chew my gear at night, birds who snatch up gear and fly away with it, plus something besides hands against ticks and mosquitoes, something besides immune system against microorganisms.) Stabbing weapon can be rammed into eyes, nose, mouth of any animal (or anus of attack dog to make it instantly release bite), plus throat and solar plexus of humans.
Joining groups focused on self-defense gives advantage of superior number of fighters, and so is another good option. Armed group even better.
Criminals seldom attack unless with some sort of advantage (superior number of fighters, weapons, size, surprise) and criminals don't obey rules, so training for one-on-one unarmed fighting against equal-sized opponent subject to artificial rules is unrealistic, plus injuries caused by training typically outweigh injuries avoided by being trained, so poor benefit-cost ratio.
If self-defense practitioner insists on unarmed one-on-one fight training, then my recommendation is as follows. First and foremost, train defense against sucker punches and other surprise attacks. Invite expert boxers, kickboxers, muay thai, karate and other striking martial artists to act as paid training partners. Ask attacker to pull punches and kicks, to reduce injuries, but don't count on them doing so. Instead, wear fencing helmet or sambo/taekwondo headgear with full plexiglass face shield to protect from head butts and strikes to face with elbows, knees, feet and palms of hands (extended fingers could get into eyes, nose, mouth). Attacker can optionally wear gloves and be barefoot, but defender should always be bare-handed and shod (clean tennis or wrestling shoes indoors, any footwear outdoors) as in real-world fights. Attempt to dodge attacks and ask attacker for advice regarding defensive maneuvers. Anyone who can defend for several minutes against maximum intensity attacks by expert strikers should be well-prepared for surprise attacks by unarmed hoodlums.
Offensive unarmed striking is difficult skill to master, but without mastery, unarmed striking just adds to danger by bringing us closer to opponent when our goal should be to escape. Replace with armed striking with improvised stabbing weapon. For training, use tubes of styrofoam, cardboard, rolled up vinyl or other stiff fabric, or other material that will not cause injury if wearing protective helmet with face shield. If training partner also armed with simulated weapon, training prepares for defending against knife attacks. Alternatively, training to defend against unarmed strikes may be adequate preparation for defending against knife attacks and for using improvised stabbing weapons offensively.
If attacker cannot be held at distance, then struggle turns into grappling match, which is dangerous, because opponent may have size/strength advantage or be armed with knife, or there may be multiple attackers. If self-defense practitioner insists on studying grappling, then judo probably best: teaches bodily awareness and how to fall safely, which are useful skills independent of self-defense applications; judo throw onto concrete substitutes for knockout-power unarmed strike; judo less affected by thuggish gangster mentality than MMA; greater concern with minimizing training injuries than MMA. As with striking, focus first on defense against judo throws and compliance holds, then on offense. Don't waste time and energy chasing belts. Simply master small number of throws and compliance holds usable against opponents who lack judo defense skills.
Possible real-world application of judo as follows: group surrounds but cannot subdue troublemaker because of his large size, judo practitioner sneaks up from behind and throws troublemaker to ground then applies compliance hold, other members of group jump on top of troublemaker to keep him subdued until police arrive. This is low violence alternative to striking troublemaker with weapons (hitting his head with stick, bullets from handgun) before subduing him.
Various scuffles with classmates while growing up. Wrestling or judo training would have assured I won all these scuffles instead of just some, though it didn't really matter who won, since these were friends and neither boy wanted to cause serious injury to the other.
While playing in the street with neighborhood friends, gang of hoodlums attacked us. They outnumbered us, were older and larger than us, and were armed with sticks. Girls ran to get help. Older brothers of one of the girls caught one of the hoodlums and beat him senseless. Father of one of the smaller boys who had been hit with a stick gathered older boys in his car and drove to where the hoodlums came from, armed with shotgun, snarling dogs on a leash, confederate flag waving on a pole out the car window for good measure (hoodlums were blacks and we were whites). Father made some threats but there was no further violence after he saw the damage to the boy who had been beat senseless. This was New Orleans about 1968, when racial tensions were high and whites still dominated government enough that police would not have arrested white boys who beat the black boy senseless, assuming blacks had called the police.
Maybe a year later, black boy threw a rock and hit me in the head while I was riding my bicycle home from school down the "black people" street. Both me and the boy who attacked me were alone and he was no bigger than me, but I didn't know how to fight and so simply rode off without fighting back and thereafter rode home using parallel "white people" street. But I felt like a coward and often wondered if I should ask some of the older boys who had beaten that hoodlum senseless to teach me to fight. The most skillful fighter among these older boys eventually killed someone (white) in a fight and was sentenced to several years in prison for manslaughter.
Various confrontations with black hoodlums at night as a teenager in New Orleans. For whatever reason, I loved walking alone late at night despite high incidence of street crime in the areas where I walked. All confrontations resolved without injury by simply running away.
While taking a year off between high school and university, I worked for my cousin-in-law at a shipping related business located in a particularly dangerous warehouse district of New Orleans. Next to our building were burned out buildings, empty lots and abandoned railroad tracks overgrown with weeds: all together, perfect spot for murderers to dump their victims and/or for nighttime drug deals that might culminate in murder. And indeed dead bodies were discovered nearby every few weeks. My cousin-in-law carried a snubnose revolver in a belt wallet at all times, as did all employees at the nearby hardware store we frequently visited. Many smaller grocery/convenience stores in the area did not let customers inside but rather exchanged merchandise for money through small window openings, as protection from robbers and shoplifters. My cousin-in-law was fortunate to only once be a victim of crime while I was working for him. Namely, someone entered the office and stole an electric typewriter while we checking some packages in the warehouse. We normally locked the front door when leaving the office, but in this one instance neglected to do so, perhaps because just intending to be away for less than a minute. There were several instances where disreputable characters entered the office and looked around with shifty eyes while asking if there were any job openings. My cousin-in-law always answered no while making sure his snubnose revolver was visible, and the suspicious looking visitor always left without incident.
As business conditions worsened (part of why crime rate then was so high), my cousin-in-law could no longer afford to pay me, so later that year I worked night shift (11pm to 7am) at a convenience store, also in a dangerous neighborhood in New Orleans. Twice I was robbed at gunpoint, once with gun pointed at my stomach, once at my face, both times at point blank range and with guns held in shaky hands with finger on trigger. What saved me was keeping a cool head and pacifying robbers. Company rule was to keep under $40 in cash register, and in fact there was only about $5 during second robbery because customers had just drained spare cash by paying with $20 bills, which had to be immediately placed in deposit slot of safe under store counter, to which I had no key. I suggested robbers help themselves to bottles of liquor and cartons of cigarettes, since both could be easily sold for cash on the street. Both groups of robbers were eventually caught, while perpetrating subsequent robberies. I then had to go to police headquarters to identify the robbers and again to court to testify against them. I was not paid for this time at police headquarters or in court.
Third robbery was unarmed, using stick or pipe pushed into my back while I was alone in the store and arranging goods on shelves. Robber told me to lie down behind counter while he operated cash register. While robber was occupied with customers, I looked up and confirmed no gun near his hand, so jumped up and began fighting with him while shouting that there was a robbery in progress and I was the real cashier. Customers all ran away. At least one customer pulled out a gun on the way out (probably not a criminal, just an ordinary citizen carrying concealed for self-protection). I could probably have wrestled robber to the ground and detained him, but didn't bother. I was growing increasingly disgusted with my job and letting robber escape was probably subconscious attempt to get myself fired. Unfortunately for me, store manager couldn't find anyone else to take my shift, so he pleaded with district supervisor not to fire me even after I failed lie detector test regarding this robbery.
(Lie detector tests were given after all robberies as well as whenever cash register internal recording tape did not match actual cash in register. One cashier, who I am absolutely sure was not a thief, was fired for failing a test regarding maybe $20 missing cash. Question I failed was "do you know the robber?" Not sure why I failed this question, because I certainly did not know him. Probably another subconscious attempt to get myself fired.)
Fourth robbery was averted when police burst into store as robbers stood pretending to examine merchandise while waiting for customers to leave, so they could rob me while I was alone. Passing taxi cab driver had seen robbers enter store and noticed they matched description of two men who had robbed another taxi driver earlier that night.
There was also strange incident where a man wearing riot helmet and bulky body armor and carrying semi-automatic rifle with large magazine, violently yanked open store door, poked his head inside and shouted something like "Lock the store immediately and don't open until further notice, there's a mass murderer on the loose in this neighborhood! You are in extreme danger!" After he ran off, I did as ordered then called company security manager, who called police, who came by to take a report. Both security manager and police seemed annoyed at me, as if I were making up crazy stories to cause trouble. Strange man was definitely not associated with police, despite his riot police outfit. Police probably discarded notes they scribbled while talking to me, because I never heard any more about this incident after they left.
All the above convenience store excitement occurred in eight weeks of summer 1980, during which I worked without any nights off, mainly because no one else wanted to work night shift and partly because I convinced myself I wanted overtime pay (50% higher per hour than measly $3.35/hour minimum wage ordinary pay). Shortly after I quit this job, robbers armed with shotguns killed night shift cashier at another nearby store of this convenience store chain ("eliminated the witness"). Could easily have been me.
I went to work in Dallas after graduating from university. When my father was hospitalized, I traveled back to New Orleans and stayed at the old family house. My sister, who lived nearby, left her huge Rottweiler dog with me. About midnight, I heard front door being shaken and went to investigate. When I opened front door, two burglars were standing on front porch trying to pry open window with a screwdriver. They took one look at the huge dog standing next to me, who had yet to bark, and immediately turned and ran. One burglar ran straight off the front porch into some rose bushes, tripped and fell, then got up and resumed running. I was lucky that they weren't armed and that I had the dog, because I wasn't armed myself. My sister guessed that woman acting as home nurse for my father prior to his hospitalization told some acquaintances that house was unoccupied and full of valuables. This woman didn't know about my arrival from out of town.
This was only attempted burglary of family house in over thirty years between when my father bought it and when my sister sold it after he died. Gun ownership has always been widespread among homeowners in many neighborhoods of New Orleans, with little hesitation about shooting burglars, so burglary rate tends to be low in these neighborhoods despite high crime rate overall.
After a few years in Dallas, I moved to Washington DC for work and bought a condo apartment in the inner city, even though my place of employment was in the suburbs. Then I resumed my old habit of walking alone in dangerous neighborhoods, including late at night. Washington DC was experiencing a crime wave at this time (early 1990's). Parking lot attendant just around the corner from my condo building had recently been murdered by a shotgun blast. Another man was beaten unconscious in the alley adjacent to the condo building.
While walking through a park one afternoon, big hoodlum followed me. I knew he planned to rob me, so as he grew close, I stepped to the side, shoved my hand into my shoulder purse as if reaching for a gun, turned to face the man and stared into his eyes, imagining to myself that I did in fact have a gun and was preparing to kill him. Cold murderous expression in my eyes evidently shocked the man, because his own eyes expressed sudden fear and he continued walking past me. I walked away quickly in the other direction and he didn't follow.
Another time, I was walking a young woman to the subway after dinner at a restaurant. She had answered my newspaper ad, so blind date. (This was before modern online dating, newspaper dating ads were 100 characters of text.) Hoodlum approached us and began aggressively demanding money. I put myself in front of the young woman and told the hoodlum "No", then mentally prepared to die rather than give in to his demands much less let him touch the young woman. I had invited her to the dangerous inner city from her safe suburb and thus it was my responsibility to protect her, even though I had just met her and had already decided not to see her again. Hoodlum walked off, evidently deterred by my willingness to fight. We proceeded to the subway and I saw the young woman safely off. My willingness to fight in this situation should be compared with my running from fights with hoodlums as a boy or letting that unarmed robber escape at the convenience store. Even without training in unarmed fighting skills, I am confident I would have been a formidable opponent in this situation, simply based on motivation. Similar to how an animal like a cow that normally runs and isn't much good at fighting becomes dangerous when cornered or when protecting its young.
As an aside, it is worth noting that women are the underlying cause of many fights among men. First men fight to obtain women, then they fight to guard these women. Animals do likewise, so such behavior is natural, but it does not benefit the individual man who is more concerned about his present life and health than his genetic legacy thousands of years into the future. Perhaps the reason I have been in so few fights in my life is because I have mostly been solitary (no girlfriend or wife) so backing down and escaping was never a threat to my ego or my sense of responsibility or honor. It helps that I have always been able to run well.
Another time, I passed a huge, muscular, half-naked (shirtless, barefooted) black man furiously beating a tree with a tire iron. This was in downtown Washington DC, amidst office buildings full of highly paid lawyers and lobbyists and not far from FBI headquarters. Man noticed me looking at him. "Buck nigga! Buck nigga! Buck nigga!" he roared, then he resumed furiously beating the tree with the tire iron. Given his size and muscles and his tire iron weapon, no unarmed human could have survived more than a few seconds of close combat against this maniac. I watched him from the corner of my eye as I walked away, prepared to sprint if he attacked.
Plenty of other encounters with street people in Washington DC, most of them middle-aged black men. I always managed to avoid escalation and escape without mishap.
After several years in Washington DC, I moved to San Francisco. Initially I lived on swanky Nob Hill, in an beautiful apartment chosen by my girlfriend at the time. After we broke up, I moved to a seedy apartment in the Tenderloin, notoriously the most crime-ridden neighborhood of San Francisco, and resumed my habit of walking the streets alone late at night.
While walking home from tango dancing one night, a skin head tried to sucker punch me. Despite zero boxing training, I dodged his initial and several subsequent punches, with no marks on my face afterwards despite light contact from the initial punch. Skin head who attacked me was foaming at the mouth in fury and shouting something like: "Fucking faggot, I'll fucking mess up your fucking face, you fucking faggot!" I'm not sure why he thought I was homosexual. Maybe because I was nicely dressed for tango dancing. Attacker was accompanied by another skin head. As I backed off, I noticed this second skin head pulling a knife or other weapon from his pocket. I ran off and asked passing taxi driver to call police. Skin heads were gone by time police arrived. Incident occurred near financial district around midnight, with plenty of people walking nearby. Simultaneously fighting two violent skin heads, at least one of them armed, would have been extremely unwise regardless of my fighting skills. And carrying concealed handgun problematic in San Francisco. If accompanied by slow-moving woman in dress shoes, probably would have been best to take taxi home from tango nightclub, instead of walking home and relying on being able to escape attacks by running.
Another night, gang of hoodlums threw some food at me. Obviously, fighting whole gang unwise. As with skin head attack, escape was best solution.
Another time, schizophrenic homeless woman slapped me without warning on the back of my head. Bystanders urged me to beat her up but I limited myself to cursing at her, shaking my fist, threatening to call the police. Neighborhood was full of prison halfway houses. It occurred to me that this woman would eventually attack a violent ex-convict then be beaten senseless. No point risking legal trouble by revenging myself when someone else would eventually do a more thorough job. Same reasoning applies to street people in general: they'll eventually be brutally punished by other riff-raff for any trouble they cause ordinary citizens.
Numerous other confrontations with street people in San Francisco, including several with knives. I escaped from all confrontations without injury by staying calm, using pacifying words to avoid escalation of tension, walking or running away.
Above history of personal experiences reveals that I did an excellent job of escaping danger but poor job of avoiding danger. Better unarmed fighting skills would have been of dubious usefulness, whereas handgun might have been very useful on numerous occasions (burglars trying to break into father's house, confrontations with hoodlums and street people). Regarding avoidance, while I wasn't in a position to force my father to move away from New Orleans, nothing required me to walk the streets of New Orleans alone late at night, or work that dangerous cashier job in New Orleans, or live in dangerous inner city Washington DC and San Francisco instead of much safer suburbs of those cities.
In my late 30's, I began studying tarot and astrology, which helped cure my mental illness and exorcize whatever inner demon had been causing me to constantly expose myself to dangerous situations. About age 40, I moved from San Francisco to Reno (Nevada) and since then have not experienced any further situations involving intentional threatened violence from other humans. Instead of living in dangerous big cities and walking streets alone late at night, I now wander alone in nature in the daytime and camp and listen to the sounds of nature at night. I still face danger of unintentional bodily injury/death from automobiles driven by humans, from trips and falls caused by myself, and from falling tree branches, but I try to be cautious when walking and bicycling and camping, so these risks are low. Biggest threat to my body currently is probably illness, such as cancer or infectious diseases, plus unavoidable deterioration of my body due to aging.
This document was written after arguments in online forums with young men who insist that "every man needs a striking skill and a grappling skill to defend himself in street fights". Success as an MMA fighter does indeed require both unarmed striking skills (boxing, kickboxing, muay thai boxing, karate) and grappling skills (wrestling, judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu), however MMA is not real-world fighting but rather entertainment/hobbyist fighting under very artificial rules. Recall that real-world criminal fighters may not obey any rules, much less MMA rules. In particular, real-world criminals are often armed. Furthermore, self-defense does not require fighting at all if avoidance of danger and escape from danger are options, as they usually are. Young men who repeatedly find themselves in street fights need to exorcize whatever internal demon is leading them into situations of danger, more than they need to improve fighting skills. If avoidance of danger and escape from danger are truly not options, then form alliances with other men to gain advantage of superior number of fighters and/or use weapons (especially handguns) to gain advantage.
Above critique applies to those with self-defense motivations for wanting unarmed one-on-one fighting skills, not to entertainment/hobbyist fighters. However, latter do need to honestly confirm that financial or personal satisfaction benefits they obtain from fighting exceed time, money and bodily injury costs of fighting and training.