The Best Martial Art for Real Street Fights – The TRUTH

33 Comments

1. 👉 Before the usual suspects rush into the comments to defend their favorite martial art with emotional outbursts and Google-level “expertise,” let me save everyone some time by addressing the ten most predictable objections right now.
   If you find yourself in one of these categories, congratulations, you’ve become a statistical cliche.

   1. “But MMA works in the street! You’re just scared to test it!”
   MMA works inside a rule-set designed to protect both athletes from irreversible harm. Remove weight classes, illegal targets, clean surfaces, medical staff, and referees, and suddenly the fantasy collapses. A “street fight” is not a sanctioned bout; it is an asymmetric criminal assault. If you fail to grasp this distinction, you’re not debating, you’re advertising your inexperience.

   2. “Size disparity doesn’t matter if you have good technique.”
   This is the bedtime story martial artists tell themselves to sleep better at night. Biology disagrees. Physics disagrees. Predators disagree. The only people who believe technique erases size are those who have never been hit, lifted, or rag-dolled by someone who outweighs them by 80 pounds and actually wants to hurt them.

   3. “Krav Maga was made for the street—you’re wrong.”
   Then by all means, show us its integrated firearms curriculum, its cognitive shutdown methodology, its adrenal stress architecture, its multi-layer weapons hierarchy, and its legal aftermath doctrine. I’ll wait. Krav Maga is a stitched-together seminar product, not a unified combat system. The only reason people keep repeating the marketing is because they’ve never examined the structure.

   4. “Nobody teaches firearms because martial arts aren’t about guns.”
   Exactly. And that’s the problem. You cannot claim to teach “real self-defense” while ignoring the apex weapon in modern violence. If you remove firearms from the discussion, you are not teaching reality, you are teaching historical reenactment.

   5. “Your system is just eye gouges and dirty tricks—that’s not real martial arts.”
   Wrong again! CFA is not interested in looking graceful on a mat. CFA is concerned with keeping you alive when another human being intends to permanently injure or kill you. If that offends your sense of dojo aesthetics, you are in the wrong conversation.

   6. “You can’t prove CFA is better unless you fight an MMA guy or BJJ black belt.”
   This is the argument of someone who genuinely believes cage-fighting simulations represent real-world violence. Professional fighters are skilled, but they train for consensual combat, not criminal assault dynamics. CFA is not competing for trophies; it is engineered for situations where the goal is survival, not entertainment.

   7. “Every fight goes to the ground—your metrics are unrealistic.”
   No. Every sport fight often goes to the ground because both participants are bound by rules, stamina requirements, and positional strategies. Real violence overwhelmingly begins with ambush, weapons, and size disparity—none of which encourage willingly diving into concrete, broken glass, or multiple attackers.

   8. “All you’re doing is criticizing other arts instead of showing proof.”
   The proof is the metrics. The martial arts world hates measurement because once you introduce standards, most systems disintegrate instantly.

   9. “My style covers all of this because I cross-train.”
   No, you have a Frankenstein collage. Taking incompatible systems and duct-taping them together does not create a unified combat method. It creates structural contradictions you’re too emotionally invested to notice. A system is engineered, not assembled like a jigsaw puzzle..

   10. “You’re just selling your system; that’s why everything else suddenly ‘fails.’”
   If that were true, someone—anyone—would have produced a video response to my Martial Arts Challenge instead of four thousand viewers collectively contributing a round of silence. Emotion isn’t evidence. Outrage isn’t a rebuttal. Metrics don’t care how you feel.

   If you disagree with anything above, feel free to present a structured, evidence-based counterargument. Just be aware: insults, anecdotes, tribal loyalty, and fantasy hypotheticals are not arguments. This pinned comment exists because many of you needed it long before you ever clicked this video.

2. Bakersfield self protection and preservation Mr Franco. Please YouTube them his colourful shirt has injured my eyesight. . Osu🫶🏽🙏🏽

3. Bla bla bla pay me to show you anything

4. Sammy you are too profound… NOT realistic for the average smart mouth!

5. Age is more of a factor….Than size…..

6. Size has little to do with it..Dynamite comes in small packages.

7. I defended myself several times with karate….it's about hitting a vital area… effectively.

8. Actually the best way to see what works in a street fight, get into at the minimum 20+ street fights in rough areas.A pro fighter named Rubin Carter was 160 pounds and fought guys lighter and also much heavier. Also was ranked 5 in the world in 1965.
   Had fights in prison, on the streets of Paterson New Jersey and number 1 contender in middleweight boxer in mid 1960, s . Also beat a heavyweight boxer in Army nationals competition. Also fought a guy in jail armed with a knife.Partially lost eyesight because of this. Won most fights lost some, but mainly had won most,Also hurt quite a bit and seriously injured several times.Yes he had his eye gouged, head butted and knifed several times.
   Only formal training was in boxing.Take away is you want to see if your a good street fighter, get into alot of street fights.This Rubin Carter did in spades. If you are good, you will win most, but lose the other half.
   Could you get injured seriously even if your good absolutely.

9. As a professional engineer, I really love the approach you have taken. You looked at the reality of the problem and then worked backwards to engineer a system to solve it. That's how any kind of engineering should be done. The systems that fail try and go the other way around: they start with what they have, and then try to extrapolate forward, even though the fit is poor.

10. Garbage and delusional are correct words. Alone the term "street fight" and its connection to martial arts is one huge delusion.

11. Interesting not one send in a video.
    I see some comments that claim their tecniques works, but none sent in anything… Says a lot.

12. Fifty years from now, people will say that the guys who did the most to revolutionize martial arts were Royce Gracie and Sammy Franco.
    And…how much of an absolute joke are traditional martial arts?
    Not 1 form of kung fu comes remotely close to meeting any criteria on this list. Kung fu sifus and Aikido senseis are snake oil salesmen. Period.

13. I feel sorry for the people always defending their style of fighting ( in a gym ) because they are gonna find out extremely fast that out in the real crazy world they are screwed !!!!

14. I again agree with you, I 've just acquired a different mindset over the decades (In my mid-60's) from a very special instructor and friend. Yes, nothing comes "magically together", mix & matching of technique gathering isn't as effective as most folks think (my opinion) in that under pressure as your brain scrambles with the chop suey of options one previously acquired. That's why I "focuses" on human body motions, shapes, body physics, looking at the deeper concepts other than acquiring "techniques" and belts. I'm a retired 40 year field investigator and vehicle recovery agent from Los Angeles, I've seen and been through a lot AND at 5' 10" 140 lbs! NOT everyone has your build, your natural aggressiveness. Not every situation when someone gets in close range is a "green light" attack them response setting. There are consequences to your action/reactions (physical and legal) depending on the situation, when a confident tempered response can work FAR MORE effectively to neutralize the matter. I literally have done it a thousand times and in the roughest of neighborhoods with REAL tough characters. *To be honest here, psychology and awareness are the best self-defense "in the streets" (as tough guys say) BUT both together give one the confidence to get through a confrontation the best!

15. You missed out Wushu which combines traditional and modern Chinese martial arts and I would like to see how why they don't work in a video

16. 12:09 yo Sammy what about Mcmap and army combatives do those fail too or are they effective for the streets and are they better than CFA if not or if not effective for the street what are some things they lack and aren't the arts that I mentioned basically designed to kill?🤔

17. Krav Maga doesn't teach defense against a gun!?😮

18. Wrong. I know first hand when I first went to mma school I was 265lbs jacked and a 160lb pro mma fighter that fought in king of the cage wore my ego and azz out. It took me months to not get finished inside 1 rnd and I was street tough. Normal guys his size wouldn't stand a chance. I was too strong but never underestimate a smaller mma fighter. They will fk you up

19. Thank you for yet another banger Sammy!

20. Sensei Sammy thank you for cutting through the BS. And only giving us the truth.

21. The best is to become Strong 💪 in mind, body and Spirit. Practice your breathing Kata "form" every day. In a life and death situation. The strongest 💪 one survives. It is not about winning or losing it is about staying alive.

22. But I doubt that any traditional martial artist plans on using their technique for self-defense in very violent places. That, and the efficacy of martial arts depends on who you're fighting. A blackbelt Karate master could easily takedown an average individual who is just having a bad day one-on-one.

23. Re: size disparity. I was working alone in a housing pod in the jail one night (unarmed, we didn't carry weapons inside, aside from Sarge and his pepper spray). We had a former NFL lineman incarcerated for something, assault iirc. He confronted me, acting in a manner intended to intimidate and suggesting possible attack. I'm a fairly big guy but he made me look small, and I started getting nervous thinking about what that monster-man could do to me. I mentally ran through my trained techniques to think what could I do to stop him, if he actually attacked ("custodial control techniques" be @#$%d!). To myself I said no amount of muscle will help him if I attack his eyes, ears, nose, throat, groin and knees, and I was visualizing going after those points Tasmanian Devil style. I might go down, might die before backup could arrive, but I was going to hurt him BAD first, I determined. Suddenly I was calm and ready. He saw the change in my attitude, and backed down. I thought this might be an interesting anecdote relevant to the discussion.

24. Mixing different martial art systems CAN & LIKELY do lead to ta Frankenstein entity "if" that person only knows to train by way of "technique". Once a practitioner gains enough experience (decade or two) and can recognize the "concepts" within techniques and systems then they'll find it all changes. Few folks are lucky enough to run across those instructors that are at this level and can share this type of perception though, so you are for the most part correct here! Your method of explanation is rather brash but accurate!

25. What’s your fight record Sammy? Any videos of your fights?

26. Sammy you truly added to karate sir. You are the real deal.

27. What's your opinion on the fairbairn gutter fighting system?
    Do you think it has any real self defense value or is it just smoke and mirrors like most arts?

28. I will make you a video, I'm rather swamped right now to be doing things like that. I'll pick a few techniques for you, one will be the short horizontal knee, the target is the pubic bone and it's straight to the ER if you land it. Looking forward to it. I will think about how to present some things in an efficient way. Honestly like you said it should be easy right?

29. True. I love martial arts but when I had to defend myself on the street I didn't use much of it. Too unpredictable and very sudden. Strategy went well out the window and overwhelming barrages of nasty damaging attacks were what worked for me. Just my experience. I think you're right. 👍🇬🇧

30. Great video Sammy in fact for about a week I have been reading about adrenaline and gross motor skills and it’s a very interesting topic and it make a lot of sense

31. I used to do a few classes and really commited to kickboxing but never would I attempt spinning hook kicks in a street fight for example. Boxing is good also but the blocking is useless without gloves unless u want broken hands. And judo leaves your back exposed too often. There's many examples why I have to say Sammy is right about this. Martial arts are great but don't think it's going to best real violence.

32. Mike Tyson said it…."Social media made y'all way too comfortable with disrespecting people and not getting punched in the face for it". Being a keyboard warrior is bad ass until you meet face to face with a REAL bad ass. Keep exposing them, Sammy.

33. 💯 sammy

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