There are a lot of skills out there that are good for self defense, but MMA really isn’t one of them. There are several reasons for this, and three common mistakes that can get you into trouble.
The first mistake is seeing MMA as something other than a sport. It has rules and regulations. Fighting someone on the street does not. The second mistake is closely tied to that – if you try to ‘play by the rules’ out on the street, you’re going to get hurt, or worse. Thinking that MMA can be used for self defense makes you vulnerable out on the street. The third mistake is that people who learn MMA want to grapple if they get into a street fight when they should be doing whatever it is that they need to do to get away and/or survive. They make it into a ‘cage match’ in real life, and it doesn’t work that way.
If you want to learn MMA, you should go to a reputable school like MMA Richmond where the instructors can also teach you self-defense for ‘real life,’ so you won’t be as tempted to try to use your MMA skills on the street.