My last post was written in a rush, so it probably comes off as being more defensive than it ought to be. So here's a hopefully more measured response...

Quote Originally Posted by Hot Rodimus
having boxed and done muay thai before and sparred against those guys I would still back one of these guys in a street fight over any traditional stylist, especially if both have only been training for a short amount of time.
That's too much of a generalisation for me. There are too many variable factors. If I had to make a bet I'd look at both fighters individually and decide which one I thought was better. Even though I have a preference for traditional arts, if I thought the sport fighter was better I'd back the sport fighter. As in the hypothetical Mohammed Ali (sport fighter) vs Bruce Lee (traditional fighter) scenario, I would definitely put my money on Ali, not Lee.

Quote Originally Posted by Hot Rodimus
Having trained in traditional and 'sport' styles I have pretty much moved on to only being interested in training in sport styles... I will throw judo in as being a sport style too lol.
I can accept that. You've tried both traditional and sport styles and find sport styles work better for you. That's great - as I always say, do the style that works for you. For me I've tried both traditional and sport styles too and my interest is primarily in traditional styles cos I find that works for me. But I would never recommend that you abandon doing sport styles and change to traditional if traditional doesn't work for you.

Quote Originally Posted by Hot Rodimus
Once again I don't intend to put down traditional styles as they do have a lot going for them but for a lot of them to advertise they offer 'self defence' is a joke and it really cause for false advertising claims lol
As I said in my last post, this is a widespread problem among all martial art schools - regardless of being traditional or sport oriented. In my last post I talked about my experience with sport fighters with poor groin defence - but to be fair, I've also encountered traditional fighters with poor groin defence too.

I once sparred with some Karate fighters - and I was once sparring with this black belt 3rd Dan, and during the skirmish I grabbed his groin expecting him to be wearing a cup (as was the regulations of this Dojo). He wasn't. As soon as I felt his scrotum in my hand I immediately released and profusely apologised - he said it was okay as I had "let go just in time" and we both had a good laugh about it later. But I find the difference between this guy and those Muay Thai fighters mentioned in my last post is that the Karate fighter admitted that it was his fault for leaving his groin open and knew that he simply needs to keep his groin better covered. In other words, he was willing to learn from his mistake.

The muay thai fighters I sparred with vehemently refused to accept the suggestion that they should protect their groins. The next time I came to spar with them I actually used my own money to purchase an external groin guard (because they didn't have any guards of their own) and brought it along to the school and offered it to my partner for use in sparring. My partner angrily threw the guard away and stormed away from me complaining about how people can't attack the groin because it's an illegal target in competitions. I was told that I either had to guarantee not to attack the groin otherwise I was disallowed from sparring.

So I was given 2 choices:
A/ Become a more compliant partner, or...
B/ Leave

I went with option B. I have no hard feelings against those sport fighters, but if they expect me to become a more compliant partner and lower my standards, then it's just a waste of time for me.