Best Martial Art for Multiple Attackers

I have fought multiple attackers on a number of occasions, and I must say a few things before I go on:

1. All the hype about "situational awareness" is well deserved, the times I didn't go to the hospital for stitches in my face or get beaten in the body while someone held me from behind, the times where that did NOT happen, I was alert and saw the threat coming.
2. Learning to fight multiple opponents isn't some super advanced skill - I am no where close to a black belt in anything and I have successfully dealt with multiple opponents before. 
3. Facing off against multiple opponents is not a rare self defense situation. If it is self defense, someone was planning to mess with you, which means they are bigger than you, or have a weapon, or they brought friends. This is why we don't just lift weights instead of do martial arts, because you always have an asymmetric disadvantage in a self defense situation - you need skills.
4. All combat sports, as well as most martial arts that engage in contact, continuous sparring, bring valuable tools to the table if you have to fight more than one person at a time. For example, collegiate wrestling isn't lauded as an art that is good for multiple opponents because of their lack of strikes and submissions, and because they favor following the opponent to the ground on throws. But wrestling is one of the few arts that competes in getting-off-of-the-ground grappling escapes, and it is a lot better than nothing at all for handling multiple attackers:

Some large minority of BJJ schools reportedly have some really involved self-defense program that prepares you for the deadly streets. If you as an outsider think THAT is what makes a BJJ practitioner potentially dangerous in a street fight, you need to check into your local BJJ club and roll (submission sparring) with some so-called "sport only" rules. You will find yourself at the mercy of a wide range of very effective and deadly techniques, which could most certainly come in handy if you ever had to fight multiple attackers.

But the question remains, "what is the best martial art for fighting multiple opponents?" This question is raised by the specter of Aikido, as that dying art's claims to fighting multiple opponents was the main niche they tried to fill in the martial arts world. My favorite answer to this question is Muay Thai because of:

1. the ergonomically friendly practice of multiple levels of intensity of free sparring.
2. a high emphasis on leg kicks, missing in most other martial arts and combat sports.
3. strikes to the head.
4. clinch grappling with sweeps and dumps, in other words, not following the opponent to the ground when you throw them.
5. clinch striking with with knees and elbows.
6. positioning, movement, footwork.
7. 1-6 above = Muay Thai is probably the best combat sport for fighting multiple opponents.

And yes, some self-defense instructors have training programs for learning to use Muay Thai techniques to fight multiple opponents specifically:

One of the only nice things Bruce Lee ever said about a traditional martial art was Kung Fu system Choy Lay Fut, where he praised CLF for holding its own vs. Muay Thai, and claimed CLF was effective for fighting multiple opponents. One CLF instructor disagrees with this idea that you will be able to drag around someone in a clinch in order to use them as a shield against their friends trying to punch you:

And he certainly makes a great case there. However, yanking the opponent around in the clinch isn't the only reason why knowing the clinch would be handy vs multiple opponents:

But Lawrence Kenshin points out that you probably shouldn't use the full arsenal of Muay Thai technique in a multiple attackers scenario:

So if your first option should not be clinching and kicking an opponent in a multiple attackers scenario, why not just straight up good old fashioned boxing for multiple opponents? Boxing IS a VERY good option for fighting multiple opponents, but here's the reason why Muay Thai is better:

Life is what happens when you have other plans, and having those extra options from Muay Thai will likely be valuable in the chaos of fighting multiple opponents. Having some experience of what to do inside of punching range is helpful if you want to break free from from someone holding on to you while their friends catch up (one of the multiple attackers situations that didn't end well for me.) And this raises a few questions, namely, what about Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing) and perhaps more importantly, what about Combat Sambo?

Let's take a look at what the Sanda fighter is training for:

They are definitely going to the ground on a lot more of those throws than in Muay Thai. In the wrestling video above we see the value of wrestling's training to escape so they can engage the next opponent quickly. Though learning to score in Sanda by pushing someone off the platform could come in handy in a multiple attackers scenario, going to the ground without doing ground fighting is a terrible idea for fighting multiple attackers.

And that brings us to Combat Sambo:

That is comparable to Muay Thai for fighting multiple attackers, as would be Kudo and as would be formal amateur tournament MMA - if any of those things actually existed in most martial artist's world. Sambo isn't an organized style of tournament that Judo guys cross train in boxing for and BJJ guys study up on their secret self defense stand up game to go compete in. Most Sambo people aren't doing Combat Sambo most of the time, they are doing something more like BJJ most of the time. And as for Kudo, that is one of those Unicorn-rare options like Hatenkai Aikido or Combat Glima that is not common enough to be an option for most martial artists.

So if Combat Sambo is good for multiple attackers, what about other deadly military techniques like Systema or SCARS? First, I must take this opportunity to absolutely condemn all martial arts practices without a strong sparring element, military or otherwise, you spar or you don't and if you don't you are doing performance arts, not martial arts, period. Second no boot camp or weekend seminar training program is going to compare to getting together and sparring with like minded individuals on a weekly basis for years on end.

But what about Army Combatives aka BJJ-self-defense? Let's take a look again at their sparring practices:

As much as I like BJJ, and as much as I like palm strikes, I have to say that this engages the opponent on the ground every bit as much as sport BJJ does. Now I get that Army Combatives trains in a wider range of technique than this, but again what are most people going to be focusing on in this style most of the time? Probably what you are seeing above... those who actually manage to train on a regular basis that is... in the military... As a civilian, this training is called "Combat BJJ":

The good:

• there is a lot more getting back to the feet again than with sport BJJ, 
• those palm strikes are less likely to break your hand than a closed fist,
• one of those palms to the jaw could potentially drop someone, and 
• one of those palms could easily be an eye gouge in a emergency.

The bad:

• they are much more engaged on the ground there than what is wise in a multiple attacker scenario, 
• there isn't anything like Muay Thai kicks or 
• anything like Boxing footwork going on there like what you see with Combat Sambo.

And as with "Combat" Sambo, best of luck to you finding a school that teaches "Combat" BJJ to you in your first year of training. In Muay Thai they are teaching you very helpful striking skills vs multiple opponents on day 1.

What about the power of Chi, the "Traditional Martial Arts," including Tai Chi, Pa Kua, Aikido, Karate, TKD, Kung Fu, Takkyeon, Kenpo etc.? Well you have to find a school into serious sparring, and the best case scenario for sparring practices will end up something like Sanda above, and that is at least as hard to find as "Combat" Sambo or "Combat" BJJ. In the area I live finding a Muay Thai program is about as hard as finding a shopping mall.

But I have been holding my cards too close to my chest. There was a truism that developed on Bullshido.net in the late 2000's, which was gospel at the time (I think it may be attributed to "JKD Chick,") that went like this:

1. For grappling, the best option is BJJ - the best sparring practices, the widest range of techniques allowed.
2. For striking, the best option is Muay Thai - the best sparring practices, the widest range of techniques allowed.
3. For multiple attacker the best option is FMA (Kali/Escrima/Arnis) - the most likely weapon art to spar with technique you might actually use in a real life situation.  

With multiple attackers it serves you well to be skilled with a weapon to keep from breaking your hand and to help equalize out the damage output difference between all of them and you:

And THAT brings us back to Muay Thai. Yes the baton technique helped tremendously, but that was supplemented with kicks you will best learn in Muay Thai sparring, as well as what that officer did when an attacker tried to grab him. Muay Thai students are used to people trying to manipulate their arms and have great reflexes for that.

And you see how the cop didn't draw his weapon? If you don't really know what your are doing, the legal consequences of using a firearm to defend yourself in public could be far worse than anything the multiple attackers intended to do to you in the first place. If you:

1. carried a weapon in public in the last 72 hours,
2. have been to the shooting range in the last few months, and
3. have trained against resisting opponents in the last year (in weapon retention or with people shooting back at you with simulated weapons,)

then I stand corrected here. The 90% of the rest of you "Gun Fu" cowboys can shut up, spit that steak out of your mouth and check into some kind of fitness program. Muay Thai (and all of the other unarmed arts mentioned here) have the following additional advantages vs multiple attackers:

1. You always have it on you.
2. It doesn't run out of bullets.
3. It is very easy to deploy in a split second.
4. It never kills or injures innocent bystanders.
5. Attackers can't take it from you and beat you with it.

We don't all have access to the same martial arts options, so it doesn't really matter what the "best martial art" for multiple attackers is. What matters is sparring with the martial arts you DO have access to, and experimenting with what works for you for fighting multiple attackers. God gave mankind sparring for reason: