In my youth I used to fight Muay Thai professionally and did so for about ten years. I would be very confident taking on a random person in fisticuffs but I would rank my chances against someone with a knife very, very poorly.
Knives give an obvious reach advantage. Also just one nasty slice or one well placed stab and you’re fucked where generally most people will take a few well placed strikes to stop. The odds just aren’t in your favour.
Basically the safest thing to do against someone with a knife is run for your life or get your hands on a weapon that’s longer than the knife if you can’t run.
When I was practicing jujitsu, our instructors were pretty unanimous that they would rather be robbed by someone with a gun than with a knife. Not that your odds are great against any weapons, but a gun only has one dangerous bit. The first time I was learning to disarm someone armed with a knife I was told “If you fight someone with a knife, you’re going to get cut, no question.”
Stopping someone with a knife is very difficult.
In my youth I used to fight Muay Thai professionally and did so for about ten years. I would be very confident taking on a random person in fisticuffs but I would rank my chances against someone with a knife very, very poorly.
Knives give an obvious reach advantage. Also just one nasty slice or one well placed stab and you’re fucked where generally most people will take a few well placed strikes to stop. The odds just aren’t in your favour.
Basically the safest thing to do against someone with a knife is run for your life or get your hands on a weapon that’s longer than the knife if you can’t run.
This is very sobering and decent advice.
When I was practicing jujitsu, our instructors were pretty unanimous that they would rather be robbed by someone with a gun than with a knife. Not that your odds are great against any weapons, but a gun only has one dangerous bit. The first time I was learning to disarm someone armed with a knife I was told “If you fight someone with a knife, you’re going to get cut, no question.”