Martial Arts advice

Some of the guys on here have rather interesting views! nice to see everyones opinion though, and heres mine:

Ive trained in Boxing, MMA, Muay Thai, Brazillian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), Freestyle Wrestling and Karate, have competed in several, and medalled (bronze and gold) in freestyle grappling comps and also had an amatuer cage fight.
The fight team I train with is an MMA organisation, we have professional and in some cases olympian level coaches teaching each of the disciplines, this is true for the vast majorty of places too, There are some exceptions but I find this statement -

the thing is, all the places doing "MMA" classes are exactly that. They are just going of the hype of the UFC. If asked about at a few of these places, by MMA they rarely actually mean mixed martial arts, what they mean is "you know, like UFC".

Basically some half arsed kick boxing and attempts at "ground & pound". They rarely have the high quality instructors in specific disciplines, like BJJ.

Quite ignorant to put it simply. Where were these MMA gyms? What you have to remember is you cant just learn MMA by going to MMA classes, sure they will teach you the basics of striking, ground and takedown work but its up to you to explore and develop these fields seperately, for example at most MMA gyms they will have a few MMA classes a week which teach you to combine the techniques rather than teaching you them on their own. They run other classes which cover the different aspects - BJJ, Wrestling and Muay thai among others. over 90% of pro MMA fighters hail from a background in a seperate martial art, be it wrestling, boxing, muay thai, of bjj, they then choose to do mma and build other skills to enable them to compete but keep their natural base discipline.

Slight bit of sidetracking there, but from my experience I would say a Muay Thai offers excellent self defense, if as is obviously the best option - flight, doesnt present its self then muay thai offers very effective striking, clinching, kicks, elbows, knees and trips to defend yourself. BJJ would be tricky to pull off in a street scenario as you need free movement, maybe nto achievable in jeans and a jacket etc, however what I would say is if someone took you down or tripped you over you would know correct positioning to protect yourself on the floor and be able to escape more easily. Wrestling is also an excellent option, if you gain a basic level of technique you can throw around a bigger guy no problem and have excellent balance in a fight situation.

In summary I would say the best option is Muay Thai and Wrestling, Muay Thai being more advisable. I tend to avoid these self defense style martial arts, I know a cage isnt the same as the street, but time and time again, every successful pro has showen they either have a base of Muay Thai, BJJ, or Wrestling. these are the three most effective arts, you dont see any fighting champions with backgrounds in kung fu, wing ching, yung jun doe, nin jitsu etc, they all abide by the basic tried and tested fighting systems.

Let me know if Im rambling, Its 2.40am and ive been up all night studying...