Is it true that most fights end up on the ground?

Yes and no. While it is true that pretty much every fight or violent assault ends up with one or more people lying on the ground, usually unconscious or a least badly beaten, it is not true that most fights turn into wrestling matches.

The statistic that 95% of all fights go to the ground is actually a misquoted finding made in a study preformed by the Los Angels Police Department. They did a study that stated that when they were arresting a suspect and the suspect resisted arrest, 95% of the time they had to put the suspect on the ground in order to cuff them. Not quite the same thing is it?

This false statistics has been spread by the sport fighting community as a sales tactic. By telling everyone that they need to learn to wrestle because "95% of all fights end up on the ground" they enroll more students and of course sell more merchandise such as instructional video tapes and special martial arts uniforms and clothing that won't rip when you wrestle.

What is true is that about 90% of fights and violent assaults last about 5 seconds, start with a right hook, and end when the other guy eats that punch and falls down and bounces his head off the ground. Quite often the trauma caused by the person hitting their head on the ground causes loss of memory , concussions, brain damage, coma, and even death.

The only times real fights or violent assaults end up on the ground is when both people slip and fall, and that's usually caused by them having poor balance.

Another thing that is true is that when people die in fights and violent assaults its quite often because they did go to the ground. Either they slipped and fell or they decided to go to the ground and wrestle and ended up with the other guy, or other guys, just stomping and kicking them until they stopped moving.

Going to the ground or wrestling in a real fight or violent encounter is the last thing that you want to do because when you're on the ground you can only deal with one person at a time. There is a saying that you never know how many people you're fighting until you're fighting them all. You might think you're fighting just one guy, but he may have a few friends hanging around and if he starts to lose they might all jump in to help.

A common tactic that gangs use, both to victimize people and as an initiation rite, is called "the sacrificial lamb". In this technique a group of hoodlums send one person out to confront someone, sometimes a police officer. The person's job it to try to grab a hold of the person and to get him to either grapple standing up or wrestle on the ground. If the sacrificial lamb succeeds in getting the guy to grapple or wrestle then everyone will jump out and they will all attack their victim at once. If the sacrificial lamb isn't successful then he or she is left to fiend for themselves. If you are the intended victim and you fall for the sacrificial lamb and end up trying to put them in a hold or wrestle them on the ground you could be eating shoe leather.

Wrestling is a great sport but it is only appropriate for sport fighting. If you know real self defense techniques then you wouldn't waist your time with wrestling anyway.