Exactly. Lies, damn lies, and statistics
A fight is inherently dangerous. "The ground," in truth, adds little to no additional danger.
See, that's the rub, ain't it? The operative word here is "try." I can tell you with authority that it is 100 times easier for one participant, even in a more or less "even odds" fight, to literally force the fight into a wrestling match on the ground. It is so easy to do that it is almost laughable. Fights that have both participants remain standing do so because of a combination of two things. First, because of some tacit understanding between the participants not to drag each other to the ground. Remember, it's easy. IOW, no one drags the other to the ground because they simply choose not to. The reason for the choice is, honestly, irrelevant. One of them could if they wanted to in the majority of the cases. Secondly, another reason that a fight remains wholly "stand up" is, are you ready for it? Dumb Luck. Let's face it, no one starts out of the womb standing and walking and when a person starts learning they fall a lot. Keeping your balance simply standing is, to be 100% honest, a fairly complex skill which we are now complicating 100 fold by putting the participants in a chaotic situation where they may be getting pummeled, knocked off balance, tripping over objects, or slipping on debris and slick surfaces.
Which, according to records, indicates that the defender will have even less chance of being allowed to "choose" whether or not to remain standing. They frequently get "swarmed" and dragged to the ground by one or more of the attackers. Those remaining standing may engage in a bit of "the boot." The defender better know darn well how to deal quickly and efficiently with the attacker(s) who drug him down and then be able to force that attacker to disengage so the defender can attempt to stand back up again.
Actually, that's not entirely true. If you know how to manipulate an attacker who has dragged you to the ground you can often choose to position yourself in a more advantageous position in relation to other participants. I know, personally, of at least one multi-person attack where the defender was dragged to the ground and successfully used the ground attacker as a shield to block out other attackers.
As I wrote, if you're being swarmed you're already well past fryingpan-to-fire and you're well in the char-broiled phase. You're hosed. You almost certainly will be knocked or dragged down and your only slim hope of not getting your skull caved in by an attacker's crap-stompers is to have a working understanding of ground fighting.
Sure. I'd also always strongly recommend trying to get your attackers to tacitly agree not to use a gun or a knife on you too. But sometimes you can't get those darn criminals to fight fairly and, occasionally, he brings Murphy with him too. For those occasions, knowing how to actually fight on the ground might be of benefit.
No amount of any "unarmed combat skill" is going to keep them from kicking the stuffing out of you. Your ONLY hope is running or deploying a weapon.
) to ensure the more serious blows never land.
I've been hearing that for a really, really long time. And, I admit, on the surface, it sounds good. However, you seem to assume that an attacker who has already dragged you to the ground can't poke eyes, etc. too. Whenever I hear these arguments, it's as if the person presenting them believes eye pokes (EMFG) and groin grabs are some sort of Ancient Chinese Secret that no one but they know about.
