Originally Posted by
Kellen Bassette
Boxing has tons of holes in it for street fighting, but, like others said, it is one of the best choices to learn to fight quickly.
The fact that you don't have to learn throws, takedowns and skilled take down defense, as in grappling arts, or kicks, lets you get good at the basics very quickly. Boxing has great footwork and the best "boxing hands" out there. You will begin learn to move and hit immediately.
The original posts was about learning to defend oneself quickly, not being a complete fighter. MMA, Sanda and Muay Thai are all far more complete, but because of the different elements they incorporate, becoming proficient takes a bit longer; unless as Dragonbane said, you already have a solid base in something else.
Even Muay Thai, which can be learned quite quickly, wouldn't be as good a choice for readily learning to defend oneself, since it does take a while to be proficient at kicking techniques, if you've never trained a kicking art. Kicks will be a liability until you really develop them. If you had to choose between just striking or wrestling, to learn in a short period of time, I'd go with striking, since you may not have enough conditioning and mental toughness at that point to just eat the punch and go for the take down.