Muay Thai and Brazilian jiu-jitsu are both very practical martial arts as well as applicable in self defense scenarios. Though both are very effective they are also very different arts with very different approaches to combat.

Muay Thai is of course the kickboxing martial art and sport from Thailand that specializes in knees and elbow strikes as well as its use of the clinch. Though there is grappling involved in its clinching abilities it is still considered to be a striking based martial art.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) on the other hand, which came to prominence with the rise of the UFC, is a grappling based martial art that uses leverage and technique to beat opponents instead of brute force.

In the following YouTube video we see this classic clash of styles play out in a challenge match. Now more often than not when you have a pure grappler vs striker match up the grappler wins the vast majority of times. Grapplers just have that much of an edge once the fight hits the ground.

The muay Thai practitioner in this video comes out guns a blazing, looking to end it quickly. That is one way to go about it but he may have had better success being more patient and picking his shots. Also, throwing kicks against someone who wants to take you down is always risky as you are pretty much handing them your leg to grab hold of. The Thai fighter does land a couple shots though before being picked up and dumped on his butt.

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On the ground, the Thai practitioner is a fish out of water. He tries to wriggle his way out but the BJJ guy is a few moves ahead of him. He goes from side mount, to full mount then gets the arm and submits the muay Thai fighter quickly with a nice armbar.