MMA is always a good possibility, it will give you a good understanding of fighting at all ranges (standing clinch and ground) and a good venue to test what you've learned through lots of good old sparing, not to mention that its just a lot of fun Personally however I would recommend spending a year or so in one of the base arts eg: bjj, judo, wrestling, muay thai, or boxing to get a good foundation before jumping right into mma.
Either BJJ or Judo would work fantastically (if practiced often and enthusiastically) in a 1v1 street fight. I used Judo well before I started BJJ, and I have since used principles from both while working as a bar doorman and in my private life. MMA is a great art for self-defense. It, in the United States anyway, can be said to be an amalgamation of Boxing, Muay Thai, wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, but realistically it varies a lot. For instance, some famous MMA fighters have fantastic success with just Sambo (russian wrestling, similar to Judo) and Boxing. You have to worry about making sure that the gym is legitimate, though - it is hard to find a real MMA gym outside of the nations where the sport is popular. As the previous poster mentioned, however, it is generally recommended to work on a specific art before going into MMA. Judo, Boxing, wrestling, Muay Thai, or Brazilian Jiu-jitsu would all make excellent starting arts.
There is only one MMA school here, the teacher trained MMA in America and has personally got advices from Andrei Silva, is a 2nd Dan Judo Fighter and a Black Belt BJJ fighter. I think that's fair enough I probably will cross train actually, but if i pick, ill pick MMA later on.
