“What I was saying is that competitive TKD would get you killed in a real fight much quicker than MT would.”
I agree 100%. What I was referring to was MT fighters going in close and being open to a takedown even by someone without much grappling experience.
“I’m not trying to say that MT is perfect or that its always the best thing to use in a fight. But IMO, if your preferred stand up art is TKD, then criticizing MT’s shortcomings as a realistic striking art would be a moot point.”
While the style of TKD I do is what I currently prefer, I don’t see that it’d be reason for me being disallowed from make a valid point about another art. I’d never say that the techniques used in a TKD match are street effective, but very few people are saying that. I’ve worked out with some competitive TKD fighters and found out they were head hunters and even with padding on their jumping sidekicks caused alot of damage. But they also get away with things because they’re not allowed to clinch or grab. Same way things can work in MT but may be a weakness in another venue. Just because I do TKD it doesn’t mean that I don’t know what can work and what doesn’t. My preference (because I’m not a very good toe to toe fighter) is to get an opening and try to get my opponents side or back and go for a sweep, or catch a leg and take them down. Same thing I’d currenty do in the street. So I’m a bit partial to the sanda way of doing things. 
I guess I didn’t make myself clear in that I was trying to talk about the street fighting crowd that says things like the MT stance is the best stance for a street fight, the plumb is great in a street fight, etc based purely on it’s effectivness in the ring. They’re also the crowd that says only a fool would use a kick above the waist, but Thais kick to the torso and head all of the time. They’re very selective about what they see.
On a side note: I still used alot of Muay Thai while sparring in TKD. I’d have to pull the elbows and knees but you can’t have everything. When my TKD master realized that I wasn’t going to avoid kicks by moving back, and was staying in close and using a leg sheild against turning kicks, he showed me how to make more effective use of the shin against front and sidekicks by turning the shin more parallel to the floor. Works against knees too. I’m also a 60/40 hands/kicks kind of guy.
