Pressure Testing Knife Defense (With Doctor's Assessment of Cuts) 

Disclaimer: it is important to note that we haven't practiced some of the techniques for a long time. At the same time some of these techniques are taught to beginners in a weekend expecting for them to make it work, while we are all trained fighters with combat experience. Another disclaimer - we didn't use powerful strikes in order to avoid injury. Yet there's also the question of their effectiveness in case you miss or if the opponent does not feel the injury under adrenaline or substance use. Links to the tested techniques: #1 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qNEZS_wBFt8.html #2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6m_h8tUS9Y0.html #3 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3RCLq5vtC44.html #4 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GX36pjtgQqo.html #5 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-t6cUwv7iczE.html #6 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aTpq9Xi2TJ8.html

What I learned from this video: Never fight a nurse armed with a knife!

My instructor told me these techniques are very difficult and unrealistic for most people and to get behind something pick up anything to hand to use as a shield or weapon.

Please do a follow up and revisit with Skålberg. Would be awesome to see how this will play out with a knife expert.👍🏻

Secret knife techniques, I think one of them is Jesse Karate technique lol

Interesting

The doctor’s response was a great addition to this test. A lot of people do the marker and white shirt thing, but don’t realize the seriousness of what those marks represent. A few years back, there was a psychopath with a knife here in China who stabbed and slashed 20 people in a row before anyone could stop him- and when they finally got him, it was about 6 guys armed with sticks and chairs that took him out. Hand to hand vs a knife is super low percentage to the point it’s almost a joke to train for it.

One big problem which is unrealistic with your tests is that the attacker knows which defense you're attempting and is actively resisting its effectiveness. You should bring in third parties who don't know to be more realistic.

The weird part is that Master Wong's wasn't too terrible, as evidenced by how long you held a stalemate for. Obviously you couldn't be too violent with the headbutt piece, but in function it's basically another two-on-one wrestling transition like what Sharp did, just from a seated position. But what I noticed from even the ones that had a marginal amount of success, there wasn't much in the way of "what comes next", something Icy Mike harps on a lot. Great video, very educational!

Coming from someone who has actually been stabbed in an attack. What I feel kept me alive was using my outer forearms as shields to block my neck and face, while trying to close the distance and maintain control of the knife. Didn’t win the fight but kept me alive long enough for them to give up and run off

The doctor evaluating it is really interesting. Thanks for the video. Also very entertaining

One thing that would be interesting to test, but maybe hard to do, is to actually attack the knife holder. In all of the scenarios here the knife holder was free of danger and was able to concentrate on doing damage. For example Jesse showed a slap that wasn't really executed, and in other scenarios headbutts and elbows may have helped while wrestling

When we trained knife fights in the Marine Corps I only once really had any success. Keeping in mind we began in a neutral position with the knife between us and had to vie for position at first. My opponent got the knife first, I managed to isolate the wrist and keep his elbow extended, and secured one under-hook before sweeping the leg and using my height advantage to put him quickly onto his back. From there I secured the knife quickly and the drill ended, but I imagine my hands/forearm still would've been gashed up. My instructor always reiterated that if you fight with a blade, even if you're the one wielding it, you're probably going to get cut.

i think i heard something about some casual everyday clothing that comes with a stab vest built into the clothing but it's quite expensive it's like $200 for a standard black hoodie but I guess that could really help as then it's only really your head, neck, and limbs that you need to protect.

It's always good to see knife pressure testing videos there's never any easy answers to knife attacks or guarantees

In my taekwondo knife defense years ago, we put on a show. My grandmaster told me the real defense is to get really good at running.

What I noticed is there are 2 parts in every knife defence: 1-Entry 2-Grappling What most Instructors focus on showing is the grappling part where the defender has a well adjusted grip on the attacker and no one talks about the Entry which is where most knife defence fails. The entry needs a lot of fast reflex and hand coordination and distance management which come from years of training not memorizing a technique and practising it a couple of times. What do you think about this?

I find it fascinating that all of ya'll went for wrist control by natural impulse when the technique failed, and it seemed to be the most effective to stop the attack when you focused on it from the start.

Little advice : use plastic bottles at full power and speed when practising knife defense. It's safe and the sound and the feeling will make you know if it works, or not.

In Krav Maga not only do you block the knife, but you strike the opponent as well, multiple times while pressing the block on the attacking arm, limiting their ability to recoil the arm for counter strikes.

Disappointed, now I understand how hard knife defence is, I have 7 years of Escrima training and at least 15 year's of open hand vs knife experience (with fully resistant partners) and in my opinion it is the hardest discipline with the smallest chance of success but.... you cannot pick 6 techniques, barely practice them and not use them in conjunction with striking or grappling. If one technique worked every time every martial artist would use it all the time. Like I say, disappointed dude, be much more interested in seeing how you and your friends would use the experience you have gained and genuinely see what works. Again just my opinion

Most "knife defense" systems are about as useful like the "no touch" martial arts. I'm honestly horrified how awful most of this stuff is. Having no training is vastly superior than this crap.

That was obviously going to fail. You don't get to chose a techinique to counter any attack in a real dynamic situation, you use by reflex whatever technique you know and trained that fits into the situation. An isolated technique only exists in training.

Nice triceps in the thumbnail

I think the fact that it was trained fighters attacking you makes a big difference compared to a random person on the street. not to say that I think all of these would work

Worth having a look at Tim Kennedy's live knife defense against a knife expert. What that taught me it is that Judo is very useful for knife defense. Second,it makes a huge difference that your opponents are also MMA trained so their balance and reaction to your actions will be much better than an untrained dude. Get a pure Aikido student to try stab you and see how successful they would be, or someone off the street.

I think if you want to get good at knife defence, you need to train with knives and weapons regularly. Lots of fear responses here i.e reaching out for the blade, anticipation of the attack and locking only on the knife. As others have mentioned, headbutts, strikes, low kicks all help control the attacker. Control the attacker, control the fight. ( P.s run when you can ) 🙏

I hope you continue to do regular pressure testing until you come up a better solution that has better survivability..more power 👊

i pressure tested so many knife defenses your chances of survival are very slim! Only by the grace of God you'll come out alive! I'm a martial arts instructor 37 yrs experience and you either survive or most likely you don't! None of them work the way they claim! wrestling a knife can go horribly wrong very quickly! I tell my students fight viciously like and animal better to have a lil chance than no chance!

I will speak as someone who had been held at knifepoint (Ice Pick) with another guy standing by close. My only advice is to just pick your battles. If it's just money or your phone, just give it up. Not worth risking it. Also, most assailants don't come to you in the front as well as flash their weapon around. They will attack you when you least expect it. Don't take these people lightly. They don't practice fair fights. They will fight with every means they have, even if it has to be dirty and unfair. It's good to be brave, but it's always better to be smart.

I would love to comment more on this myself as I have been stabbed 14 times and I miraculously survived after being resuscitated at the hospital, of course it was 14 times all in one sitting just to clarify LOL my best friend did it what a hoot

I absolutely love what you have been doing these past few years. I never had the chance to study aikido, but I very much wanted to! Your journey has been so eye opening. In fact the internet has totally destroyed many martial art fantasies. I grew up on kungfu movies and I always believed that a practitioner could reach some transcendent level of...invincibilty I guess. I think that traditional Chinese martial arts may be the worst offenders when it comes to living in a fantasy world. Very flashy and showy. But when the rubber hits the road all those fancy moves with their fancy names don't mean a thing! I still love all that stuff. But now I take it more as a show. Like a nice ballet. The skill set is still totally amazing. But not so practical when it comes to real life.

It’s hard to demonstrate the technique, especially the Krav Maga when the technique it was designed for was a specific hard stab to your freaking face! Which mean as demonstrated a fully committed stab to your face . The attacker clearly did not use that attack so why the hell would you do that technique? YYou guys need to find techniques or design your own against the specific stabbing motion that most knife attack occur as you clearly used on your opponent then test your theories and find what works best ..

Thanks for the video! This is, without a doubt, the most in-depth discussion I've seen on this particular topic and I like to think that I've seen damned near every video on RU-vid about it lol What I would like to know, in each of these cases, is if having medical gear like chest seals, tourniquets, etc. and applying them as soon as the danger is over, would that increase one's odd of surviving any? Also, were both people aware of the scenario *before* carrying out the tests?

Excellent content, thank you Rokas, I love your enthusiasm for the subject so much. I would be interested to see the same test with and without Stabproof vest!

As someone who has practiced a bit of unarmed knife defence, I'd say if the attacker is slow and you know the attack is coming, you can grab the blade or their wrists like half the time, but if the attacker knows how to use the knife or comes from behind then you're in big, big trouble.

Martial arts Journey it's been a long time it's me Gerardo listen hear me out these were the very first martial arts I wanted to train as a kid they are Wing Chun Kung Fu kyokushin karate Taekwondo itf the most powerful and strongest most direct number one best most well-known used and practice styles of kung fu karate Taekwondo effective and work in self-defense street fighting and I have done my research over and over again and I'm right

What about the people who live in Indonesia 🇮🇩 who have the indigenous arts of Silat and Kuntao???

There is a good technique that I learned in Krav Maga last week and I think that it is really effective but I don't know the name of the technique or how to search it on RU-vid.

Excellent. I've always been sceptical of knife defenses in martial arts. I've seen a few other demos where markers were used and the results were the same. I saw something once where I think helmets were worn and the defender was able to do limited punching, and that surprisingly seemed to work better than just purely focuses on controlling the knife. Something that makes it difficult to control the knife is that you can't easily grip somebody else's arm, because a hand will not wrap all the way around a forearm, and so the grip is weak. I feel like the defender might have a better time if the attacker was wearing loose street clothes/a jacket/etc and the defender was able to grab the clothes of the arm rather than trying to grab a naked arm.

If teaching non-fighters the technique has to be broad and not specific. And it should allow them to get away rather than stay. Only a fool thinks they are Rambo and fights the perpetrators.

Also from the first comment that you read out of kung fu karate Taekwondo I love Kung Fu a lot more and I want to learn fiive martial arts you already know the three but I want to add sanda so here wing chun kung fu sanda kyokushin karate Taekwondo itf but I need only one which of the three wudang styles is more effective in fighting tai chi bagauzhange xing yi quan if somebody knows or seen them in action in real life please tell me it's very important to me for my martial arts Journey

Well, how someone said it before, actually depends more on the attacker. Remember, never mess with a nurse...

But you are missing the striking part, I know about a taekwondo practicioner that survived a knife attack, he was stabbed but meanwhile the attacker was focused on stabbing, the taekwondo guy didn't tried to defend, he focused on attacking to the head of his opponent, and knocked him out in seconds.

You're doing absolutely EXCELLENT work for the entire Martial Arts AND Self Defence community

I swear Rokas used this title 3 times already

You're only trying to defend in a gentle way without trying to defend and attack aggressively. To properly train knife defence the knife attacker would need to wear a headguard and you would need to defend yourself by defending and attacking using great force similar as if you're really fighting for your life rather than playing with friends.

Well.. sure it might not work but at least it is better to know something to defend yourself rather than nothing.. atleast you my get lucky and get the block, but if you dont know any blocks you getting stabbed 100%. , also you should do this vs someone who does not know any martial art, a random joe who just know how to swing knife i guess wouldnt be able to do so much .. i mean these are professional trainers they know what you gonna do and deffend.. and not many knife stabbers are professional fighters mate

You should try knife defense with strikes, kicks or take downs next time bro. Just have the attacker wear a full helmet and gear. I been following you ever since you started. The progression of your skills has been inspiring bro.

I think the only unrealistic thing about this is they are all fighters. They add grappling into the knife attacks and I feel like your average knife attacker would not be like this.

Would be nice watching the same video but with a kali practitioner and see if he/she can avoid it.

From my experience getting control over the attacker's arm is your only chance if fighting is your only option and you have no better weapon. I have tried to do a few things and what has worked best for me is to use defensive arm techniques that cover large areas because trying to grab with a hand is difficult. I try to use both arms using Wing Chun techniques wrap the arm and keep it restrained while using an elbow or whatever I can to attack. It's worked fairly well for me. A lot of knife attacks are ambush attacks unfortunately your probably going to get stabbed. A guy I knew from high school was followed home from the bar he worked at doing security and was stabbed multiple times. He knocked the guy out with part of a lawnmower and lived to talk about it.

When me and my buddy did this drill we found that basic strikes work best. Weapon focus is real and the guy holding the knife would get caught with hard strikes easily because he was too preoccupied with trying to get the blade in, and not grappled up.

I learned tanto-dori and it was a technique in my black belt test, but I wouldn’t count on it if I was attacked with someone using a knife. In another video you used a type of 4kyo to neutralize the attacker’s hand. I don’t know if an amateur would attack the same way the trained guys did in this video. Actually I don’t have to fear being attacked in Japan, but I guess a combination of techniques would increase my chances by if survival.

After watching it I think the doctor's comments are great (and I'd love to see them in the youtuber competition) but unfortunately I found this doctor to be very shy, don't know if he was insecure because of English isn't his first language (sorry if it is) or because of the camera

It is wonderful to see you putting so much of this to the test in as legitimate a way as possible. The other thing people fail to realise is that the knife is going to get bloody and slippery. It's probably one of the reasons a lot of people survive knife attacks, because the slipperier the knife gets, the harder it is to apply effective penetration. I'm not sure why we are still calling it "knife defense." You don't want to be on the defensive against someone attacking you with a knife. All these locks and shit are fun to practise but they are so often about responsive techniques, rather than techniques where you attack to create opening. If you are attacked with a knife you are going to get stabbed or you are going to get cut. The aim should be to limit the attackers effectiveness by attacking. I would also say one of your biggest issues is that you are "fighting on the line". People tend to want to be square on to the knife, it's instinctive. You don't want to fight a knife or weapon on its shortest line to your body. You want to create distance by moving to the offline and circling, forcing the longest distance on any stab or cut, which gives you more opportunity to fight the person, not the knife. I'd be interested to see how you'd engage with these techniques or a practitioner who uses the pikal style knives and the methodology associated with that style of weapon.

I just hope I can run faster than my attacker. Running is a martial art.

One of the most profound things I’ve ever heard about knife defense was from Damian Ross and I quote, “There is a world of difference between being stabbed to death while someone is kicking the shit out of you, and kicking the shit out of someone while their trying to stab you to death.” Just some food for thought.

What is completely missing here is dealing damage. Like the Krav Maga techniques (360 defense) are for blocking the first stab at best, but they always deal damage (hard strikes to the face or throat) at the same time. When you are close/wrestling these could be headbutts. All fighters I have talked to IRL that survived knife attacks, when asked what they did, they all said something along the lines of "i knocked the fker out". They were not even noticing the blade in some instances, because they were focused on the main objective: turning off the computer (brain) of the attacker...

Man that definitely sucks when you learn a martial art with knife defense techniques, you become black belt in this martial arts, and yet you are totally defenseless 😅😅😅... That's why guys, avoid any martial art that does not have a big part of sparring.

Yeah, knifes and blades are dangerous. All my teacher and my-self say... get distance. Close range fight is death. Get something between or find some weapon yourself. Rip foam extinguisher from the wall and use it... anything that helps. That I say all who ask about knifeattacks. Run or just give you wallet, it's not worth of you live.

The video I always dreamed of, finally responding to old questions.

The best way to win against knife attacks are long ranged kicks. Push and front kicks are your only hope. Obviously if you can't run away

1:50 WTF look at his hand from the doktor

Pressure testing is very important.

Paul Sharp's technique isn't actually all that bad. But the best technique will always be to run, haha

Knife to intimidate vs knife want to kill is different. Only Gambeson can save life.

Awesome video. 👌👌👌 Don't stop what you doing.

Nice video idea! Maybe try out with a helmet for the attacker so that you can blast his head and create openings, the way you did it is very skewed towards the knife guy because he can attack without fearing any retaliation at all. Most knife disarms need an opening, like a slap or straight to the face while stepping outside of the knife attack.

But you stand still right in front of the knife...

You all didn't show what happens when you use the pull a much bigger knife in response to the threat defense....."that's not a knife, this is a knife"

That nurse is dangerous! LOL

@Martial Arts Journey Yeah, Jesse was on the right track when he described the tehniques. Most of them originate, if you dig deep enough from a different era: when people were ARMORED. The krav guy is a former military. Kevlar and harness is decent protection against slashing, and even puncture/stab. If the knife is not top quality, it WILL tangle in the dense textile of most soldier vests. That is why most tehniques simply do not take into account sideways low speed stabs. And the japanese / jiu jitsu based defenses clear as day come from an era of sword + mail armor. Check out a video of Metatron about this. If you go into a rough neighourhood your best defense is a light mail armor under your jacket/blouse. That WILL make your chest immune to realistic knife glancing stabs (aka not super high quality dagger, sword, spear etc... but regular knifes/daggers)

I think this is an inspiring video particularly for the practioners in need of discernment between practicality and 'organized instruction'. Thank you.

Thats they way i love to find out what really works. ...There is no secret moves and defenses. There are only a few techniques which have higher percentage and lower percentage, and also depends on the person who is executing them. Props. I love this video.....Telling the truth of knife attacks...

The problem in those tests is that the defender can't attack with real punches, the attacker is protected. What if the defender could strike at the attacker throat or do real kicks the groins ? So your tests are not realistic. And when you demonstrate the 'Krav Maga' technique, you do it all wrong... You don't even strike the attacker. Of course you will always be injured against a knife and defending against it is always very risky... Sorry for my bad English but I'm from Belgium 😉

Well actually there is no 100% techniques. We should practice techniques with the most percentage of success but you should know that even if you practice them you only raise the chance of survival and not getting a guarantee. But there is a problem with this testing. Test like this should be done with striking + wrestling techniques and not only wrestling

Basic principle of any functional martial art l, is that for it to be of some degree of use. You have to practice it regularly and under regular sparring conditions. My BJJ instructor basically says, the best strategy for defending any weapons attack is to run as fast as you can, but if you can’t escape then accept that you will get cut and you will get badly wounded, and if you want to remotely get of there alive you will need to accept that you will have to do some pretty gruesome stuff. So practice it all at full impact on the regular just like you train to get good at anything or your wasting your time, which this also shows. On the flip side just putting yourself in those sparring situations starts to condition your brain and body for those situations reducing the adrenaline dump that makes people do silly things.

Beautiful. Rokas, you get more and more realistic. Love it.

Thank you ! It looks like paying full attention to the knife is a bad idea.. split your forces.. I feel like he could have better chances hitting dude in the face while trying to stop the knife with his left hand.. eye poke, headbutt, do damage.. if I could I'd be armed, CC, or at least carrying a self defense blade like a sog..

Not a bad takeaway. One of my issues however is the attacker has a range to attack from multiple directions while the defender is one dimensional and linear. The ineffective displayed therein would lie in the defenders literal take of only using the technique as displayed which of course if the technique being implemented was pressure tested with the originator, more than likely they too would react within more dimensions as well. Like their were times you could've headbutt to debilitate the attacker but in the example the defender is only doing a one dimension approach of the technique. So does that make for an accurate dissection of the topic?

Wonderful video. I wonder if you are familiar with Ryan Hoover as someone to talk to about knife/weapon defense?

I wish all the commercially martials arts instructors and so called Grand masters open up their minds on pressure testing the techniques and tactics that they are teaching commercially and improves it for a better survivability..

Studied with a knife instructor to the special forces... One of the first things you're taught is your going to get cut and most knife fights will be over in a few seconds... Put something between you and the knife...

These type of videos are a laugh. In prison we know what works and what doesn’t. Body armor works. Offensive knife work, works. Kicking knife out of opponent’s hands, works. Fighting hard, going for the knockout works. Everything else is nonsense. You’ll die. Fight over. Bye.

Yeah, as ALL MY INSTRUCTORS SAY, You get in knife fight YOU will get cut and someone is going hospital or could die. Avoid knife fight ALWAYS! No matter the martial system... unless you a master who has trained for YEARS!!!! Using knife or defending.. just run away

There's this video of 2 dudes wearing helmets and gears and is probably the best knife defense demo ive seen in youtube.. my only issue for the demo you've shown, is that for some reason, the defender tries to overpower the attacker, instead of trying to maintain space and wait for a perfect timing to execute..

Best video on this subject so far what I have seen

Knife defense should be made with simultaneous attacks to the aggressor too. I would like to see this test with the attacker using some protective equipment so the defender could hit him while try to avoid been stabbed. That would be a really more realistic approach.

The Krav Maga knife defenses depend on counterattacking at the same time as the defense - so defending the attack from above would involve countering with punches to the face/throat. There's some followups after that immediate reaction too like grabbing the wrist holding the weapon with one hand while also grabbing across the shoulder with the other and then start with knees to the groin.

I agree that unarmed methods you used were not effective but then again you also forgot golden rules of actual defense ! 1 ,NEVER EVER LET ANYONE GET CLOSE TO YOU ,STRANGER DANGER! also run away if you can ! 2 use you surrounding to your advantage ,such as trash cans ,dirt ,your keys ,a bag /purse ,groceries ,put obstacles in his path . 3 strike if you can ,blind him with finger jab or old style boxing punch ,not mma go for knees ,if you get his back ,dont hold on ,just pick up and slam fast or double ankle pick and get out of there ect : I think this type of test puts you at a unrealistic disadvantage ,to me you simply tried to grapple with rules ,when weapons come in to play no rules .

I train Knife and Anti Knife work, both in Combatives and Kali. Under pressure. Against an untrained assailant I think that I could stay alive. IF I CAN SEE THE KNIFE BEFORE IT HITS!!! The problem with knives is that they are an ambush weapon. That is a whole different kettle of fish.

The hard reality of learning knife defense is that you are 100% going to get cut MULTIPLE times and some of them are likely going to be very serious injuries. The only real hope you have is being able to stay calm, control the knife , and use movement and your arms to take the hits to superficial areas like the back of the arms the shoulders the back or if you do take hits to the body they are not lethal penetrating hits

Honestly, this is a really poor presentation. I understand you are not a fan of krav maga, but this is just a misintepretation. In km you defend AND attack. Here the defender was the only one with head protection 🤣🤣 In km class (a proper club, with sparring, non-collaborative armed and unarmed tests in training and exams) the knife attacker has mouth guard and more because while you stop the knife you ALSO punch/elbow the attacker AND push the armed arm back so to reduce the leverage strenght (only THEN you will go for grappling) Nothing of that was illustrated here in this clip. As you profess honesty in exploration of self defence options, please show 1a bit more willingness in reporting proper tecniques and principles (nothing mysterious here, I'm just reporting stuff in the KMG curriculum)

If I may offer a criticism... (and it's a mild one) rather than having another trained fighter, try it on someone who doesn't know what they're doing and doesn't know how you're planning on defending. I think the results won't be too different, but you might have a higher success rate. Not much higher, but it does look a little bit like you're trying to fake each other out. That's the sort of mind game that probably wouldn't happen in a full-adrenaline-survival-instincts kind of situation. That said, I 100% believe that knife defense has a low level of working IRL. It's probably better than nothing but the best defense is just NOT BEING THERE. Stay out of scary situations, try to talk people down, keep long distance. Whatever you can do to just not be near a knife. Like, if someone wants your wallet, just give them your wallet. Money and ego aren't worth dying for.

I think some of what you guys did could have worked if you were allowed to hurt eachother! ......by that i mean there were a couple spots in the video where maybe a couple headbutts or some kind of offensive strikes, or straight up bite his earlobe off, while trying to control the knife could buy you a second to do something to gain control!......trying to wrestle a knife from someone is very dangerous and extremely hard as we can see!.....obviously the wrestling part is needed for control of the knife, but my humble opinion is theres too much wrestling! .......there needs to be some offense! you gotta reverse roles with the attacker asap! .......im not a martial artist, im just a guy from a shitty neighborhood whose seen A LOT of shit! i know what real violence looks and feels like! ....and transposing this into martial arts principles.....you wanna be defense only to the degree of managing your distance, knowing where youre safe, and controlling whats coming at you I.E) the knife!.....but beyond that, its OFFENCE! OFFENCE! OFFENCE! and more offence!!......headbutts, knees, elbows, bites, whatever your range allows!.....it wont end the fight but it will buy you a second to gain control!......trying to wrestle a knife from someone with wrestling and judo holds will get you killed!.........just my 2 cents!

Knife defense techniques doesn't work, for it to work there must be a big sequences of lucks in your moments, beeing 1- Inexperienced Enemy 2- Experienced Fighter 3- Surprise Element 4- Distraction of the enemy. There are nice techniques for a guy with a knife neutralize another guy with a knife, this is already very hard, but possible.

IMHO is someone with good physicals condition and good reflexes attacks you with a knife you are done. I'm saying that a ping pong champion with a knife would probably wound badly any unharmed martial artist.

Blagoy Ivanov was stabbed in the heart and survived and currently he’s fighting in UFC

@Martia-Arts-Journey, if you ever have the time check Damian Ross’ and Target Focus Training’s knife defense and tell us what you think.