In regards to the issue of lethality, and how BBT uses "techniques that can't be practiced in the ring", I would say that CONTROL is the prime goal, not simply the death or defeat of your opponent. Life, and combat, is not simply about two physical objects battering each other until one fails to exist. Yes, BBT contains techniques that can be used with lethal or crippling force. Most MA's do. I have not been taught to use these techniques to the point where I could never spar or fight because I only know how to kill or maim. That attitude is ridiculous, and an argument that BBT has never been seen in its full glory because it practitioners are constrained in some way is silly as well. It is fairly easy to die, and to kill. Happens all the time. Read the obituaries. But to control an altercation, or an opponent, or YOURSELF, is much more difficult.
Control is the difference between gansekinage (sp?) being a throw that stuns and a throw that breaks several different bones. If you can throw with great force, there should be no reason, (outside of a total LACK of control) that you cannot throw gently, and vice versa. If I were to spar with a MMA fighter, there are actually very few techniques that I could not use because of their incredible innate destructive power. Just because I train with the idea that there aren't rules on the street does not mean that I am incapable of toning it down, using techniques with a level of force that will not kill or maim, and staying away from eye gouges and such. They may be quick dirty and easy, which is great in a REAL life-or-death clinch, but they are not the entirety of my repertoire, and really not even a fraction of it. I feel that I could spar many times without ever feeling that I lost because I couldn't just kill my sparring partner, or go for that eye-gouge. If your MA is that dependent on lethal force, you had better have a great deal of self control, or face the increased possibility that some silly shouting match will land you in jail because you only had "killer" moves to use when the other guy pushed you.
In a previous post, I alluded to the weakness of grappling styles such as BJJ in an altercation with multiple attackers. I was less educated about BJJ then, and I perhaps judged a whole MA based on a few of its strengths, which is not really true, and so I would like to repent for those assumptions now that I have seen some more of the stand up fighting that BJJ incorporates.
I also made an off-the-cuff comment about rules in MMA not allowing stomps to prone opponents and such, and would, in light of some recent discussions with my teacher and others, like to retract that comment in favor of what I have said in my first paragraph today. I no longer feel that a BBT practitioner would be at a disadvantage because of a very few 'banned' strikes or techniques. I continue to believe that the flexible mindset that I have from training in BBT ("No Rules") does make BBT a better MA for myself, and that MMA fighting in a ring with rules can be effective in other situations. In the end, it is which style is best for the individual person. However, I reserve the right to think that Soke would fight circles around Liddel or Bas Rutten.