I posted this in another thread and it seems appropriate here as well:
"I can verify that lots of bar fights go to the ground. I played music professionally for about 8 years in a rock band. A byproduct of that was spending lots of time in clubs and bars in various states(I orginally meant location, not state of mind
), waiting to go on stage. During that time, I saw tons of fights and yes, most all of them hit the ground for one reason or another.
Most of this seemed to be from the fighters lack of coordination in an adrenalized state. Sometimes, it was just from a knockdown. But rarely when the fighters hit the ground, would it stay one on one. Once on the ground, this gave less brave people in the crowd the courage to attack one of the original fighters. Quite a few times, it was a sneaky uppercut or a beer bottle to the back of the head. In the extreme cases, it was a group of the fighter's friends stomping the other fighter unconcious and sending him to the hospital. Sometimes even worse."
In my experience, this type of scenario is really common. In general, it takes a lot more balls to charge in on a guy that just knocked your toughest buddy on his ass with a punch, than it does to crack a beer bottle over the back of his head when he is on the ground and not looking.
Everyone starts out with the "Bruce Lee" fantasy of what they will do when they are in a real fight for the first time. Its amzaing how many Bruce Lee's stand there in shock and eat a fist. Even with years of MA training, I'm not saying I am any different. But after seeing what can and really does happen in a fight, I decided several years ago to make it my absolute last alternative in heated situations.
I want to check out Geoff Thompson. Peyton Quinn is another good authority on this subject. Might check him out as well.