You just need to know what to do and how to do it.
"Learning to fight" is something else entirely. First of all, I would never recommend "MMA" for a young person. It's a sport, not a combat system. It's a brutal sport with a very high percentage of injuries and the constant threat of head trauma.
And it's not all that practical as a self-defense system. It's a sport. It's fought under controlled conditions with a set of rules and a referee and opponents who are going to be fighting in the same style.
None of that applies to the street. The conditioning program used at most MMA gyms is fine, but nothing you can't do on your own.
However, in order to learn to fight, you must have interaction with another person, and preferably a number of them. (If you spar with one guy all the time, you'll learn to fight HIM...)
If you want to get in shape, go to the gym. If you want to learn practical self-defense, take up Krav Maga or some similar system.
Learning martial arts at home from videos isn't going to make you very good. You might learn the basic moves but you won't know how to apply them, and you won't know if you're making minor mistakes that can have a big impact on how effective they are.
Your primary focus should be your studies. So I'd say wait on the MMA and instead worry about getting yourself into good shape. That will also help you on your IGCSE.
BTW, good luck with it and after you do well then worry about studying martial arts.
Basically the answer is both.
You have to be in good shape to get yourself physically fit for MMA.
And if you were planning to learn MMA at home then you shall try this:
http://bit.ly/1c9HrCs
you cant learn mma at home from videos do mma
hey there i am 15 years old 6ft and 176 lbs and i want to get in very good shape (athletic shape) and learn how to fight as well but i cant do both because i don't have any time ( i am doing my IGCSEs this year) i know that MMA will get me in shape but only to a certain point and i can learn MMA at home using videos but also only to a certain point so what do you think ?
