The martial art style is only good in the hands of the individual using it. If you are good you are good. if you are not then it won;t be of much use. If you have a good instructor chance are you can do well. If you have a lousy instructor you will likely be very lousy.
You should also take into consideration is that muay thai is a sport. It is not taught for self defense. It is taught for competition. There are thigs that should be taught for self defense that most muay thai instructors will never cover. But there are those with muay thai training will have success if attacked on the streets. Success or fail rate depends on how well the person is taught and how good they are at applying what was taught.
If it has to be between Muay Thai and Wing Chun I'd suggest finding all the Muay Thai and Wing Chun schools available to you, visiting them, taking any free lessons offered, bugging the teachers with questions and when you've visited them all choosing the best school.
If you're still open to suggestion I'd suggest tracking down and visiting ALL the martial arts schools available to you and doing the same as I suggested earlier - this way you won't just find the best Wing Chun or Muay Thai school you can join you'll find the best school you can find, the best club you can train with.
Since teachers come in varying levels of ability finding a good martial art is like second-hand car shopping - It's all nice to know what car you want but you have to go and see the car for yourself, sit in it, hear the engine run, check for rust and keep your options flexible to avoid buying a dud.
Take it from someone who has been disappointed on both fronts.
I used to train in a Bujinkan Ninjutsu school.
I wanted a Mazda mx5 until I found out I didn't fit in one with the roof up.
Muay Thai is good when you're young. As you get older, you'll have to change the way you fight, which may mean less power-based attacks, and more joint manipulation.
Wing Chun is great for when you're old, frail, weak, skinny, don't have muscle mass, etc... If you're strong, you'll be stronger in Wing Chun.
One of the prevailing questions that people always forget to consider is: what happens if you face someone bigger and stronger than you who is AT LEAST your skill level if not higher? There's a saying: same school, same style, the bigger fighter always wins. We're not talking about Mr Olympic size here, where bigger means slower. We're talking about bigger fighters who trained to move and punch just as fast as taught by the school.
Which one deals the most damage? You're probably already thinking of Muay Thai's bone shattering kicks and disabling by damaging the legs, using elbow strikes, knee strikes, basically hard style attacks. What if I said Wing Chun focuses on striking the groin (is that damaging enough?), the neck, the armpit, the eyes, the joints in your legs and arms, even resorting to biting? Wing Chun's biggest concept is to do whatever will work to get you to survive. In the end, that can even mean pulling out a gun if it'll get the attacker to leave you alone to survive.
If it's Muay Thai they are certain Thai Boxers after four years In Thailand and that is living there no real Wing chun masters break really thick pound bricks so it depends if the Wing Chun has black sash technique and made at least three exclusive students then I would say the Thai boxer might have a hard time other than that it should only be black sash.
Martial arts aren't strong, powerful, effective, and damaging. People are.
With that being said, Muay Thai trains in such a way that I would consider it more likely to have favorable results in an uncontrolled environment. I've taken both Wing Chun and Muay Thai; the way Wing Chun is trained, it's mostly good against other people who do Wing Chun. Which is great, except that very few people actually fight that way.
Muay thai. Wing chun would be better to use if you could find the real thing. The problem is most of them don't know crap and are teaching a very watered down version of it. The yip man was a bad a ss dude but the problem is he only taught 5 people and only one of those names was actually known. People in china have trouble finding a qualified teacher, It is very hard to get real training in the west. I've seen people get destroyed trying to attack boxers, thai fighters, even karate. Very rarely have I seen wing chun stylist fair well. It is outdated.
All things being equal, I would say you will get more practical knowledge from Muay Thai than Wing Chun, unless you manage to find a Wing Chun instructor like "Master Wong." You should watch some of Master Wong's videos on youtube. They are entertaining and informative. Even if I were an experienced Thaiboxer, I would not want to mess with Master Wong.
Muay Thai is good if you are young but Wing Chun and eventually Tai Chi can be practised at any age.
My "gut instinct" would say Muay Thai. May I say that your choice between these two arts at least reflects that you are thinking! Rarely have I seen these two grouped together in a question about martial arts.
Don't know what are you talking about! :P
I want to know specifically which form of martial art is stronger, more powerful & more effective in a street fight or altercation!
Also, which martial art deals the most damage??
Which would you recommend??
Informed answers only please! :)
It could go either way. just personal choice
Your guess is as good a mine :]