Getting in fights is a hard issue to discuss. Those that get in fights on purpose to test there skills, are, in my opinion, idiots - firstly because you never know who will have a knife or worse, or five mates waiting with them or whatever. And secondly because it is the entirely wrong reason to be training in MA.
That being said, if you have to fight to protect yourself or those you love, hit first and hit effing hard - and I would say, don't stop hitting till the guy is down and stays there. This may seem extreme, but if you have truley done all you can to avoid the situation, and it gets to the point where violence is inevitable, you should have no moral objection to doing everything you can (you can damn sure bet you won't get any quarter from your aggressor).
If a knife is involved it is obvious to say get out of there! but that is not always an option... My advice would be to have some realistic knife defence in your training - it is the most common weapon you will face, and not knowing how to deal with it could be fatal... with that in mind my pointers would be:
1) get hold of the knife bearing limb, and don't let go!
2)use a cover/guard that covers both high and low targets (like the 'dog catcher')
3) expect to get cut - but try to limit where you will get cut
5)limit yourself to gross movements, ie - nothing fancy that requires too much dexterity.
6) whenever you feel confident in your ability to defend from a knife do a 'marker pen' drill - and it should bring you back to reality with a crash!
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