” I imagine the guys he works out with are giving him a scolding.... and a clue.”
Dont know about that, unless they do self defence seminars outside of the usual MMA training they aren’t going to be trained in knife defences, just on how to beat up another single unarmed opponent. It wouldn’t be reasonable to give him sh1t for falling back on his training. Besides, I doubt the average MMA fighter has actually had to deal with a knife wielding lunatic so they probably aren’t in a position to scold him.
And honestly, based on my own years of experience with knife defences there is no such thing as a reliable knife defence against someone with a knife and some basic skills in how to use it. Decent training raises your chances of not getting cut or stabbed by such a person from almost zero to merely more likely than not. Run fu or gun fu are your best options if someone pulls a knife, but even they arent 100% reliable if the other guy is faster than you and with a gun if you haven’t already drawn it the 20ft rule applies unless your name is Ernie Hill.
All the MMA and martial art guys I know ... and that's more then a few ... drill for blade attacks / disarm all the time.
And they would have taken that knife and put it where the sun don't shine before they turned him into a pretzel .
But your right .. run-fu or gun-fu would be most peoples best bet.
I personally am a master of the art of par-keenglot and I'm old ...so .. run-fu is out ...