Favor clinch takedowns over shooting takedowns.

Learn both, but it unless you’re fighting or grappling professionally, use your limited time training clinch takedowns, with shooting from distance as a secondary option.

Consider having to defend yourself on a hard surface. A double leg takedown on the sidewalk is going to feel a lot different on your knee compared to shooting on a grappling mat. Also, if your opponent sprawls on you, it’s going to feel a lot different than when someone sprawls on you on the mat.

So it’s possible you injure yourself on your takedown attempt. And if you do, now you’re fighting while injured.

Interestingly, in MMA, statistics¹ show that shooting takedowns are attempted more often than clinch takedowns, but are successful 30% of the time. (Upper body clinch takedowns are 64%.) It could simply be because it’s difficult to close the distance so fighters are forced to shoot. Plus, wrestlers are arguably the best suited to transition to MMA, so that could explain the preference.