Good question! In professional mixed martial arts (e.g. UFC) fighters throw Muay Thai Kicks, Western Boxing Punches, use wrestling to take their opponent to the ground, and use Brazilian Jiu Jitsu once on the ground (more or less). This is because these have proven to be the most effective techniques for those tasks. So it all depends on what you feel like mastering. If you just want to throw punches, western boxing is the most efficient and effective form of striking with the hands. If you want to use the rest of your body to strike Muay Thai is the way to go because they use everything: hands, elbows, knees, legs. Muay Thai punches are very similar to western boxing and in fact they seem to be converging as Muay Thai practitioners adopt western boxing techniques. Muay Thai generally isn't a bullshit racket like most forms of karate, my gym doesn't even use belts. You're either a beginner, intermediate, or you are a fighter. Jiu Jitsu and Wrestling tend to be the same way, which is probably why they are so effective. These practitioners are obsessed with gaining practical skills that work in the real world, so their ultimate metric is that, not how many belts you can buy. With respect to how long it takes, my coach says (and with 6 years of experience I agree) that it only takes a couple of months of coming regularly to learn all the important details of the strikes. As I say in the video, these strikes are highly efficient so they don't have lots of moving parts. The difficulty is actually figuring out how to eliminate an extraneous and unnecessary movements. It takes months to learn, years to master.
RE: The FIRST Steemit MARTIAL ARTS Tutorial - The Most Powerful Kick (Thai Kickboxing)