In my experience, every girl likes a guy who can defend himself, it's just that a lot of girls dislike a guy who abuses superior strength. So if you're going fists first into confrontations all the time, you'll probably be ignored by them, but if you win a fight in which you have clearly stated that you don't want to fight it, and without overly hurting the guy, then you'll probably benefit :P
As you said, there are millions of different ways to flirt, or get the girl, or whatever. A lot of those comments are directly aimed at you, I just thought I'd but my opinion out there seeing as it's likely to be at least slightly different.
