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Who else thinks they could have beaten Bruce Lee?
We'll use Lee at age 32. Had you been around, and in the prime of your training, do you think you could have beaten Lee in a street fight? I ask because bbqpit has informed me that he could have done it easily, and suggested that pretty much anyone with moderate skills that are MMA guys could do it as well. Even guys like Joe Lewis that suggest he wasn't a fighter and was a world champion himself, had the opportunity to test this, but never did. I'm not talking about a guy like Silva, I mean you. Could you have done it given the opportunity?
NCC - No, I am not kidding, astounded by the claim, yes. " But his actual abilities and the actual art that he practice... well, he'd be eaten alive by just about any average guy at an MMA club." (bbqpit)
yadam - To suggest Lee was unaware of Jui Jitsu is just plain misinformed. Wally Jay was a respected JJ guy of the time, and spoke of exchanging ideas with Lee. Here's a newsflash, the foundation of Gracie stuff comes from Jui Jitsu. One of the senior Gracie's was involved in an hour+ long match. (far too long) LeBelle didn't beat Lee, he got him in a headlock when messing around. "If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best" Lee had a reputation that would have launched the careers of anyone that beat him. (and provided a movie contract payday) Funny how that never made the news.
bbq - I said street fight, since when did they have rules? That means Lewis at 70 lbs advantage, yadam at 150 and you at whatever it is. People...like you, might have said well, Joe had an advantage. Nobody in Lee's camp would have said that, they would have said he lost to a better fighter, not a bigger guy with longer reach. JKD takes into account the attributes of the opponent, it part of what acts as an equalizer on the street, you are thinking ring. It takes the same amount of force to take out your knee, mine, Lewis' or anyone else. Popping an eyeball out is the same. You're right about Lewis' rep though, he would have been a laughing stock, but Lee would have lost credibility as well, had he lost.
No, you say you can beat people that aren't around to put it to test. Which is lame when you try and validate that with you don't fight for no reason. No kidding. There are warriors, and there are competitors, I doubt you are either, understand? It
It's not silly, Lewis could stand at seminars and bunch his fingers together as he did, and say Lee wasn't a fighter, you can be sure of one thing, he never said it to Lee. Do you understand the idea of being the best? Lee had his reputation, it is the responsibility of those wanting the mantle to issue a challenge. Lewis was a nobody, a point sparring dude that came to Lee for instruction. There are people, and I would bet you are one, that would use the safety of protective equipment to go all out. I am sure Lee knew this, and without the vital points, then yeah, I agree, size differences become a huge factor. Norris on the other hand, probably could have sparred and maintained the idea it is tool sharpening, and not a fight. Lee would have accepted a Lewis challenge..
To think technology offers anything new to training isn't worth discussing. Men have been killing men for thousands of years. A gym to train in as a difference is funny. I'll take a slave in gladiator training over a MMA guy in a gym every time.
Lee discussing Muay with student Dan Lee - I saw it in Thailand, personally. The bantamweight champion, in fact, was one of the stuntmen in our film. Well, the problem with them is that they are the “John L. Sullivans” of the feet. I mean, no finesse.
I imagine that if they manage to step in and rap you on the rear of your thigh – that’s what usually causes their opponents to completely give up; they just rap them into it.
Well, not all of them do that, I mean they can do that [to you] if you are stationary, but not when you are constantly moving – I mean, man! No subtleness – and no broken rhythm either! You can see it coming!
That’s it – “John L. Sullivan!” That’s why 80 percent of their knockouts are by hand.
Then why would this guy who owns the kickboxing school be making all kinds of boasts?
Oh man, you just put him in the ring [with a western boxer], man, the boxer would just beat the hell out of him.
There isn't a lot of info on Lee's fights, this is from 73. "Bob Wall: Well, yeah, I saw Bruce beat up a couple of people. There weren’t a lot of challenges. There’s a lot of people who ‘talk’ like Steven Seagal… The main incident was a guy on the wall speaking in cantonese who was basically saying ‘you’re not a martial artist, you’re just an actor” and Bruce said “oh really. Come on down and show me what you got” and the guy goes down there and Bruce was just playing around with him and the guy was trying to take his head off and Bruce realized, I know bruce real well, I saw his whole face change cause this guy was really trying to hurt him and Bruce just then kicks the **** out of him, rammed him to the wall, arm-locked him, smacked him 3 or 4 times on the face, and the guy just started going ‘I quit, I quit, I quit’ Bruce smacked him a few more times. The guy couldn’t move at all. And then Bruce told him ‘Not bad for an actor’. And the guy then bowed to him. Bob Wall:
That’s the difference between Seagal and Bruce. Seagal would’ve fired him, but Bruce just let him fly back on the wall. But he let him know on no uncertain terms that they were totally mismatched. You see Bruce was a world class martial artist and there are a lot of Black Belts walking around thinking there’s no difference between a world class and a black belt. But there is a big difference. Bruce was the real deal."
16 Answers
- ?Lv 48 years agoFavorite Answer
Uh yeah, what's your point? I still maintain that any half-decent MMA guy today would easily beat Bruce (so long as they don't have a major handicap in the fight or something). I don't remember directly saying I could, but yes I do think that.
Even forgetting MMA, I would have bet that Bruce couldn't handle the average Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt, and maybe not even blue belts. I don't think Bruce would be "the one" who is able to keep a good grappler from taking him down.
As for Joe Lewis, I'll be the first to admit that Joe had a big ego and may have thought more highly of himself than he should have. But, because of his ego, what would he have gained from fighting Bruce? Bruce was an actor and a teacher. Do you really think Joe would put himself on the line to possibly give Bruce credibility at his expense? What would Joe have gained from this at the time? If he had beaten Bruce in a competitive fight, then let's think about that: Joe Lewis was a point-Karate tournament champion and a full contact kickboxing champion. Joe was also 5' 11 and 200 lbs, while Bruce Lee was 5' 7.75" and (at the time of Enter the Dragon) 126 lbs. Don't you see how people would have said, "Well of course, Joe is a professional fighter and has a significant size advantage over Lee." If Joe lost on the other hand, then it would mean that Bruce just beat a world champ and professional fighter with a huge size advantage.
Plus, people don't just fight each other just to see who is better. I have many martial arts friends whom I've never gotten into a real fight with (and maybe this is different for you and your friends) because I don't just fight just to see if I can beat someone up. Understand?
Many guys on here who I respect like Callsign, Keyboard Warrior, Glutton, Kyle, Kokoro, Pugpaws, jwbulldogs, etc are guys I would love to meet in real life just to talk to and learn from and possibly train with. Never would it cross my mind to fight them, even if I had an opportunity, simply because I don't just fight just to see who is better. So this is silly to say that Joe Lewis had an opportunity to fight Bruce. I could say the same about Bruce, that if he thought he was so great, why didn't he challenge Joe Lewis or any other champion? In fact, Joe Lewis has stated that Bruce never even sparred with him, and he has never seen him spar any pro fighter. Even Chuck Norris concurs with that and said that Bruce was very good, but neither of them wanted to "go there".
Edit: btw, I have to say that this isn't necessarily a slam on Bruce Lee. It's just facing the reality. Fighters today have many advantages that Bruce did not have during his time. Today, we have fully equipped gyms, we have volumes of videos of fights to study from, we have a community of fighters that advocate cross-training, etc. If Bruce had all of these things during his time, he might have done pretty well for himself against an MMA fighter of comparable size.
- ?Lv 68 years ago
No chance.
I can't even think of anyone who I would favour to beat Bruce Lee in an unarmed fight without any rules. He was too quick, accurate, powerful, intuitive, smart, fearless and his concept of JKD is a lot more useful for real street fights than traditional martial arts or combat sports.
By they way, Anderson Silca once said that outside of the prize ring Bruce Lee would beat any UFC fighter, including himself.
I like your quote from Bob Wall, great stuff.
Kind regards from Germany
- Anonymous8 years ago
Bruce Lee was 5'7 and 135 lbs I think. No one has ever seen him fight competitively or properly. It has always been some **** action movie sequence. Now I'm not denying he is good but the question is who would win out of Bruce Lee and a WWE wrestler. In a proper fight someone with a huge height/ weight advantage would destroy him. So maybe I could beat Bruce Lee...
- Bαd CφmpαnɥLv 78 years ago
Me personally, no. I don't think i'll ever be that good. Although, we do have to take all the movie effects out of it. No, he would not dig his fingers right into someone's chest like that to kill them, there is far too much bone. It is also highly unlikely he would defeat a whole karate school like he did in the movies. I know when he did that side kick to that thug through a wall Enter the Dragon, that was actually real. I was reading he was pissed off that day about something and he actually sent that man through the wall. It was a movie break away, but still that was a pretty impressive kick. I don't think and average MMA fighter could beat him. I don't think MMA fighters are superior to those who do TMAs or any other style. Although I would like to be able to see Bruce in his prime against guys like Fedor, Silva, or Cung Le.
I still respect Lee as a martial artist philosopher, but he's not as amazing as in the movies. If movies were realistic, and actors were like that in real like, Norris and Lee would both have to run from Liam Neeson.
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- ?Lv 58 years ago
Are you kidding? Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist in the world. There's no way that anyone here could have beaten him in a fight. Especially no MMA practitioner. This is MMA arrogance at its worst.
- 8 years ago
You are kidding right? The best martial artist ever? I don't think so they will most likely kiss the ground before they even lay a hand on him. For real Lee beat the like of Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damm
you really think MMA guys can touch him. HA HA I really like to see them try.
- Anonymous5 years ago
im a dude and im 100%straight lee is hot man (no homo) and he would surely kick yo a**. I love that little dude
- Anonymous8 years ago
Considering there isn't much knowledge of him actually getting into alot of street fights sure i'll take a crack at em.
- Anonymous8 years ago
You ovbiously never researched this. Chuck norress was world champion undefeated kick boxer of the time...and still today never defeated... but bruce leee wippped his *** !!!n!n!!!!
now you tell me! can you even survive 20 seconds with a death match with lee with 4 other opponents backing u up?
