WTF Is It With People and Bruce Lee?

Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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First, I wanted to post this here instead of the Vesti. I don't want every random asshole who knows nothing about fighting to post here.

Whenever the inevitable "Bruce Lee vs ______ : Who wins?" question is posed, people overwhelmingly say Bruce Lee, despite having no real proven backround in fighting. Lots of rumors, and "I heards", but nothing solid. On facebook the question was posed "Lee vs Muhammad Ali"... Again, the overwhelming majority said BL, despite going up against someone who fought against actual fighters for a living... and was significantly larger. I'm an MMA fan above all else, but c'mon. Bruce Lee was a martial artist and actor. Ali was a professional boxer who actually fought in an MMA fight. The choice should be obvious.
 
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Tmanowar

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Dec 11, 2013
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First off, you can never hide from us, MUAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

I think Bruce Lee being as iconic as he is, isn't only because he was one of the greatest martial artists, he did things and changed the way people see his people, not as Chinese, but as people. He defied the elders. He wanted to show Americans what they were all about. He also had a science behind the way he taught. There are alot of things to him and what he did that I think make people more affectionate to him. That and while I'm sure he wouldn't win every/ any fight he got in, like any other person on the planet, I'm sure he could hold his own for some time.
 
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DrArchibaldoGonzo

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Jul 28, 2014
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Would Bruce Lee beat Jose Aldo in a street fight to the death? I don't think so. But would it look like Aldo was fighting a homeless guy? Absolutely not.
 
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DrArchibaldoGonzo

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Jul 28, 2014
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Gsquat23 said:
DrArchibaldoGonzo said:
Would Bruce Lee beat Jose Aldo in a real fight? I don't think so. But would it look like Aldo was fighting a homeless guy from the street? Absolutely not.
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This is closer to my mentality, but still. What evidence to we have that would suggest he'd even be able to put up a fight?
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Bruce Lee was a great martial artist, but he never competed in a true mixed martial arts competition with competition in any way on the level of todays fighters. He might still be a great, top 10 guy but I certainly cannot just assume he would tear through guys like Aldo, Edgar, GPS or other guys around 155 or 170 which is the range of Lee's weight I see most frequently. You can be the greatest instructor in the world, who can dominate in any given martial art but once you get elbowed in the face and taken down from a thai clinch, it is an entirely different game that some people just cannot get the hang of.

tl;dr Bruce Lee might have been incredible, but he also might have been total shit. We will never know.
 
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samurai_game

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Dec 19, 2012
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Its not just people, pretty much all the fighters that are martial artists themself respect Bruce Lee more that any other martial artist, hell even people as disrespectful as Nick Diaz only will say great things about Bruce, you should read about the things he did outside of movies for fighting, not just for martial arts.
 
Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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samurai_game said:
Its not just people, pretty much all the fighters that are martial artists themself respect Bruce Lee more that any other martial artist, hell even people as disrespectful as Nick Diaz only will say great things about Bruce, you should read about the things he did outside of movies for fighting, not just for martial arts.
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I understand respect just fine. I'm just asking why people assume he's an amazing fighter when nobody's ever seen him fight. They even go so far to say that he would've destroyed people who actually fight for a living. Just dumb.
 
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Marduke1913

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Aug 21, 2014
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Gsquat23 said:
First, I wanted to post this here instead of the Vesti. I don't want every random asshole who knows nothing about fighting to post here.

Whenever the inevitable "Bruce Lee vs ______ : Who wins?" question is posed, people overwhelmingly say Bruce Lee, despite having no real proven backround in fighting. Lots of rumors, and "I heards", but nothing solid. On facebook the question was posed "Lee vs Muhammad Ali"... Again, the overwhelming majority said BL, despite going up against someone who fought against actual fighters for a living... and was significantly larger. I'm an MMA fan above all else, but c'mon. Bruce Lee was a martial artist and actor. Ali was a professional boxer who actually fought in an MMA fight. The choice should be obvious.
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Bruce Lee is a symbol for anything being possible, that is why people say he would win all these crazy fights that in actuality he would probably not win at, its the idea, the hope that he could, its this hope and optimism that he gave others, this is others way of giving it back to him. but I can absolutely understand your frustration if you look at these match ups realistically (realistically i think in his prime he could hold his own against any living fighter today he just had that as Joe Rogan would say "special something" you either have it or you dont, he had buckets of it)
 
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onemic0022

onemic0022

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I am a huge fan of Bruce Lee's films and philosophy but I'd never compare an actor to any body who has an actual professional track record of whooping ass.



The stories we hear about Bruce's real fights are always from 2nd hand stories, myth and gossip.....



Those stories are about as credible as the various recollections of Jesus's life in the new testament (Not creditable at all)



People say he entered competitions/tournaments and won, but no one has ever seen any actual footage of any of this.



All we have is a few grainy videos of him demonstrating a one inch punch or some fancy kick.



With all that being said, he's still one of the most exciting people I've ever witnessed on screen. And that's all that matter's regardless of whether or not he could actually do it in real life




Same thing applies to greats like Jackie Chan, Donny Yen, Sammo Hung, Jet Li....etc



Bruce Lee..... "THE MYTH", is more powerful than any figher that has ever existed with the exception of maybe Muhammad Ali.



BTW, without him we'd have no Marshal/Forrest Law or Fei Long
 
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bennissimo

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Sep 14, 2004
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Bruce Lee's acceleration was unbelievable. For his size, he hit really, really hard. And his timing was nutsoid. And he was sneaky with that WIng Chun/JKD thang. I dunno... say what you want about modern fighters, but...
 
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StormCerberus

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Sep 12, 2013
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He fought on the streets of china, and a unbeatable street fighter there. He came to America and became a famous martial arts actor. He was not a master of his art, but trained obsessively. He was an excellent fighter because he developed overall skills beyond what many people would consider a master. Though not a master, he was highly skilled. No he was not in any fights for sport or competition to be paid or awarded, but fought for your viewing pleasure in movies. He was a fighter who trained freely without reward continually until he died doing so for your entertainment. This man took an opportunity and became a great actor many people still love.

Why is he so significant, because he was a tiny man that possessed so much power and had very snappy speed. I love Cassius Clay as a pro fighter. Don't dare disqualify Bruce Lee because he chose an acting career instead of a pro fighting career. To think he is not a fighter because he never fought anyone you know is silly.

Facts aside, people love bruce because they do. We all heard those crazy over the top chuck norris jokes...we can deal with Bruce lee magically kicking everybody's ass.

Direct quote from Chuck Norris himself about bruce lee...

"Lee, pound for pound, might well have been one of the strongest men in the world, and certainly one of the quickest. Whether doing one-handed, two-finger push-ups, or horizontally holding up a 125-pound barbell, Lee was impressively strong for his size, especially at only 140-145 pounds."
 
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RKO-Cutter

RKO-Cutter

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Aug 18, 2008
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Dexter-010 said:
Boxer fight with boxing rules
Kung Fu does Kung Fu
MMA is MMA and wouldn't win from both boxer as Kung Fu
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Go back to original mma, where it was just two guys going at it. Back in the Royce Gracie days, or the Ali v. Inoki, Lebell if you really want to go far enough. All it was was taking two guys trained in different fighting styles and saying "go." (Admittedly inoki and Ali had bs rules but the idea was the same)
 
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Cherokeeblood

Almost Not a Noob
Nov 7, 2009
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Im pretty sure Bruce Lee did have actual fights, and not refereed mixed martial arts fights. But brutal "Fearless" type fights against Chinese traditionalists. The man was a double dragon, and that does mean something. He had sick speed. The only person I can see defeating him is Anderson Silva. Lee would mop the floor with Ali, Ali wouldn't know what to do with himself if he ever took a real punch that wasn't cushioned from a boxing glove. Bruce Lee did 1000 push ups a day, a day! I've managed this feat myself over the course of a few hours..... but doing that every day! That's commitment beyond other fighters in my opinion.
 
Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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Why did I even make a thread when I knew people weren't smart enough to understand it? I'm not interested in what you've seen of him in movies or exhibitions. I'm not interested in quotes from those who knew him. I'm not interested in the rumors of him fighting. What proof is there that he was a great "FIGHTER"? None, really. Put him up against any current fighter in the UFC and I'd take the actual fighter every time. He's proven he can fight.
 
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Cherokeeblood

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Nov 7, 2009
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Gsquat23 said:
Why did I even make a thread when I knew people weren't smart enough to understand it? I'm not interested in what you've seen of him in movies or exhibitions. I'm not interested in quotes from those who knew him. I'm not interested in the rumors of him fighting. What proof is there that he was a great "FIGHTER"? None, really. Put him up against any current fighter in the UFC and I'd take the actual fighter every time. He's proven he can fight.
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This is typical Joe Rogan UFC fan stuff... How many times have we all heard Joe Rogan bad mouth martial artist's moves by saying they would never work in a real fight? Then we see UFC fighters get knocked out with spinning tornado kicks, or kicks from guys jumping and springing off the cage, something that looks straight out of an action movie. To know how good of a martial artists and fighter someone is, you simply have to watch someone's form. It's all about how someone moves, fluidity, whole body movements. You can tell by watching Bruce Lee's form in his movies and training video's that he possessed exceptional skills. Watch how Bruce Lee punched and kicked, then compare that to the way someone like Chuck Norris punched and kicked, there's a VAST difference. And Bruce Lee did have real life fights, there's actually an account of him getting into a fight on set at one of his movies that was filmed over seas. Just because we don't have fox television footage of his actual fights doesn't mean you can dismiss Bruce Lee. Just compare the forms and style of the guys in the UFC to stuff Bruce Lee did. In most UFC fights I've seen you can tell seconds into a fight who's going to win just by the way they move. It's all about stance and form. Every once in a while a lesser skilled fighter wins because of a lucky shot or something, but most of the time the fighter who has noticeably better form wins the fight. And that's why most people believe Bruce Lee would defeat just about anybody. He CREATED HIS OWN MARTIAL ARTS STYLE AND PHILOSOPHY, He had incredible form, and the training he did was out of this world.
 
Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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Cherokeeblood said:
This is typical Joe Rogan UFC fan stuff... How many times have we all heard Joe Rogan bad mouth martial artist's moves by saying they would never work in a real fight? Then we see UFC fighters get knocked out with spinning tornado kicks, or kicks from guys jumping and springing off the cage, something that looks straight out of an action movie. To know how good of a martial artists and fighter someone is, you simply have to watch someone's form. It's all about how someone moves, fluidity, whole body movements. You can tell by watching Bruce Lee's form in his movies and training video's that he possessed exceptional skills. Watch how Bruce Lee punched and kicked, then compare that to the way someone like Chuck Norris punched and kicked, there's a VAST difference. And Bruce Lee did have real life fights, there's actually an account of him getting into a fight on set at one of his movies that was filmed over seas. Just because we don't have fox television footage of his actual fights doesn't mean you can dismiss Bruce Lee. Just compare the forms and style of the guys in the UFC to stuff Bruce Lee did. In most UFC fights I've seen you can tell seconds into a fight who's going to win just by the way they move. It's all about stance and form. Every once in a while a lesser skilled fighter wins because of a lucky shot or something, but most of the time the fighter who has noticeably better form wins the fight. And that's why most people believe Bruce Lee would defeat just about anybody. He CREATED HIS OWN MARTIAL ARTS STYLE AND PHILOSOPHY, He had incredible form, and the training he did was out of this world.
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Ridiculous..
 
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Firestorbucket

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Dec 25, 2014
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The answer is pretty simple. The UFC and MMA pretty much destroyed people's vision of what Martial arts really are.

Until the UFC answered age old questions like "Wrestler vs Boxer", "Sumo vs Karate", etc etc(And yes, early UFC's has Kung fu and Ninjitsu fighters), people had a vision of what Martial arts were.

Their vision.......It was not sweaty grunting men tying each other up on the floor or on the cage much of the time. It was backflipping, cyclonespinkicking supermen who could take out 3-4 opponents single handedly without getting hit. Hell, for years, people still held out hope that some Monk on a remote Monastery would eventually come down from their solitary mountaintop to teach the UFC a lesson in real Martial arts.

The people who think Bruce Lee would last 5 minutes in a cage with Modern fighters are the small percentage who STILL hold out the delusional hope that a monk is coming.

Bruce Lee was nothing but a legend. And by Legend, I mean in the sense that most things you know about him are make believe bluster
 
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adam3k3

adam3k3

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Bruce was great in an early martial art era. Sorry but he would probably get owned today in UFC.
 
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bez87

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Ok so I'm guessing you've never really read up on Bruce Lee, his phyiscal strength was like nothing anyone had seen, he was pure muscle, for such a small person he had pretty much zero fat and yet had the muscle and strength, he had a 1inch strike which toppled guys twice the size of him, one finger push ups, he was the icon of natural muscle building, he broke his back to the point the dr's told him he never would walk again and yet he did walk and came back. in his younger days he was a street fighter he challenged a lot of local gang fights, it's only because he wanted more and there was no real competitions for his style of fighting in the world which would make him big.

His purpose in life was to change the world and he did. People saying there is no evidence in his ability to fight is nonsense, when he was in america, gangs in china sent over some of there best men because they found out he was teaching the sacred art to westerners and they didn't like it, the only way out for lee was to fight, they met in the hall where they had there teachings, and he had a fight, it lasted around 3minutes i believe can't remember off the top of my head but bruce lee absolute battered him, he actually went away sad no one knew why he was sad he'd just beaten this guy to get their respect and yet he wasn't happy, when he got asked by his girlfriend, he said the fight took to long to win and it was down to the limitations of his chosen martial art and he wanted away to be able to take down any opponent at any given point no matter what type of person it was and that's when he decided to combine the teaching of alot of different martial arts and this in turn became the first MMA, there are many eye witness account, and his wife was there and thats good enough evidence for me. As well on his film sets alot of people challenging him to fights and he'd never back down and won them all.

Now the fact that were saying would bruce lee beat any of the top contenders now cannot be ever solved, and there is no right answer, because MMA has evolved people are learning all the time, but the problem is, it's only ever the fans who go on about who would beat who, bruce lee himself couldn't care less, he was to busy changing the world for the better and thats how it should stay.

Bruce Lee could fight, he was a great fighter he just chose another path
 
Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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bez87 said:
Ok so I'm guessing you've never really read up on Bruce Lee, his phyiscal strength was like nothing anyone had seen, he was pure muscle, for such a small person he had pretty much zero fat and yet had the muscle and strength, he had a 1inch strike which toppled guys twice the size of him, one finger push ups, he was the icon of natural muscle building, he broke his back to the point the dr's told him he never would walk again and yet he did walk and came back. in his younger days he was a street fighter he challenged a lot of local gang fights, it's only because he wanted more and there was no real competitions for his style of fighting in the world which would make him big.

His purpose in life was to change the world and he did. People saying there is no evidence in his ability to fight is nonsense, when he was in america, gangs in china sent over some of there best men because they found out he was teaching the sacred art to westerners and they didn't like it, the only way out for lee was to fight, they met in the hall where they had there teachings, and he had a fight, it lasted around 3minutes i believe can't remember off the top of my head but bruce lee absolute battered him, he actually went away sad no one knew why he was sad he'd just beaten this guy to get their respect and yet he wasn't happy, when he got asked by his girlfriend, he said the fight took to long to win and it was down to the limitations of his chosen martial art and he wanted away to be able to take down any opponent at any given point no matter what type of person it was and that's when he decided to combine the teaching of alot of different martial arts and this in turn became the first MMA, there are many eye witness account, and his wife was there and thats good enough evidence for me. As well on his film sets alot of people challenging him to fights and he'd never back down and won them all.

Now the fact that were saying would bruce lee beat any of the top contenders now cannot be ever solved, and there is no right answer, because MMA has evolved people are learning all the time, but the problem is, it's only ever the fans who go on about who would beat who, bruce lee himself couldn't care less, he was to busy changing the world for the better and thats how it should stay.

Bruce Lee could fight, he was a great fighter he just chose another path
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For future reference, you can miss the point with far less words.
 
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bez87

Almost Not a Noob
Jul 30, 2010
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Gsquat23 said:
bez87 said:
Ok so I'm guessing you've never really read up on Bruce Lee, his phyiscal strength was like nothing anyone had seen, he was pure muscle, for such a small person he had pretty much zero fat and yet had the muscle and strength, he had a 1inch strike which toppled guys twice the size of him, one finger push ups, he was the icon of natural muscle building, he broke his back to the point the dr's told him he never would walk again and yet he did walk and came back. in his younger days he was a street fighter he challenged a lot of local gang fights, it's only because he wanted more and there was no real competitions for his style of fighting in the world which would make him big.

His purpose in life was to change the world and he did. People saying there is no evidence in his ability to fight is nonsense, when he was in america, gangs in china sent over some of there best men because they found out he was teaching the sacred art to westerners and they didn't like it, the only way out for lee was to fight, they met in the hall where they had there teachings, and he had a fight, it lasted around 3minutes i believe can't remember off the top of my head but bruce lee absolute battered him, he actually went away sad no one knew why he was sad he'd just beaten this guy to get their respect and yet he wasn't happy, when he got asked by his girlfriend, he said the fight took to long to win and it was down to the limitations of his chosen martial art and he wanted away to be able to take down any opponent at any given point no matter what type of person it was and that's when he decided to combine the teaching of alot of different martial arts and this in turn became the first MMA, there are many eye witness account, and his wife was there and thats good enough evidence for me. As well on his film sets alot of people challenging him to fights and he'd never back down and won them all.

Now the fact that were saying would bruce lee beat any of the top contenders now cannot be ever solved, and there is no right answer, because MMA has evolved people are learning all the time, but the problem is, it's only ever the fans who go on about who would beat who, bruce lee himself couldn't care less, he was to busy changing the world for the better and thats how it should stay.

Bruce Lee could fight, he was a great fighter he just chose another path
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For future reference, you can miss the point with far less words.
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I was more pointing things out to the people who said Bruce Lee has know experience in fighting, then I went on lol, that's how I get when It comes to Bruce Lee, it annoys me people go on about would he beat this person up or that person up, he never claimed to be the best fighter in the world, that's my point, so why people always talk about who he'd beat annoys me lol he invented his own martial arts, he is the father of MMA, without Bruce Lee we may of never seen UFC well we probably would of but not as quickly
 
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J.m.Hopkins223

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Jul 31, 2011
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Just go to this website to look at some of Bruce Lee's feats:

http://www.bruceleedivinewind.com/feats.html

He was known for his ridiculous speed and his striking speed from 3 feet away his striking speed was five hundredths of a second. That is really impressive.

Also Jeet Kun Do (Bruce Lee's style) is a very effective martial art, it's completely unorthodox, and I consider it along with Jiu-Jitsu to be one of the most effective martial arts in the world.
 
Gsquat23

Gsquat23

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J.m.Hopkins223 said:
Just go to this website to look at some of Bruce Lee's feats:

http://www.bruceleedivinewind.com/feats.html

He was known for his ridiculous speed and his striking speed from 3 feet away his striking speed was five hundredths of a second. That is really impressive.

Also Jeet Kun Do (Bruce Lee's style) is a very effective martial art, it's completely unorthodox, and I consider it along with Jiu-Jitsu to be one of the most effective martial arts in the world.
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Still doesn't make him a fighter. Fighting does... Why are people regurgitating the same arguments over and over? Read, then post.
 
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guygroomes85

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Jul 19, 2015
9
0
Well bruce's style was about no rules. I believe that was his reasoning for not doing professional fights. MMA has rules. In a street fight bruce would just punch a guy in the throat and dead. Your acting as if mma is no holds barred street fighting. No it isn't. Bruce would fight like a cracked up dirty sob and you better believe that. He would probably scratch their face off and use whatever he could find.

I dont see why mma fighters are held in such high regard. Im sure bruce would have to learn the rules of mma, but if you took them both out into the street i would put my money on bruce. Thats what he trained for. NO RULES. Don't over generalize fighting, fighting in the real world isn't in a freaking octagon with stupid rules. I say drop two guys in a bar and say you cant bring anything, but use whatever you got. Bruce wins. Omg im gonna pull a triangle choke or one of those. Hahaha yeah okay.

Wasn't he highly trained with weapons as well. Such as nunchuks. He wasn't a fighter he was a warrior. Something above.
 
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guygroomes85

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Jul 19, 2015
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What is a fighter? Real world fighter? Boxing ring? Octagon? These are all different things. If you over generalize a definition and then claim bruce lee isn't a fighter i would honestly like to see your logic behind that. I doubt an mma fighter is gonna go tow to tow with someone trained with a bo staff and win. In the context of bruce lee's philosophy its no rules. His philosophy is more of surviving real world confrontations and outright destroying the other person. Not lets dance around this ring scoring points. Or lets see who can last longer until the other person submits. His is geared towards someone trying to take your life from you and using any means. And infact adopting a flexible approach and not adhering to any idealogy and instead taking what you can from any and adopting a formless and adaptable mindset. And i would beg to differ that just because mma guys train in many different things that they are thus great at all of those things. Infact bruce lee says that he isn't scared of the person who practices 1000 different things 1 time. But fears the man who practices 1 thing 1000 times. Thats where i believe and see that bruce would have advantage. A much higher level of finesse and facility. More specialized while borrowing a few tools from other disciplines.

See you have the mma fanboy mentality. Nothing else compares. One does not take from the other and im sure bruce would stomp most in the real world and im also sure that most mma fighters would hold their own. We need less fanboys who create division though
 
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AllenKerk

Noob
Nov 3, 2014
69
14
Muhammad ali was a great activist and had a lot of very important things to say... just like Bruce lee... I think the difference here is just pop culture that has blown Bruce Lee up since his death and made him this untouchable legend. Ali is still a huge legend but since he's gotten to live out his whole life, the legacy is different (though in my opinion still as powerful if not more powerful. Remember Ali did time in prison for abstaining from the war)
 
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