How would Bruce Lee, at his peak, fare in the UFC?

Status
Not open for further replies.
charsace said:
People need to remember that Bruce didn't just train kumg fu. He trained with some of the best of his time in different aspects, including grappling.
Click to expand...

Which grapplers? I'm sure that Masahiko Kimura and the Gracie's where around back then handing out invites for ass kickings. Masahiko Kimura was the worlds best Judoka until retirement. He beat Helio and broke his arm in 51(?).
 
firehawk12 said:
Yeah, because UFC is all about ground game Bruce Lee would get his ass kicked.
Click to expand...
Right... like strikers haven't dominated in UFC.

Hell, one of the biggest grapplers in UFC just got embarrassed by nothing but a jab. gtfo with this 'ground game' shit, thats like saying you can't be successful as a QB unless you have a cannon for an arm.

All of a sudden, we're acting like there haven't been MMA champs who weren't incredibly one dimensional?
 
agrajag said:
Did you even read my post? I know he didn't practice TMA (his base is Wing Chun, though) but that's what people associate his movies with.
Click to expand...
You didn't say anything about movies though.
 
yacobod said:
you can't develop world class wrestling or submissions/sub-defense between matches, obviously his striking would be good, but he would have huge holes in his game, usually 1 dimensional fighters don't fare very well in mma.
Click to expand...

GSP developed world class wrestling and sub defense between matches, didn't he?

Boney said:
I mean, Bruce can do that 1 inch punch shit. And all that UFC does is hug around in the ground and smack each other. Soooooo
Click to expand...

I want to see that in a real fight!

Also, Bruce was doing groundwork before most of you even heard about it.
 
CaptYamato said:
Which grapplers? I'm sure that Masahiko Kimura and the Gracie's where around back then handing out invites for ass kickings. Masahiko Kimura was the worlds best Judoka until retirement. He beat Helio and broke his arm in 51(?).
Click to expand...
Gene Lebell?
Hayward Nishioka?
Wally Jay?

agrajag said:
Fair enough, but that's what he's most notorious for. Do you disagree?
Click to expand...
I agree.
 
He'd get demolished, no doubt.

He's my idol and all, but you have to face reality.

He has no ground game, and probably mediocre standup.

Once he is taken down, and then the person has full mount, then what?
 
Nerds will say Bruce will do fine.
UFC fans say he would get destroyed.

Normal people say: "he probably wouldn't excel in a sports he didn't practice".
 
Bruce used a lot of grappling in his movies too. The opening fight of Enter the Dragon ends when he taps his opponent out using a crucifix.

But people only remember the stepping side kicks.
 
Bruce Lee would just need to make eye contact with the arena that the event is being held that everybody inside would instantly be KO'd.
 
Dude was fast. He'd be a solid, exciting mid-card striker, if he got rid of all the bad Kung-Fu habits and trained Muay Thai.

Then he'd get kicked out by the Nevada or California State Athletic Commission for failing his drug test, because everybody knows Bruce was juicing.
 
zoukka said:
Nerds will say Bruce will do fine.
UFC fans say he would get destroyed.

Normal people say: "he probably wouldn't excel in a sports he didn't practice".
Click to expand...

Absolutely. The part I don't understand are those saying "all he would have had to do was practice and he would have dominated." Maybe he could have been the greatest baseball player of all time too? Just like Michael Jordan?
 
For those who say no one has seen him fight, there's a nice section called "Fight history" on Wikipedia. Some excerpts...

Wikipedia said:
Lee defeated three-time champion British boxer Gary Elms by way of knockout in the third round in the 1958 Hong Kong Inter-School amateur Boxing Championships by using Wing Chun traps and high/low-level straight punches.
Click to expand...

Wikipedia said:
In 1962, Lee knocked out Uechi, a Japanese black belt Karateka, in 11 seconds in a 1962 Full-Contact match in Seattle. [...] Ed Hart states "The karate man arrived in his gi (uniform), complete with black belt, while Bruce showed up in his street clothes and simply took off his shoes. The fight lasted exactly 11 seconds – I know because I was the time keeper – and Bruce had hit the guy something like 15 times and kicked him once. I thought he'd killed him". The fight ended by Bruce knocking Uechi the length of the gymnasium.
Click to expand...

Wikipedia said:
Bob Wall, USPK karate champion and Lee's co-star in Enter the Dragon, recalled one encounter that transpired after a film extra kept taunting Lee. The extra yelled that Lee was "a movie star, not a martial artist," that he "wasn't much of a fighter". Lee answered his taunts by asking him to jump down from the wall he was sitting on. Wall described Lee's opponent as "a gang-banger type of guy from Hong Kong," a "damned good martial artist," and observed that he was fast, strong, and bigger than Bruce.

This kid was good. He was strong and fast, and he was really trying to punch Bruce's brains in. But Bruce just methodically took him apart. Bruce kept moving so well, this kid couldn't touch him...then all of a sudden, Bruce got him and rammed his ass with the wall and swept him up, proceeding to drop him and plant his knee into his opponent's chest, locked his arm out straight, and nailed him in the face repeatedly". — Bob Wall
Click to expand...

Physical feats:

Wikipedia said:
Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.

Lee could take in one arm a 75 lb barbell from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest and slowly stick his arms out locking them, holding the barbell there for several seconds.

In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.

Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.

Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.

Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.

Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.

Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.
Click to expand...

As I said in the OP, Jeet Kune Do is not one-dimensional. Punching, grappling, trapping and kicking were trained equally. Countering was a huge part. He wasn't just an actor as some of you are saying. Stop with the Goku stuff, lol
 
commish said:
Yes, because it's simply impossible for Bruce to learn any ground techniques.
Click to expand...

you saying so doesn't make it so. you are marginalizing wrestling and submissions. he was 33-34 when he died, no guarantee he would ever develop world class or better than average in either department.

most of the guys who are great wrestlers or sub artists have been wrestling or grappling since they were in grade school/middle school.
 
DY_nasty said:
Right... like strikers haven't dominated in UFC.

Hell, one of the biggest grapplers in UFC just got embarrassed by nothing but a jab. gtfo with this 'ground game' shit, thats like saying you can't be successful as a QB unless you have a cannon for an arm.

All of a sudden, we're acting like there haven't been MMA champs who weren't incredibly one dimensional?
Click to expand...

Yeah, by an even better grappler. The only way an MMA fight will turn into a straight striking match if it's either two strikers, or two wrestlers of equal skill fighting each other (like the second Edgar Maynard fight).
 
People forget that bruce studied Judo and Japanese Jiu Jitsu. Im fairly sure he was somewhat competent on the ground. Nor saying he would have subbed Royce back then or anyone now but given proper training time im sure he would have beasted.

And shut the fuck up about Rickson. Dude is so full of shit, Helio even called him out about his record. He has lost before too just never admits it.
 
Ezalc said:
Bruce Lee would just need to make eye contact with the arena that the event is being held that everybody inside would instantly be KO'd.
Click to expand...
Yup. He may also throw in a finger point for good measure.
 
paranoidfortean said:
wasn't he essentially an actor who could do karate moves? like chuck norris?
Click to expand...
Facism said:
is bruce lee just hollywood hype? I mean has anyone ever seen him kick ass in real life?
Click to expand...
He redefined modern martial arts. His students went on to train military special forces and law enforcement around the world. I would argue he, or he by proxy through his students, did more for modern hand-to-hand combat than any other person. If anything, his film career does him discredit as he was forced to do what was visually pleasing rather than what was realistic and closer to his actual 'style'.

I'm uncertain how he'd fair in the UFC. Bruce did train in grappling, but UFC isn't exactly a close-to-reality representation of how a fight works. Like boxing, it is slightly abstracted. How he'd fair under sports conditions like that against masters of those sports conditions isn't something any of us can really intellectualise for sure one way or the other.

Physically he was an interesting specimen. He had strength far above his weight division. He could burst your average sandbag with a kick and hold weights out in front of himself much longer than people bigger and heavier than him typically could.

At a punt, I'd say he'd probably lose against people used to working in the MMA-rules fights, but decimate most people outside of the ring.
 
EraldoCoil said:
People forget that bruce studied Judo and Japanese Jiu Jitsu. Im fairly sure he was somewhat competent on the ground. Nor saying he would have subbed Royce back then or anyone now but given proper training time im sure he would have beasted.

And shut the fuck up about Rickson. Dude is so full of shit, Helio even called him out about his record. He has lost before too just never admits it.
Click to expand...
This. He trained with some world class grapplers.
 
paranoidfortean said:
wasn't he essentially an actor who could do karate moves? like chuck norris?
Click to expand...

On Chuck Norris:
Wikipedia said:
On November 24, 1968, he avenged his defeat to Delgado and by doing so won the Professional Middleweight Karate champion title, which he held for six consecutive years.
Click to expand...

He wasn't only an actor, just as Bruce Lee isn't only an actor.
 
He would probably get beat on the ground, but given time to learn today's techniques...

Wasn't he already training with Gene LeBell on his ground game? I think people are underestimating how good he was because because they don't want to feed into "the legend" of Bruce Lee which is funny because people on the other side continue to say Bruce would win any fight ever. No middle ground when discussing this guy.
 
Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.

Lee could take in one arm a 75 lb barbell from a standing position with the barbell held flush against his chest and slowly stick his arms out locking them, holding the barbell there for several seconds.

In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.

Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.

Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.

Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.

Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.

Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick.
Click to expand...

This reads like one of those Chuck Norris lists.
 
Giard said:
For those who say no one has seen him fight, there's a nice section called "Fight history" on Wikipedia. Some excerpts...


Physical feats:



As I said in the OP, Jeet Kune Do is not one-dimensional. Punching, grappling, trapping and kicking were trained equally. Countering was a huge part. He wasn't just an actor as some of you are saying. Stop with the Goku stuff, lol
Click to expand...

I've got a book that says a cow can jump over the moon.
 
agrajag said:
Yeah, by an even better grappler. The only way an MMA fight will turn into a straight striking match if it's either two strikers, or two wrestlers of equal skill fighting each other (like the second Edgar Maynard fight).
Click to expand...
please... That was GSP's first time ever training seriously with a striker and look what happened? A few months with Freddie Roach and the guy who perfected snoozing is dominating guys with one punch and take down defense. A real striker? Not just a washed up boxer trying to pay child support would have the entire MMA rethinking their stance on' ground game! but he doesn't have a ground game blaaaaa'

Its arrogant and silly. Ground defense and takedown defense can be learned much easier than striking - and most of the striking in MMA is just downright insulting to watch.
 
UFC is all about the ground game. Without a ground game Bruce would get his ass beat. With a ground game he'd be just as good as anyone else.

He wasn't a god.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

  • Poll
How would you handle your wealth.
42
1K
jason10mm replied
Just how popular would you say Dick Tracy got?
34
1K
MrCunningham replied
How would kid you think of current you?
Social  2
54
3K
Artistic replied
Best Stan Lee cameo?
19
1K
Mr Reasonable replied
  • Poll
UFC 314: Volkanovski vs. Lopes - Kaseya Center - Miami - April 12
Poll Event  2
67
1K
_Idea_of_Evil_ replied
Top Bottom