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

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DY_nasty said:
Enlighten me, did a jab really NOT wreck a title contender?

Takedown defense and a solid ground game had a lot to do with that fight, but stop acting like a simple jab turning a title fight into a sad joke isn't embarrassing.
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i will not dispute that gsps superior wrestling and striking made that fight incredibly one sided. breaking his opponent's orbital bone in the first round didn't help either.

ya but you are implying that gsp had not worked on his striking prior to the kos fight, he had started to work with freddie roach prior to the hardy and kos fights. you are right in the regard that he began to work on his boxing recently. but his original background is kyokushin karate or something, has been training MT, and was a striker prior to getting knocked out by matt serra. if anything he's the prototype moving forward for mma champions. he's incredibly well rounded. i think he's boring as hell now, but you'd have to be crazy not to think he's the prototype moving forward.
 
DY_nasty said:
Honest question, do you think that's better than time with Freddie Roach?

I mean shit, when was the last time GSP completely dominated someone with striking?
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uhh...I am sure he out struck Alves, Penn, Fitch, and Serra.
 
DY_nasty said:
Honest question, do you think that's better than time with Freddie Roach?
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Probably. That's a lot of years spent getting a black belt in karate. A lot of years working on standup fighting.
 
Suairyu said:
Outside of the ring he most certainly would.
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No. He would not.

In non-sports conditions size is much less of a factor than you'd think.
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Laws of physics don't stop working just because you're in the street. Giving up 70lbs to the guy you're fighting is a major disadvantage.
 
DY_nasty said:
Honest question, do you think that's better than time with Freddie Roach?

I mean shit, when was the last time GSP completely dominated someone with striking?
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He also trains his Muay Thai pretty extensively with Phil Nurse and that drunken French guy he had on TUF. Its not like he wasnt training striking before he worked with Freddie Roach.
 
yacobod said:
i will not dispute that gsps superior wrestling and striking made that fight incredibly one sided. breaking his opponent's orbital bone in the first round didn't help either.

ya but you are implying that gsp had not worked on his striking prior to the kos fight, he had started to work with freddie roach prior to the hardy and kos fights. you are right in the regard that he began to work on his boxing recently. but his original background is kyokushin karate or something, has been training MT, and was a striker prior to getting knocked out by matt serra. if anything he's the prototype moving forward for mma champions. he's incredibly well rounded. i think he's boring as hell now, but you'd have to be crazy not to think he's the prototype moving forward.
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No, I am not.

I'm saying that there was an extremely noticeable improvement to his striking (to say the least) since he worked with Roach.
 
Ok, there are lots of misconceptions and not so many people seem to be knowing so much about Bruce Lee and still writing stuff they dont know about...


So some facts are that Bruce Lee fought many street fights, from youth up until his last day (always being challanged).

Bruce Lee had an amazing physique but an even greater disciplin. The training he put himself through, all the books he read about training, nutrition etc etc gave him a serious advantage over basically everybody else at the time. At his time, very few people where as determinated regarding training and nutrition, especially martial artist. He worked with his body in the sense that, all the muscles were fine tuned for martial arts. He had strong muscles and stamina, but not overly "big" like a bodybuilder (except his amazing latissimus dorsis). His forearms were crazy strong.. well, Bruce Lee trained his body especifically aimed for martial arts.

Same goes for food/nutrition. He ate stuff that benefited his body and his training, everything else he pretty much discarded...

So from a training/nutrition perspective, he was very advanced and brutally commited of becoming better and better...

Same goes for martial arts. He saw what was limiting with wing chun and expanded. He took away what was not needed (in a street fight mind you) and added lots of things, boxing, judo, wrestling (even Bruce Lee noted that sooner or later, you will end up on the ground).. so he continued to develop this and made the very first "MMA" style, Jeet Kunde do..

Now, comparing Bruce Lee with the guys of today is somehow a bit unfair, in the sense that, these guys have benefitted with training/philosophy/ideas that Bruce Lee started some 40-50 years ago. Today we know more about best training methods, nutrition etc etc, than back at Bruce Lees time. Bruce had to "develop" everything for him self, the guys of today have pretty much everything served, they are standing on the shoulders of great men if you want... so in this sense, this comparison is a bit flawed.

There are definately stronger guys than Bruce Lee, but they are not as fast.
There are perhaps faster guys than Bruce Lee but, they are not as strong
There are perhaps technically better guys than Bruce Lee, but they lack some of both of the above..

I will leave with an anecdocte.
Raymond Chow, founder of Golden Harvest, got sent to him a recording of Bruce Lee.
Bruce wanted to make movies so he sent a recording of himself to show what he could. The demonstration was someting this: Bruce had tied a wooden plank with a string and hung it up on a tree. The wooden plank was hanging freely, nothing was behind it. Then Bruce Lee punched the plank and it broke instead of swinging back.

(Now, details about thickness of the plank, perhaps it already was prepared somehow, I dont remember and we will never know..)

My thoughts are that, we will never know how Bruce Lee would do in MMA/UFC when he was at his best.. we cannot say that he for sure would lose or that he for sure would win, right?.. :)
 
yacobod said:
most of these ppl need to take off their rose colored sun glasses and get real, bruce would get taken down and beaten on for 3 rounds if not subbed, hell i'm not so sure he'd even be able to win a fight standing when you factor in dirty boxing, MT clinch, cage n pray tactics, and the like.

and karate fighters faired horribly in the original or early UFC tournaments.

this thread is completely retarded.
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Obviously the assumption in this thread is that he'd actually be trained in current techniques.
 
I think some of you guys are assuming Bruce Lee would not adapt his fighting style to todays standards. If Bruce Lee grew up in these times, with the same mentality he had, he would be completely dominating.
 
Herbspicesoy said:
I think it'd be more interesting how he would do in the K-1 Max.
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Yeah I think that would interesting. Also guys Bruce Lee would definitely probably lose about 5 or 6 pounds and compete in the lightweight class. So he'd have to compete against guys like Shinya Aoki and Frank Edgar, and while I don't think he could beat them he definitely might be able to take out some of the middle tier guys.
 
It's not the same sport. We're going back to our dads times' eternal question, who will win in a fight between Muhammad Ali and Bruce Lee? The answer is that both will hold their own.
 
Jackie Chan in his prime would have bested Bruce and any MMA contender, and that is the truth.


For all his antics, he had the speed and scope to do it....
 
Maximilian E. said:
Ok, there are lots of misconceptions and not so many people seem to be knowing so much about Bruce Lee and still writing stuff they dont know about...


So some facts are that Bruce Lee fought many street fights, from youth up until his last day (always being challanged).

Bruce Lee had an amazing physique but an even greater disciplin. The training he put himself through, all the books he read about training, nutrition etc etc gave him a serious advantage over basically everybody else at the time. At his time, very few people where as determinated regarding training and nutrition, especially martial artist. He worked with his body in the sense that, all the muscles were fine tuned for martial arts. He had strong muscles and stamina, but not overly "big" like a bodybuilder (besides his amazing latissimus dorsis). His forearms were crazy strong.. well, Bruce Lee trained his body especifically aimed for martial arts.

Same goes for food/nutrition. He ate stuff that benefited his body and his training, everything else he pretty much discarded...

So from a training/nutrition perspective, he was very advanced and brutally commited of becoming better and better...

Same goes for martial arts. He saw what was limiting with wing chun and expanded. He took away what was not needed (in a street fight mind you) and added lots of things, boxing, judo, wrestling (even Bruce Lee noted that sooner or later, you will end up on the ground).. so he continued to develop this and made the very first "MMA" style, Jeet Kunde do..

Now, comparing Bruce Lee with the guys of today is somehow a bit unfair, in the sense that, these guys have benefitted with training/philosophy/ideas that Bruce Lee started some 40-50 years ago. Today we know more about best training methods, nutrition etc etc, than back at Bruce Lees time. Bruce had to "develop" everything for him self, the guys of today have pretty much everything served, they are standing on the shoulders of great men if you want... so in this sense, this comparison is a bit flawed.

There are definately stronger guys than Bruce Lee, but they are not as fast.
There are perhaps faster guys than Bruce Lee but, they are not as strong
There are perhaps technically better guys than Bruce Lee, but they lack some of both of the above..

I will leave with an anecdocte.
Raymond Chow, founder of Golden Harvest, got sent to him a recording of Bruce Lee.
Bruce wanted to make movies so he sent a recording of himself to show what he could. The demonstration was someting this: Bruce had tied a wooden plank with a string and hung it up on a tree. The wooden plank was hanging freely, nothing was behind it. Then Bruce Lee punched the plank and it broke instead of swinging back.

(Now, details about thickness of the plank, perhaps it already was prepared somehow, I dont remember and we will never know..)

My thoughts are that, we will never know how Bruce Lee would do in MMA/UFC when he was at his best.. we cannot say that he for sure would lose or that he for sure would win, right?.. :)
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Post of this thread.

Blind lovers and haters sit the fuck down.
 
Maximilian E. said:
I will leave with an anecdocte.
Raymond Chow, founder of Golden Harvest, got sent to him a recording of Bruce Lee.
Bruce wanted to make movies so he sent a recording of himself to show what he could. The demonstration was someting this: Bruce had tied a wooden plank with a string and hung it up on a tree. The wooden plank was hanging freely, nothing was behind it. Then Bruce Lee punched the plank and it broke instead of swinging back.
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Wow. So he did this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCfSCb_zhu0

Yep, that's never been done before or since...
 
quadriplegicjon said:
I think some of you guys are assuming Bruce Lee would not adapt his fighting style to todays standards. If Bruce Lee grew up in these times, with the same mentality he had, he would be completely dominating.
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Based on what? What would suggest he would have any skill on the ground? The guy was in great physical shape and had nice ideas about mixing styles but that doesn't actually mean he would be skilled at jiu jitsu.
 
his legend would perform very well, possibly even win the super mega trophy and the real guy would probably be a bit above average.
 
DKehoe said:
Based on what? What would suggest he would have any skill on the ground? The guy was in great physical shape and had nice ideas about mixing styles but that doesn't actually mean he would be skilled at jiu jitsu.
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Bruce was training on the ground long before it was in style. Jus sayin...
 
I feel bad for anyone who had to fight Bruce Lee. He probably flicks harder than most men can punch.

And his sound effects alone would destroy most UFC challengers.
 
He would get his ass whooped. With the expansion of the universe and everything, people are like twice as big now as they were back then so it wouldn't really be a fair fight.
 
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.
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Bruce Lee was a 1 dimensional fighter? This is a perfect time for a smilie.

He was the originator of modern fighting techniques or rather the philosophy behind it.
 
The biggest problem with judging this is there are only anecdotes surrounding Bruce Lee's actual fighting ability, as well as some of his physical feats. You can get a decent sense of his physical abilities (which were no doubt formidable) from films and exhibitions and such, but it's impossible to know how that translates into real fighting that has either predictable (i.e. UFC) or non-predictable (random street fight) conditions.

With pretty much everyone who's ever seen the guy really fight saying he was astonishing, you can't totally discount that, but you also can't use it as any form of real proof because we have no idea what the circumstances of those street fights he fought were, and if he was essentially beating on cans with people mythologizing him or whatnot.

Second thing that's impossible to know is how Lee would've adapted to modern MMA's varied styles. He was apparently very hardcore about constantly absorbing new information, but again, you can't know how a thirst for knowledge would have actually translated to effectiveness in those styles.
 
Freshmaker said:
Laws of physics don't stop working just because you're in the street. Giving up 70lbs to the guy you're fighting is a major disadvantage.
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Of course they don't stop working. But "who can hit the hardest" is a major factor in sports fights, where you know repeated blows will be placed in the same locations (head) and grappling comes into play, not street fights. Your average street fight is over in less than a minute (and sixty seconds is pushing it) and it rarely comes down to who is the strongest and it almost never goes down to the ground in a controlled fashion, if at all.

Being bigger is an advantage. It's just not a massive one.

My father is ex-military and used to drinking with an SAS man. This guy was built like a brick shit-house, yet he was taken out by a scrawny fella who knew how to street fight in seconds. Neither were particularly drunk at the time.
 
he would get killed

smPyl.jpg
 
Maximilian E. said:
Well, knowing Bruce Lee, he surely one inch punched it... ;)
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Just do a search on you tube for suspended breaks. There's a tubby shirtless guy who does a break with a one inch punch right there in the results.

Didn't link it because it took him two tries.

Suairyu said:
Of course they don't stop working. But "who can hit the hardest" is a major factor in sports fights, where you know repeated blows will be placed in the same locations (head) and grappling comes into play, not street fights.
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A bigger guy will also be able to absorb more damage and will be overall stronger.
 
DY_nasty said:
Bruce was training on the ground long before it was in style. Jus sayin...
Click to expand...

Learning something while filming a movie for six months isn't actually the right type of training.


Napoleonthechimp said:
Bruce Lee was a 1 dimensional fighter? This is a perfect time for a smilie.

He was the originator of modern fighting techniques or rather the philosophy behind it.
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Which is what he should be respected for.
 
DKehoe said:
Based on what? What would suggest he would have any skill on the ground? The guy was in great physical shape and had nice ideas about mixing styles but that doesn't actually mean he would be skilled at jiu jitsu.
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Based on the fact that martial arts aren't rocket open heart surgery science. Bruce Lee was obviously disciplined in his training. Hint: he invented a new form of martial arts.
 
CaptYamato said:
Learning something while filming a movie for six months isn't actually the right type of training.
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He made a name for himself in martial arts circles before he did in film circles. He was a fighter first, actor second.
Freshmaker said:
A bigger guy will also be able to absorb more damage and will be overall stronger.
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Absorb more punches to the head, yes. To his eyes, throat and groin? You're thinking of this in terms of 'stats', like a sports fighter. It does not work that way outside of the ring.

Shit, you never get into fights in the playground? Or even watch any? The first thing most would-be bullies realise is that them being bigger than everyone else doesn't mean they're going to be King of the playground.
 
CaptYamato said:
Learning something while filming a movie for six months isn't actually the right type of training.
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I did not say that the ground training he did then equates to the groundwork that goes on now, however it does show that he'd gone the extra mile in training in areas that most renown fighters of the time hadn't even begun to explore.

Also, dude made a lot of films and did a lot of shit... its no ones place to say that he didn't train hard at something especially when every single interview or piece regarding his work ethic describes him as some sort of madman.
 
CaptYamato said:
Learning something while filming a movie for six months isn't actually the right type of training.
Click to expand...

You mean this in that he only learned enough ground techniques needed for the movie? Cause I thought it was proven that the guy was training with legit grapplers looking to incorporate ground into Jeet Kune Do...
 
Net_Wrecker said:
You mean this in that he only learned enough ground techniques needed for the movie? Cause I thought it was proven that the guy was training with legit grapplers looking to incorporate ground into Jeet Kune Do...
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haters gonna hate
 
Snuggler said:
He would get his ass whooped. With the expansion of the universe and everything, people are like twice as big now as they were back then so it wouldn't really be a fair fight.
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/thread
 
Snuggler said:
He would get his ass whooped. With the expansion of the universe and everything, people are like twice as big now as they were back then so it wouldn't really be a fair fight.
Click to expand...

Dude, don't post stuff like this while I'm smoking. You just blew my mind.
 
Net_Wrecker said:
You mean this in that he only learned enough ground techniques needed for the movie? Cause I thought it was proven that the guy was training with legit grapplers looking to incorporate ground into Jeet Kune Do...
Click to expand...

He never got really into it because his filming scheduled. A lot of shit about him was blown out of proportion because he was Bruce Lee. Also never really fought that one Judoka that people say he lost too.
 
People are discrediting the number one trait that Bruce Lee was famous for. DEDICATION. If, for some strange reason, Bruce Lee decided he wanted to compete in the incredibly commercialized sport of UFC, he would undoubtedly dedicate himself completely to the sport. He would train with the best, work the hardest, and study the weaknesses of any opponent he faced. The dude had strength, speed, skill and ingenuity. I'm pretty sure he would be capable of improving upon whatever techniques he learned. He would probably dominate his weight class in UFC and start his own training school.

Unless you want to have your soul skull-fucked by his fists in the afterlife, I wouldn't doubt Bruce Lee.
 
Nocebo said:
Based on the fact that martial arts aren't rocket open heart surgery science. Bruce Lee was obviously disciplined in his training. Hint: he invented a new form of martial arts.
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Guess what many people invented new forms of martial art around the same time in fact the 20th century saw a boom of new martial arts schools of thought being invented because the world was getting smaller and smaller and ideas on martial arts were being shared more frequently.

Bruce Lee was the first to promote ideas of how martial arts should be a flow and ever changing mainstream outside of the martial arts community, it made it seem like he started a revolution when the revolution of martial arts were already starting with in the community. I bet if somebody else beat Bruce to the punch going mainstream then we would be talking about somebody else in this topic.
 
Nafai1123 said:
People are discrediting the number one trait that Bruce Lee was famous for. DEDICATION. If, for some strange reason, Bruce Lee decided he wanted to compete in the incredibly commercialized sport of UFC, he would undoubtedly dedicate himself completely to the sport. He would train with the best, work the hardest, and study the weaknesses of any opponent he faced. The dude had strength, speed, skill and ingenuity. I'm pretty sure he would be capable of improving upon whatever techniques he learned. He would probably dominate his weight class in UFC and start his own training school.

Unless you want to have your soul skull-fucked by his fists in the afterlife, I wouldn't doubt Bruce Lee.
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There isn't a sport called UFC.
 
Nafai1123 said:
People are discrediting the number one trait that Bruce Lee was famous for. DEDICATION. If, for some strange reason, Bruce Lee decided he wanted to compete in the incredibly commercialized sport of UFC, he would undoubtedly dedicate himself completely to the sport. He would train with the best, work the hardest, and study the weaknesses of any opponent he faced. The dude had strength, speed, skill and ingenuity. I'm pretty sure he would be capable of improving upon whatever techniques he learned. He would probably dominate his weight class in UFC and start his own training school.

Unless you want to have your soul skull-fucked by his fists in the afterlife, I wouldn't doubt Bruce Lee.
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This completely ignores the fact that EVERYONE at the top level is dedicated to training to the point where it's probably incredibly unhealthy for them.
 
Ducarmel said:
Bruce Lee was the first to promote his ideas mainstream outside of the martial arts community, it made it seem like he started a revolution when the revolution of martial arts were already starting with in the community. I bet if somebody else beat Bruce to the punch going mainstream then we would be talking about somebody else in this topic.
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Well that's just not fair. You can apply that thinking to any sort of revolutionary idea ever. I'm willing to bet that every idea in history had at least one other person on the Earth thinking "Damn, I had that idea too."
 
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