Bruce Lee vs Modern Martial Arts

arknor · 7 Jul 2013 at 11:15

Omaeka said:
Bruce Lee was technically the first MMA fighter on the screen, but that doesn't mean he'd beat modern fighters. Jeet Kune Do is basically MMA, and think about how badly the fighters of today would beat the ones from the late nineties, badly. 40-60 years ago? Destruction.

people say that about every sport and it's BS people just don't look as good when they are old.
like michael schumacher 7 times f1 champion.
comes back at he age of 43 or whatever it was and gets slated by the media for being slow yet he showed faster race pace a lot of the time than his teammate did.

everyone said his team mate was slow and MS was old and past it and nico should be dominating this old man , modern f1 is so much tougher than it was in the 90s. the drivers are just better martin brundle came out with that BS.....

now what do we see that nico is teamates with hamilton?
oh suddenly nico is one of the best drivers in formula one because he's quite even with his team mate nicolas hamilton.... so wait a 43year old man about 10 years past his peak is able to match one of the fastest drivers still in f1 just nobody at the time realised how fast his teamate was...
the knowledge we have regarding sports hasn't really massively changed at all since say the 90s so I don't know why people assumed they will get pwned vs 2013 fighters.

If people are getting better al the time why isn't every world record at the Olympics broken every 4 years? because its ******* designed to hype up modern atheletes.

There has always been athletes who stand out as higher than everyone else around them and IMO bruce lee was one of these people sometimes a guy just comes along who changes everything.

modern ones I would say are

michael schumacher who changed fitness level and f1 dedication forever as well as becoming the most successful f1 driver of all time.

bolt is just insanely fast and has the ability when he nails it to make everyone around him look slow especially when he gets upto full speed.

sebastien loebe world rally championship driver.
Championships 9 (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
pretty much speaks for itself and he just dominated the pikes peak unlimited class record.

IMO every now and again you get someone come along who is pretty much super human compared to the "average" and they will either change what they do forever or leave behind them a stupidly successful career.

IMO bruce lee was one of them, has any other human ever pushed there body so hard?

SexyGreyFox · 7 Jul 2013 at 11:59

arknor said:
IMO bruce lee was one of them, has any other human ever pushed there body so hard?

and when you consider he should never have been able to walk again.

cm1179 · 7 Jul 2013 at 12:31

has anyone else noticed the thread title says 'burce lee'

semi-pro waster · 7 Jul 2013 at 12:40

cm1179 said:
has anyone else noticed the thread title says 'burce lee'

Maybe once or twice...

Edrof said:
By the way, who is Burce Lee?

Swifty55 said:
Who is Burce Lee?

G-MAN2004 said:
My money's on the MMA fighters. Never even heard of this Burce Lee guy.

I should be surprised that we've got onto the question of whether Mike Tyson could knock out a gorilla given what the starting question was yet strangely it doesn't seem all that out of place.

Gogl · 7 Jul 2013 at 12:49

cm1179 said:
has anyone else noticed the thread title says 'burce lee'

I hadn't, I just thought the other comments were picking someone else up on their misspelling as I hadn't read every post.

"andy" · 7 Jul 2013 at 12:59

tough one (impossible) to call. lee was too dedicated and worked too hard to be beaten and i imagine he would still have those characteristics if around today

loads of these modern guys are stockheads in it for the money , would they be prepared to die fighting if the millions wherent involved ? im not so sure

he was clever , if he was around in these times he would be doing the same as the best guys and trying hard to be better. he might even be a totally different build/size if he was around today and decided he needed strength to win.

Redz · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:12

semi-pro waster said:
I should be surprised that we've got onto the question of whether Mike Tyson could knock out a gorilla

Strangely, no mention of Tyson Vs. Ali, that one usually always comes up.

I'd go for Ali BTW if both were at their peak.

arknor · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:19

Redz said:
Strangely, no mention of Tyson Vs. Ali, that one usually always comes up.

I'd go for Ali BTW if both were at their peak.

theres an interview with ali where they bring on tyson by surpise and ali says tyson would beat him because he would be ko'ed by a single punch and couldn't dodge every blow or something along those lines I'll try to find the video

EDIT:
I think It's this one yes it is at 10:50

Maybe He's just being nice though

I think tyson says ali would beat him.

tyson actually comes across as a really clued up guy in this interview if I remember right which really surprised me as I always assumed he didn't have much of an education at all and had a pretty low IQ

GoogalyMoogaly · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:22

I think it's a really tough question to answer as there are so many unknowns.
It depends what sort of fight it was. I doubt most MMA fighter's train to win a street fight, they train to win an MMA fight which has lots of rules regarding what is legal and what isn't. If you put them in a street fight I think they'd probably get beaten by anyone that was training for a street fight. But I also think a large number of them would struggle if you put them in a boxing match too, as that's not what they train for.
If you're talking a MMA fight you have to wonder how many of Bruce Lee's 'moves' would be considered legal.

Also, I never met Bruce Lee or saw him fight in anything other than films. So all I know of Bruce Lee really is how he fights in choreographed fight scenes (quite possibly choreographed by him) designed to make him look awesome and the information floating around about him. This probably includes a lot of myths and legends and there's a chance a lot of the information was also revealed by friends and family (who may not be the most unbiased).

Redz · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:26

arknor said:
theres an interview with ali where they bring on tyson by surpise and ali says tyson would beat him because he would be ko'ed by a single punch and couldn't dodge every blow or something along those lines I'll try to find the video

Ali went the distance against Ken Norton with a broken jaw- I know it's debatable which round it happened in - but going even one round with a broken jaw is some feat so I think maybe Ali was being overly modest.

LOL I missed your edit, I'll watch that now

ubersonic · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:44

I am going to take a lot of flack for saying this

But a lot of it would depend if we are talking an actual MMA fight or UFC style fight, because the UFC today has about as much in common with MMA as the WWE/F has with Olympic wrestling. The UFC is by no means "fake" but it is by no way true MMA either, it has a specific set of rules/conditions which favours a certain kind of fighter and dictates a certain kind of match. And in a UFC style fight Bruce Lee would get beaten just like that type of fighter is supposed to.

arknor · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:48

ubersonic said:
I am going to take a lot of flack for saying this

But a lot of it would depend if we are talking an actual MMA fight or UFC style fight, because the UFC today has about as much in common with MMA as the WWE/F has with Olympic wrestling. The UFC is by no means "fake" but it is by no way true MMA either, it has a specific set of rules/conditions which favours a certain kind of fighter and dictates a certain kind of match. And in a UFC style fight Bruce Lee would get beaten just like that type of fighter is supposed to.

but as someone said if bruce lee was around today he likely wouldn't take the same philosophy for speed and strength and might decide bulk power is better.

he was so determined he could likely have done well any any fighting style he dedicated his life to.

Xordium · 7 Jul 2013 at 13:50

ubersonic said:
The UFC is by no means "fake" but it is by no way true MMA either,

An awful lot of people on Sherdog saying it's fake today! But I agree I wish it was more like Pride. They had the better rules eg soccer kicks and most of all losing a % of the purse for a lack of aggression - I wonder how much GSP would take home per fight under Pride rules.

GoogalyMoogaly · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:31

Xordium said:
An awful lot of people on Sherdog saying it's fake today! But I agree I wish it was more like Pride. They had the better rules eg soccer kicks and most of all losing a % of the purse for a lack of aggression - I wonder how much GSP would take home per fight under Pride rules.

Unless dry-humping counts as aggression Jon Fitch would need a 2nd job!

Rroff · 7 Jul 2013 at 14:43

arknor said:
but as someone said if bruce lee was around today he likely wouldn't take the same philosophy for speed and strength and might decide bulk power is better.

he was so determined he could likely have done well any any fighting style he dedicated his life to.

Hence the comment I made before - put him in a fight with specific rules and while I wouldn't want to call the first match he'd likely lose it, but give him a bunch of the same fights and he'd likely come out on top.

Throw him in the ring with mike tyson and all the rules of boxing and he'd get slaughtered, throw him in a no holds barred match with mike tyson I think we'd see a very different outcome.

arknor said:
IMO bruce lee was one of them, has any other human ever pushed there body so hard?

There have been others, some of the muay thai fighters for instance are supposed to push themselves to extremes tho I don't know if its ever been proved they really push themselves to quite the levels some claim.

Sash · 7 Jul 2013 at 15:01

I've read quite a fair few of bruce lee's books etc also the drawings he made when he had injured his back. Loads of the stuff that he had been experimenting with were way ahead of his time. Similar to Charles Atlas and his body building ideas.

A lot of todays training techniques were due to the work these guys had previously done.

I think I had read about how bruce lee had started doing heavy weight lifting as part of his workouts, something which other martial artists of the time would frown upon because "Lots of muscle makes you slow" Bruce Lee was hardly slow and had a very low body fat %ge pretty much being pure muscle.

Of course there's a large chance someone who was training for a specific sport day in day out such as an MMA fighter would have a better chance in the ring. Thats like comparing a pure body builder to a power lifter or a golf player to a hockey player. Just because it's the same type of movements doesn't mean they'll be able to compete with each other.

Kaapstad · 7 Jul 2013 at 15:31

arknor said:
theres an interview with ali where they bring on tyson by surpise and ali says tyson would beat him because he would be ko'ed by a single punch and couldn't dodge every blow or something along those lines I'll try to find the video

EDIT:
I think It's this one yes it is at 10:50

Maybe He's just being nice though I think tyson says ali would beat him.

tyson actually comes across as a really clued up guy in this interview if I remember right which really surprised me as I always assumed he didn't have much of an education at all and had a pretty low IQ

If George Foreman (who was a bigger puncher than Tyson) could not knock Ali out I don't think Tyson would stand much chance.

Ali at his peak would have danced all round Tyson like he did with Sonny Liston.

chulainn · 7 Jul 2013 at 15:32

Stringy said:
A well rounded MMA fighter at the top of his game would hand Lee's ass to him on a silver platter yes.

But no doubt some traditionalists will state that Lee was a god, and founded Jeet Kune Do, and won loads of Martial Arts Contests by saying 'boo' or some nonsense.

Yeah MMA fighters have got the ground game too! He's be pinned and beaten. Not saying he wasnt great but its like boxers vs MMA diffrent games.

~>Dg<~ · 7 Jul 2013 at 16:37

Kaapstad said:
If George Foreman (who was a bigger puncher than Tyson) could not knock Ali out I don't think Tyson would stand much chance.

Ali at his peak would have danced all round Tyson like he did with Sonny Liston.

thing is ali thought the best in the world and look how he turned out. true he took the beatings but it done him in.

who did bruce lee fight? mainly people lined up for his next shot. no doubting his ability and he had great presence on screen and was a great fighter but he didn't fight worlds best in comps or title fights or anything similar.

PooBrain · 7 Jul 2013 at 18:02

~>Dg<~ said:
thing is ali thought the best in the world and look how he turned out. true he took the beatings but it done him in.

who did bruce lee fight? mainly people lined up for his next shot. no doubting his ability and he had great presence on screen and was a great fighter but he didn't fight worlds best in comps or title fights or anything similar.

Without their ground game MMA fighters could never beat Bruce Lee, it's a fact.