rules of challenge matches?

[wingchunalex]

what were the rules of challenge matches? in leung jan's time? in yip man's time? were eye gouges allowed, etc?

[reneritchie]

I believe in classic Beimo on the Loitoi the rule was knock-out or knock-off. In less formal situations, the rules could have been anything agreed upon before hand. Sometimes "death waivers" were drawn up to prevent legal problems if someone died (and even then, there are rumors people like Pao Fa Lien and Yuen Chai-Wan had to leave the country after killing people in challenge fights). Other times they were just done until the challenger realized they had no hope, then fell down and begged for lessons ;)

Like the video of the Taiji vs. White Crane fights, or some of the other HK fights, though, they may have been spectacularly less involving (akin to highschool rumbles) than a Kung Fu film or UFC battle.

RR

[Grendel]

As an example, we pretty much know what happened to Wong Jack Man when he fought Bruce Lee. He lost, but most of the damage was to his pride. WJM got a nice shiner for his efforts too.

Wasn't WJM was a big proponent of sparring. LOL!

[UltimateFighter]

"Challenge matches" are 50% story telling 50% fact. Most of them had rules and it is futile to acertain too much from them.

[Scott Powers]

1st rule- stay alive
2nd rule-remember 1st rule

[anerlich]

This page details the rules for internet Death Matches:

http://alliancemartialarts.com/deathmatch.htm

[YungChun]

Originally posted by Grendel

Wasn't WJM was a big proponent of sparring. LOL!

Don't know if WJM was a big proponent of sparring but Bruce sure was.