Having read the book Showdown in Oakland as well as other sources I would like to address your points. You can see my views on the fight from previous posts.Originally Posted by ChungQuanMan
Based on Bruce Lee's description as I mentioned previously he seemed to have the mind of a perfectionist. He says he won the fight but that he was exhausted chasing Wong Jack Man around the room and that his attacks weren't efficient despite winning. If you're going to consider the implications of details like this you need to analyze the narrative of the person telling the story. If find it very believable that a young Martial Artist that was used to ending fights quickly got a wake up call to the sloppiness and inefficiency of his Martial Art from a real fight that didn't go the way he planned. In real fights you can be the winner and not come out unscathed. If Bruce Lee's narrative is the truth then it is a credit to him that he learned from his mistakes and the limitations of Wing Chun to improve as a Martial Artist.With that preface, a few considerations...
1. Of the two, who (seems completely) changed their approach to martial arts and their training? That would be Lee.. (You don't typically change what works).
We know today that that many Traditional Martial Artists including Masters and Grandmasters are not great fighters. Many of them have few to no full-contact fights and it is actually a shock to them when they fight for real. I'm not aware of Wong Jack Man competing in any Martial Arts tournaments or getting in to any street fights outside of his fight with Bruce Lee. Holding the rank of Grandmaster speaks to his dedication as a Martial Artist but not necessarily his efficiency as a fighter.2. Which one became a GM at the age of 25? That would be Wong...
From what I've read Bruce Lee started Wing Chun at the age of 13 and left Hong Kong at the age of 18. So he had 5 years of formal training with Yip Man and his senior students. I've heard that Yip Man saw Bruce Lee as an exceptional talent among his students and decided to have him trained privately after some jealous students demanded he be kicked out of the school when they found out he wasn't pure Chinese. By the time he fought Wong Jack Man in 1964 at the age of 24 Bruce Lee had about 11 years of Martial Arts experience, was running his own school and training with Martial Artists of different disciplines. Bruce Lee's school was called Jun Fan Gung Fu and he was already trying to promote his own approach to Martial Arts with Wing Chun as his base. After the Wong Jack Man fight Bruce Lee says he became more fanatical to improving as a Martial Artist and developing Jeet Kune Do. Based on this information it is entirely feasible that by the time they fought Bruce Lee had more street fighting experience and more skill as a Martial Artist while still needing to learn a thing or two to become a better fighter. Completing a system won't make you a great fighter if there are weaknesses in that system.3. Who did not complete their formal training? That's Lee...(As far as I know, all he had to go on was some amount of Wing Chun from Ip Man and street brawl experience)
In the book Showdown in Oakland it is stated that the fight was publicly discussed in Chinese newspapers over the course of weeks before Bruce Lee got his part as Kato in The Green Hornet TV series. Two years after that Bruce Lee told Black Belt Magazine that he won the fight referring to Wong Jack Man as a Kung Fu Cat he fought in San Franciso who ran like a coward during the fight until Bruce beat him in to verbal submission on the ground. Even though he admitted that he was unsatisfied with the performance Bruce Lee claims a clear victory for himself. If I were Wong Jack Man I would have demanded a rematch at that point to protect my reputation. I'm not saying he feared Bruce Lee but if he cared enough about his reputation to talk about it in the newspapers and say that he was open to a rematch at a public exhibition why would he let Bruce Lee bad mouth him in a major magazine like that and allow his narrative to be accepted as the truth for years? Bruce Lee became famous and had a successful acting career years after this fight. Wong Jack Man had a lot of time to set up a rematch. He could have talked to Black Belt Magazine or any papers and pushed for a public rematch if he wanted to.4. My understanding is that Lee wanted the fight kept quiet but then spoke out boldly after the fight. Wong, who is still alive, has remained relatively quiet about the fight over the years. Is this due to Wong's fear or humility
Also Bruce Lee clearly did not respect the skills of Wong Jack Man as he could be heard in a phone recording years later calling Wong Jack Man a bullsh*t artist (Start at 5:30):
According to Bruce Lee himself he punched Wong Jack Man in the back of the head and a long his back on the ground. That would not leave facial damage especially considering that the rest of the time Bruce Lee says that Wong Jack Man was running away from him. His wife Linda acknowledged as finger jab strike to the face at the beginning of the fight so the testimony of Ming Lum actually does not contradict that Bruce Lee narrative of the outcome of the fight.5. It is also my understanding, based on the testimony of GM Ming Lum (a friend of Lee's) that Wong came to work the day after the night of the fight - and only one cut near his eyes (From an opening pear hand from Lee?). But Lee supposedly beat Wong into submission?
That's mentioned in the book but doesn't say anything about the outcome of the fight. Wong Jack Man could have lost the fight badly and wanted a rematch to redeem himself. Rick Wing actually acknowledged in the book that Bruce Lee had a lot going on in his life at the time. Less than 10 days after Wong Jack Man's comment in Chinese Pacific Weekly proposing a rematch Bruce Lee's son Brandon was born so he had responsibilities to a newborn baby and his wife to consider. A few days later he went to Hollywood for an audition which led to him getting the part of Kato in The Green Hornet and after that he father died on unexpectedly and he flew to Hong Kong to honor his father at his funeral and support family. Then he came back to the United States to pursue a life changing acting career. As far as I can tell a rematch with Wong Jack Man would and should have been the furthest thing from his mind. Remember that the whole point of challenges with Martial Artists with Wong Jack Man was to make a name for himself in the Martial Arts community. With a job as an actor on TV and eventually movies there was simply no need to fight anyone. If anyone could benefit from another fight at that point it was Wong Jack Man.6. Who expressed that, if there was another fight between them, that it would need to be public? I think that would be Wong...
It was. They argued about the outcome of the fight in local Chinese newspapers for weeks. Rick Wing provided pictures with English translation of these newspaper articles in his book. The fight was held behind closed doors in Bruce Lee's Martial Arts studio. If there was a verbal agreement not to talk about the fight clearly it got leaked to the press. Bruce Lee told Jesse Glover, Leo Fong and others that Wong Jack Man was the one who talked to the press and after demanding a newspaper editor tell him his source for the story that Bruce Lee lost the fight and was hospitalized, which turned out to be from Wong Jack Man he went to the restaurant where Wong Jack Man worked as a waiter. According to Bruce Lee when Wong Jack Man saw him he spilled the tea he was pouring ran away and hid in the kitchen. That is Bruce Lee's narrative of the aftermath of the fight. Rick Wing says that Wong Jack Man came to Jackson Cafe to make peace with Wong Jack Man, tell him he was only trying to promote his school and pointed out that they actually shared a Martial Arts lineage.7. If Wong lost to Lee in the way some describe, then why didn't this event become big news in Chinatown at the time?
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