Was Bruce The Real Deal....

[Drake]

Oh shut up, MP.

[lkfmdc]

not much to say here, but



"Dont' worry speed racer, I'm not hurting your mother"

[David Jamieson]

wow, this wildbill guy is a piece of work!
lol

that's some serious hard trolling he's doing.

epic failure and so on.

This place is awesomer and awesomer as these losers roll in.

[FuJowPai]

IMO, what set Bruce apart and helped make him a legend is that he came from the "golden era" of martial arts. During the period from the 50's to the 70's, martial artists were still willing to go out and test their art on the street. You had guys like Bruce, Gene Lebell, Ed Parker, Ralph Castro, Al Dacascos, etc. not to mention a number of Yip Man's students who were out there seeing what worked and what didn't. That was back before everyone was lawsuit happy.

I've met and trained with 2 of Bruce's original students during his Seattle years. From what I've been told, Bruce was c o c k y and some might even call it being hotheaded, but he never backed down from a confrontation and the 2 guys I trained with both witnessed Bruce beat down a supposed "expert" in karate and another guy who was about twice Bruce's size (on seperate occasions). One day I was training with one of these men, and I was amazed at his speed. He told me that was nothing compared to the way Bruce could move. I had trouble wrapping my head around it. Even with this guy's speed, he said Bruce could hit or kick him at will and that Bruce wasn't just fast, but hit with heavyweight power which people sometimes forget about.

I think it's pretty clear that by the time Dan Inosanto started training with him, Bruce had calmed down/matured/changed his ways however you want to look at it. At least it seems that way because he didn't get in as many scraps during that time (or at least none that were witnessed like during previous years).

I remember seeing a Sammo interview where he talked about the first time he met Bruce. He said they kind of gave each other the stare down and finally Sammo asked Bruce if he could really fight. Bruce said something to the effect of "do you want to find out". Sammo said that they squared off and he went to throw a kick at Bruce, and before he could raise his knee up Bruce's foot was on the side of his head. That interview is on the bonus features of a documentary called Modern Warriors if anyone would like to see it.

Does that mean Bruce was unbeatable? Of course not, we all know the saying there is always someone tougher and even the most badassed fighters on earth get their butt kicked. But what put Bruce in the upper echelon were the rare attributes that he had, combined with his fanatical dedication to training and his state of mind.

So there is no doubt in my mind that Bruce definitely was not a paper tiger. However, the biggest issue that I've questioned is the fight with Wong Jack Man. There are a couple of things that bother me about the official story (Linda Lee version). The first is, the story goes that WJM fought Bruce because the older Chinese in SF didn't want Bruce teaching whites. Well there were already other Chinese sifus teaching whites so it wasn't like Bruce was breaking some kind of taboo. And the story goes that, after Bruce took longer than expected to beat WJM, he decided to make the changes to wing chun which led to the development of JKD. Linda Lee says that Bruce abandoned wing chun after discovering that it didn't work in a real confrontation.

I think we can all agree that is nonsense. Not only did Bruce witness his kung fu elders use wing chun, to varying degress of success, in Hong Kong, but Bruce himself was a street fighter as acknowledged by his own brother Robert and friends who hung around with Bruce during his HK years. By the time Bruce made it to Seattle, he was still getting into fights. So he already had a very good idea of what worked and what didn't on the street. So what prompted the change after the WJM fight? Could he have become bored with what he had learned and wanted to create something new for himself? Or did he just happen to meet someone who was just a little more badass, in that case WJM?

[MightyB]

A Martial Artist who majored in Philosophy and lived in America during the counter culture movement... hmmmmmm... Jeet Kune Do®, a philosophy that's based on questioning the martial arts establishment...

A young man who's obviously interested in the practical aspects of fighting (and take into account what I wrote above)... incorporates western boxing and wrestling and physical fitness into his martial arts training.

---

Most of what the legend surrounding Bruce Lee® is is mostly BS. He was an actor with a good publicity game. What's not BS is that he was an early pioneer and advocate of cross training for functionality. His book and concepts are sound - some of his technique is dated. But, from what I read - he didn't want to create a new martial art. He pushed his philosophy which was ahead (kind've, read Musashi) and inspired a lot of people. His philosophy is still sound and is exemplified by MMA.

Could he fight? I'd say yes. Was he the best? Well, no one is. Was he better prepared for real fighting than other "traditional" martial artists of his time? Most definitely.

I like to leave it at that.

[lkfmdc]

"It is like a finger"

(take a bong hit)

"pointing it's way at the moon"

(second bong hit)

"do not concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory"

(stoned friend on couch)

"dooooooood, that's like, like, sooooooo deeeeepppppppp"

(don't forget the floral shirts)

[MasterKiller]

[wenshu]

Bushido brown is disturbed by this insolent apostasy.

[sanjuro_ronin]

That was freaking awesome and the best part of this thread !!!

[Lucas]

i dont believe they fought for 25 minutes straight without one of them beating the crap out of the other guy unless they both sucked that bad. you take 2 good fighters and have a NHB with no ref, it doesnt last 25 minutes. id need real proof to believe that kinds of story.

[lkfmdc]

i dont believe they fought for 25 minutes straight without one of them beating the crap out of the other guy unless they both sucked that bad. you take 2 good fighters and have a NHB with no ref, it doesnt last 25 minutes. id need real proof to believe that kinds of story.

have you ever seen the "roof top fights"? Or the "famous" battle between two "masters"?

The fact that wong was walking around at work the next day, no injury, says a lot

[Lucas]

lol ya. it makes you wonder the other way it could last 25 minutes....cat and mouse?

[wenshu]

Bruce Lee was Manorexic.

[YouKnowWho]

He said, "I punch and I don't push." I respect him just for saying that. When a Taiji master asks you to push on his fat belly, how many of you will punch on his face and knock him down?

[lkfmdc]

A guy told me "boards don't hit back"

so I hit him with a 2 by 4