Bruce Lee vs. Jose Aldo

[MysticNinjaJay]

Who wins?

Rules for the fight:

1. Prime vs. Prime (Bruce Lee is resurrected or brought back through time travel and he's in the best shape of his life as is Aldo).

2. UFC rules (not a street fight they are competing under unified rules of Mixed Martial Arts).

3. No Prep for either fighter (Bruce Lee doesn't get time to train MMA he comes in to the fight with the skills he developed in his life time. Fight starts instantaneously and Bruce Lee knows all of the rules).

4. No injuries (Bruce Lee's back is fine. Aldo isn't suffering from his current rib injury or any other injuries).

5. No Cheating (Winner of the fight wins fair and square).

6. Same weight (This is for the UFC Featherweight championship and Bruce Lee weighs 145 pounds).

I want serious answers. Who do you think would win and why? How would the fight transpire? This thread was inspired by Youtube discussions where people are arguing about who would win and how Bruce Lee would do in MMA in general.

Here's a video of the fight from the UFC videogame for your viewing pleasure:

[Jimbo]

OK, I'll start.

Jose Aldo.

Aldo has far more experience in competitive fighting in general, and MMA in particular, and against higher-level and better-conditioned opponents than Bruce Lee faced during his life. Aldo is also every bit as quick, probably more so, in terms of all-around body speed and reaction time. I also think that Jose Aldo has greater 'killer instinct' than BL, and he has unleashed his aggression many times, to devastating effect, in his fights. Although BL is physically fit, Aldo is fighting fit, and is thus better prepared to compete in the octagon than BL.

[MysticNinjaJay]

OK, I'll start.

Jose Aldo.

Aldo has far more experience in competitive fighting in general, and MMA in particular, and against higher-level and better-conditioned opponents than Bruce Lee faced during his life. Aldo is also every bit as quick, probably more so, in terms of all-around body speed and reaction time. I also think that Jose Aldo has greater 'killer instinct' than BL, and he has unleashed his aggression many times, to devastating effect, in his fights. Although BL is physically fit, Aldo is fighting fit, and is thus better prepared to compete in the octagon than BL.

I agree with everything you said. In these debates with Bruce Lee supporters I try to get them to understand that while Bruce Lee was a spectacular Martial Artist in great shape he had zero professional fights, thus he is severely lacking in experience for someone who is supposed to be able to beat some of the best Mixed Martial Artists in the world.

Here are some comments I encountered on Youtube:

Bruce Lee was 155 pound before he died. And weight and size doesn't matter. Bruce was practically super human. He was well conditioned and was fast as lightning. Nobody in the MMA could keep up with him. He would knock them out in one blow.

Man how to put metal in his punching bag. That's superhuman strength in order to to hit a bag like that and also the man could you to finger push-ups with one hand and he kicked a guy who held a shield and the guy said it felt like a car ran over him. 

You brought up reaction time, killer instinct and fitness. Aldo surely has the advantage in all of these attributes. All we have for Bruce Lee fighting is eye witness testimonies, not actual footage of real fights. The story of Bruce Lee vs. the Karate master on the YMCA handball court is interesting because its one of the only accounts of Bruce Lee in a full-contact challenge match. Jesse Glover said the fight ended in 11 seconds with Bruce Lee winning by knockout. If that is true then Bruce Lee had killer instinct but you have to consider the caliber of his opponent whose real name we don't even know. Bruce Lee was fast but I think Jose Aldo did have superior reaction time developed over years of training for and competing in MMA. As for conditioning while Bruce Lee was fit you're right to say that Aldo was conditioned for fighting. He has the stamina to go 5 Rounds. We have no idea what kind of stamina Bruce Lee has.

In fact there are several things we don't know about Bruce Lee having never seen him in a real fight.

Examples:

- What kind of chin did he have (how durable was he)?

- What kind of stamina did he have?

- How accurate was he?

- How well could he defend a takedown?

- How was his ground game?

- How powerful of a striker was he?

- What kind of heart did he have?

- How high was his fight IQ?

There are so many unanswered questions about Bruce Lee as a real fighter. In my opinion Jose Aldo takes this fight pretty quickly by damaging Bruce Lee's legs with kicks and then setting up punches and knees to the face. Bruce Lee have been tested so little in his life against high caliber opponents wouldn't be ready for a fighter the caliber of Jose Aldo.

[Jimbo]

Absolutely.

Regarding the 'karate master' that BL reportedly beat up; it could be he wasn't a master, or even an expert, at all. Even if he was, it wouldn't have any bearing on BL's ability to handle experienced professional fighters in the octagon. I have admired and respected BL for decades, for what he did accomplish. IMO, it's NO sign of respect from the BL worshippers to paint him as superhuman. BL was naturally athletic, intelligent, and talented for the martial arts. However, that doesn't translate into what he wasn't: a world-class professional fighter. Even if he had the hardest side kick while kicking someone holding a kicking shield for him, that's not the same as hitting or kicking a highly conditioned, moving opponent who's not cooperating with you. Plus, JA is fast as lightning, too. He's experienced at applying that speed while fighting, and has the conditioning to still have it when he needs it later in a fight.

I would also say that JA almost certainly grew up in a tougher environment than BL. Even if BL had some rooftop fights as a kid in HK, I doubt his environment was as dangerous as wherever JA came from in Brazil.

Regarding pure speed and power, people should remember the young Mike Tyson, a heavyweight. He had incredible speed, and while doing combinations and making full contact. His speed easily matched BL's, and he could maintain it with greater mass, continuity and killer instinct. There are many fighters and other athletes whose speed equalled or exceeded BL's.

I still respect/admire BL and always will, but one must be a realist. Just because he never lost a fight onscreen, is no indication of how he would have fared against someone like JA. I strongly suspect that, if they were honest about it, the Lee family would be relieved that BL never had to face a JA during his lifetime. Keep in mind, I'm not saying that JA is invincible either. But the octagon is his environment.

[MysticNinjaJay]

This whole idea that Bruce Lee was superhuman is based on physical feats that anyone who knows any better can recognize as ridiculous. Have you seen some of these claims?

Physical feats

Lee's phenomenal fitness meant he was capable of performing many exceptional physical feats. The following list includes some of the physical feats that are documented and supported by reliable sources.

• Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.
• Lee could spring a 235 lb (107 kg) opponent 15 feet (4.6 metres) away with a 1 inch punch.
• Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24fps, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.
• Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs.
• Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.
• Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger.
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.
• From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125 lb (57 kg) barbell straight out.
• Lee could break wooden boards 6 inches (15 cm) thick.
• Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-lb (68 kg) punching bag.
• Lee could cause a 300-lb (136 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a side kick.
• In a move that has been dubbed "Dragon Flag", Lee could perform leg lifts with only his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench and suspend his legs and torso perfectly horizontal midair.
• Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened steel cans of Coca-Cola, at a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.
• Lee could use one finger to leave dramatic indentations on pine wood.

I agree that it does a disservice to Bruce Lee's legacy to promote outright falsehoods about his physical abilities. Bruce Lee was in great physical condition. He was very athletic, very intelligent and dedicated to the Martial Arts but he was not superhuman. Superhuman abilities would be something like benching pressing 3x your body weight or running a mile in one minute. Something that goes beyond the limits of what a peak athletic human being could do.

[Wu Wei Wu]

Bruce was an innovator and way ahead of his time. For a guy rooted in the 1960's he did exceptionally well.

Had he been born in this era, and driven with the same motivations, he would arguably be at the cutting edge of advances in MMA.

People like Aldo are good representatives for the modern fighter who is dextrous and skilled.

Better to focus on the here and now.

That said, Rousey's coach Gene LeBell was friends with Bruce. McGregor fights out of Straight Blast Gym, which is, at least in part, a gym that cross-trains JKD.

While people are focused on historic figures, a new breed of fighter is busy training and readying himself. These are the ones I prefer to pay attention to.

Random thoughts.

Suki