Regarding how the actual fight went down I'm not sure who to believe. Just based on the description I find Bruce Lee's account to be more credible. Linda Lee said the fight lasted 3 minutes. Wong Jack Man fled as he was being pressured. Bruce Lee pounced on him and beat him along his back and the back of his head (which bruised his hands according to Bruce Lee) and then got him to verbally submit by asking if he gave up. Wong Jack Man conceded defeat. According to Jesse Glover Bruce Lee felt the fight was sloppy and he was very winded from chasing the quick and nimble Wong Jack Man.

Compare that to the account given by Rick Wing in his book which is supported by the testimonies of Wong Jack Man and his entourage who witnessed the fight. They say the fight lasted 20-25 minutes. Bruce Lee struck the first blow by delivering a finger jab to the eye when they were about to touch hands (a cheap shot). Wong Jack Man dodged and parried a very aggressive Bruce Lee throughout the fight. He refused to use kicks because he felt they were too deadly. On a few occasions Wong Jack Man got Bruce Lee in a headlock but did not take advantage of the position. At one point Wong Jack Man landed what was described as the best attack of the fight, a hand strike to the neck which staggered Bruce Lee. No one had a clear advantage and both fighters grazed each other but the fight ended when Wong Jack Man slipped on a raised portion of the floor and Bruce Lee tried to pounce on him. Wong Jack Man's entourage then interfered and called a stop to the fight, declaring it a draw. Bruce Lee yelled at Wong Jack Man demanding he admit defeat but he never yielded.

Now the reason I find Bruce Lee's account more credible is the length of the fight. 3 minutes is short enough to be consistent with what one might expect from a Martial Arts challenge match with no rules but long enough for a fighter to get exhausted especially if they are sprinting across the room throwing strikes as Jesse Glove described. Bruce Lee's description of bruising his hands with ground and pound tactics is what one might expect if you used Wing Chun chain punches to hit someone repeatedly in their head and back. The back of the skull can especially hurt your hands if you hit it too hard. Based on this testimony I find the account believable that Bruce Lee felt his technique was inefficient and his conditioning sub par which inspired him to improve his skills and his stamina.

Now Wong Jack Man's account has several problems. First of all the length. 20-25 minutes is way too long for the type of fight that was described. We are talking about a Martial Arts challenge match with no rules, no equipment and no water breaks and it lasted around 20 minutes?! Then there is the description of the fight itself. The fought for that long and merely grazed each other. You would have to be seriously incompetent to fight for 20-25 minutes and do virtually nothing offensively. Street fights are usually over in a matter of seconds. The challenge matches I have seen that go any longer than 5 minutes turn in to blood baths even if the fighters aren't that skilled. These fighters would have to be incredible masters of defense to evade each others moves for that long without doing major damage. I also read in the book that the fighters had different ideas about what type of fight this was. Wong Jack Man thought of it as a friendly sparring match. Bruce Lee thought of it as a serious fight and aimed to really hurt his opponent. So the level of aggression they displayed was different. If that is the case that makes Wong Jack Man's account sound even less credible. You have to also consider some of the statements Wong Jack Man made about the fight. He said he avoided using kicks because he thought they were too deadly. That is unrealistic. He must not have much fighting experience to think that. He also estimated the number of strikes Bruce Lee threw (about 60 punches and 25 kicks in addition to eye pokes and groin strikes). Curiously Wong Jack Man did not tell the newspapers how many punches or kicks he attempted only to say he evaded Lee and counter attacked. The comment about slipping on the floor and Bruce Lee trying to pounce on him is interesting because the fight ending on the floor with Bruce Lee in position to pound is similar to Lee's own account. Jesse Glover also mentioned interference from the entourage but says an associate of Bruce Lee's put a stop to their interference with the fight.

Considering the difference in accounts someone is clearly lying. In Rick Wing's book he gives an account of what was said in the newspapers which was really bizarre (ex. the fight being over a girl, Bruce Lee claiming he beat Wong Jack man so badly he couldn't show up for work for three days etc.). Jesse Glover's account is even more bizarre as he says Bruce Lee read in the Chinese newspapers that Wong Jack Man won the fight (consistent with what Wing says although with less detail). Bruce Lee confronted the editor angrily demanding a retraction and a source for the claim which turned out to be Wong Jack Man himself. Glover says Bruce Lee then went to the restaurant where Wong Jack Man worked as a waiter. When Wong Jack Man saw Bruce Lee apparently he spilled tea on the table, ran away and hid in the kitchen. Rick Wing does say that Bruce Lee came to the restaurant but only to make peace with Wong Jack Man. Apparently they shared a Martial Arts lineage as their teachers trained under the same Grandmaster. Bruce Lee pointed this out and said he bore him no ill will he was just trying to promote his school.

The stories about this fight that I have read are so contradictory and strange that it makes me wonder what really happened. Bruce Lee's account sounds more believable to me but Wong Jack Man has more witnesses and Rick Wing actually produced copies of the newspapers for anyone who knows Chinese to read and translated them in to English for his book. I don't think it is odd that Bruce Lee dedicated himself to improving his Martial Arts skills because he thought the fight wasn't good but I do find it interesting that Wong Jack Man issued a challenge for a rematch that would be viewed in public and Bruce Lee never responded. The hotheaded, proud and arrogant Bruce Lee not responding to a challenge seems out of character. So what really happened? Who knows but given its legendary status and influence on Bruce Lee becoming the movie star sensation that he was which helped popularize Martial Arts I do think the fight deserves to have a movie made about it.