I don't if many of you follow UFC or mixed martial arts fights.. but it seems pretty common nowadays that all of these celebs and professional athletes think they can take on some of these fighters.. and usually end up gettin whipped.

I'm sure most of you know Bruce Lee or have heard of him.. but I'm curious how someone like Bruce would fair against these MMA fighters. Mind you, most movies are choreographed and stuff.. he was still a bad ***.. lol

I don't think the newer guys like Jackie Chan and Jet Li can hold much of a candle to Bruce.. but I dunno if any of you have heard of Tony Jaa, he seems more like the real deal. I laugh when these guys can take on 10-20 guys at a time.. but I love martial arts movies and high action movies..

If yall aren't familiar with Tony Jaa, it's because he's still kinda unknown, and not as hyped up as the others.. he starred in Ong Bak back in 2005, and the sequal is coming out next month. I know it's not likely.. but I'd love to see one of these hyped up movie martial artists actually take on a MMA fighter..

 

u saw what happened to Jose Conseco tryin to fight MMA. dude got slaughtered.

 

I think Lee would've done well. He was definitely a very early practitioner of MIXED martial arts. He created Jeet Kune Do because he believed that traditional Kung Fu, in general, was too rigid and confining.He believed that in a fight you have to be able to "flow like water". He also had a fascination with western boxing. His physical conditioning was legendary and he was an advocate of "sports" nutrition and protein "shakes" way before it was even close to mainstream. That being said, it's really hard to say. I don't know if anyone worried about ground & pound back then!

 

Bruce Lee would have whipped up on some people. Yeah he was only 5' 7" but the guy knew how to fight. When he was still in school he would actually pick on bigger students to attempt to start fights (and win). True they hype stuff up in movies about him but he was a great martial artist and I'm confident he wouldn't go down easily to say the least.

 

Jet Li and Jackie Chan to me are "Martial Arts actors".

Bruce was a bad *** and will always be known as one of the best at what he did, but now its about the ground and pound. I don't see Bruce doing well with this. He would probably get tapped out. Cung Lee is probably the closest to Lee now. He did break Frank Shamrock's arm in a MMA fight. But you see he almost never gets in a MMA type tournament.

 

It wouldn't be fair.....Lee would embarass some people.

 

IMO, Bruce Lee in his prime, with all the advantages of modern MMA training would be a sure title contender.

The state of the art has changed dramatically, though.

So if you take 1970 Bruce Lee and put him in the ring in 2009, he would be at a disadvantage against high level opponents who have trained to have a more diverse skill set.

His quickness and ability would still make him a threat, though, and he would dominate anyone in his weight class who is not a top tier pro fighter.

 

But wait... hold it right there... I thought we were comparing Bruce Lee, "as he was" against the top MMA fighters of today "as they are", in which case, I don't think Lee would stand much of a chance.

Now > with all the advantages of modern MMA training < well $#!+ yea' ! No doubt Lee was a phenominal athlete, and could have probably "learned" pretty much ANY kind of fighting techniques he chose to.

I think a great match to imagine, would be Bruce Lee, against Lyoto Machida That would be a little bit more apples to apples anyway.

Peace,
Fish

 

IMO, the OP was not clear if it was Bruce Lee 'then' or Bruce Lee the man as he would be, in his prime now with modern training, techniques and tactics.

Times and technology change in a hurry. For example, many of the historic muscle cars of the late '60s (like a Corvette L88 or a Shelby GT500) on period tires and shocks would get smoked around a road race course by a modern four door familiy sedan. To compare to a new top of the line '09 Corvette or GT500? No contest at all. The technology has changed that much.

But you can't say the great car designers of the '60s like Zora Duntov or Carrol Shelby were inferior to the guys who design cars now, just because an '09 4 door sedan can corner better on modern tires.

IMO, in most sports, if you had the ability to be great in your day, you would probably be great today, if you started with the same advantages as the new crop.