Bruce Lee in the UFC

Crashsti · 04-24-2006, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subgenius

Bruce Lee is to Martial Arts in the same way that Elvis is to music. They are both legends. I happen to like both Bruce Lee and Elvis, but I know many people that would say that Elvis was not the all-time best singer, song-writer, and/or musician in the world.

I know! BLASPHEMY!

The same is true of Bruce Lee. Most of us see him as the pinnacle of Martial Arts. But, there are many that will say that THAT is not true.

We will never know just how well or how bad or how average Bruce Lee would have or could have been in MMA. What we do know is that his legend is, like Elvis, based on facts and real events. Elvis did truly live. And, Bruce Lee was the best in martial arts... We know that Bruce Lee would definately have trained seriously and efficiently for MMA. He would DEFINATELY have contacted people like the Gracies for the best BJJ skills in order to prepare. Who would have refused Bruce Lee?

However, we will never know whether or not Bruce Lee would have or could have beaten Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic. I mean, maybe Mirko could KO Bruce Lee with that evil left high kick. We will never know if Bruce Lee could have or would have gone the distance against Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes, BJ Penn, etc, etc.... But, oh my god, I would love to have seen such fights!

its true we can never know if all of Bruce's training could have helped him take on the best of MMA today. i however like to believe it would have been. Bruce Lee has a drive and determination that most people can only dream about possesing. it amazes me when people try to discredit a guy like Bruce by saying he used Steroids or whatever. Steroids seems to be the great scapegoat. maybe it should have been mentioned that during that time Steroids were seen as the next great medical breakthrough, everyone was taking them because no one knew that they were bad. Bruce is quite dead now and we are left to argue what is truth about the man and what is myth. as time passes the two become one.

mepersoner · 04-24-2006, 03:37 PM

It's because he was never really tested as a fighter. You're only as good as what you accomplish, not what you have the potential to accomplish.

thecreewarrior · 04-25-2006, 10:31 AM

If he was alive and was in his 30's I think he would have GREAT potentail as a fighter but we may never know.

subgenius · 05-01-2006, 05:33 PM

I know that I'm reviving an older thread here, but I just rewatched Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey on AMC. I had forgotten some points in the documentary, namely the footage that Bruce Lee shot for Game of Death -- the film that was never finished.

Bruce Lee and two other characters must move up through three levels of a pagoda with a talented, deadly martial artist on each level. An Escreema (SP?) master, a Judo master, and then Kareem Abdul Jabar as the Jeet Kun-Do master at the top level. In all three levels there is some interesting ground fighting being displayed. Bruce Lee is the last fighter alive and he faces Jabar. In that fight, Bruce Lee used two submission attempts, and then he eventually ended the fight on the ground with a side head-lock.

I realize that this is a staged film, but I feel that it demonstrated that Bruce Lee knew a lot about ground fighting. He knew about Jui Jitsu. I think that even more amplifies his possibilities as a MMA fighter had he lived. Who knows, he might have pushed MMA into the foreground as early as 1978 or 1980 had he lived long enough... He had so well popularized martial arts that it would seem logical for his JKD to have become a sport had he been alive to be the driving force behind it.

"Be water my friend..." -- Bruce Lee

thecreewarrior · 05-01-2006, 05:41 PM

Yeah Jeet Kune Do fighters would probably popular if Bruce was alive today. I take JKD and it works very well in MMA. I would like to see more JKD fighters in the UFC to bad its not really popular. Only fighter in UFC I know of is Luke Cummo. If you watch his fights his stance is Onguard stance wich is the primary fighting stance in JKD. Luke's JKD is made up of Muay Thai and BJJ.
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subgenius · 05-01-2006, 06:41 PM

Yeah, I like Luke Cummo a lot. When he KO'd Sammy Morgan with that sweet knee, I was loving every split second of that strike. And, Cummo seems to have well understood the philosophy side of the JKD. He applies it to his way of life -- his conditioning, his sleeping, and so on. All that wierd stuff that he did on the show.

I expect big things from Luke Cummo, and I have little doubt that he can fulfill them. He is a five-round fighter, IMO. In the later rounds of his title fights I can see him KO'ing a gassed opponent. I wish that TUF Finales were five-round fights, because I am 110% sure that Cummo would have KO'd Joe Stevenson in round four or round five.

thecreewarrior · 05-01-2006, 10:34 PM

Yeah I could see Cummo at the fifth round knocking out his oponent. I wish I was able to see his fight with Jason at 59.

DrumzCT · 05-02-2006, 01:39 AM

Well it's hard to say someone uses JKD because it's more of a philosophy on how to train than it is a style. We have JKD where I train and every class we take a technique from a style and drill it and incorporate it into sparring then go over defenses for it, combos for it etc. One class may be Savate kicks, knife fighting, boxing, muay thai.

I think given Bruce Lee's vision of JKD, MMA would be exactly what a competitive JKD tournament/sparring would be.