# Bruce Lee's only real fight recorded on tape



## No_Mercy (Oct 17, 2006)

If only there was more footage. Only ones we see are in the films where we get an idea on his speed and technique. I enjoy hearing his contemporaries. My favorite was from none other than his co-star Jim Kelly.

He parries, counters, trips, and lands another shot all in one motion.










http://i.imgur.com/MTle5ip.gifv

EDIT: Found a video of the gif.


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## Spite (Jul 7, 2009)

No_Mercy said:


> He parries, counters, trips, and lands another shot all in one motion.


Lands another 2 shots in that sequence, but you can't see them unless slowed.

Heres a video with commentary


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## M.C (Jul 5, 2008)

But who was he fighting? For all we know this guy was just an average student of his or some other random martial artist. Even Andy Wang looks pretty good next to a guy who isn't experienced or hasn't fought much if at all.


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## No_Mercy (Oct 17, 2006)

M.C said:


> But who was he fighting? For all we know this guy was just an average student of his or some other random martial artist. Even Andy Wang looks pretty good next to a guy who isn't experienced or hasn't fought much if at all.


Believe he's sparring with his student Ted Wong who is no slouch. They were required to wear head gear and body gear. I'm pretty sure Bruce would have been fine with bare knuckles. He probably would have knocked out every fighter there who were accustomed to a point fighting system. If you think about it, his style is super advanced in that he has to know what his opponent is looking to do then counter simultaneously. That's insanely hard to do and requires, composure, precise timing, and technique. He's always an arms length away so he obviously understood distance, then knew what to counter with and how at the precise moment. 

As the video stated Bruce also understood disrupting the rhythm. This is something Max was doing against Jose utilizing his speed, Jorge vs Cowboy, TJ vs Renan Barao big time, and Dominick Cruz. Dominick has the strangest timing of all the fighters. If it was point sparring Dominick would beat everybody on the UFC roster.



Spite said:


> Lands another 2 shots in that sequence, but you can't see them unless slowed.
> 
> Heres a video with commentary


Nice find, I wanted to see him in an offensive mode. He is lightening quick man.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

I was just reading up on how Bruce Lee even during his training cross trained in a few different disciplines including Wing Chun and traditional forms of western boxing. Also as many people know one of his original martial arts Shifu's Yip Man or Ip Man is considered a legend in his own right. The question of what would have happened had Bruce Lee not died is an interesting question.


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## WNoa (May 31, 2017)

Did not know such recordings existed. it is amazing and i have enjoyed watching.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

I wonder what kind of matches could have happened had Bruce Lee lived.


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## RangerClydeTheBlue (Jul 11, 2012)

All I think when I hear about how amazing his training is, is Sage Northcutt Vs Bryan Barberena. You can be the best martial artist of all time. Do incredible feats of strength, endurance, speed and everything. You can look lightning fast in everything you do, and have expert level teachings. But Bruce Lee and half the planet at the time would have probably stepped into that cage and got smashed into oblivion by Tank Abbot or some shit.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Unfortunately we will never know so we will have to rely on EA UFC for the time being. Though to be fair it's possible that he could win nine times out of ten against Tank Abbott. If there is a simulator it would be interesting to run.


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## RangerClydeTheBlue (Jul 11, 2012)

kantowrestler said:


> Unfortunately we will never know so we will have to rely on EA UFC for the time being. Though to be fair it's possible that he could win nine times out of ten against Tank Abbott. If there is a simulator it would be interesting to run.


It's possible he could lose 100/100 too. We're talking a guy who only lost one fight to a non legend (Maurice Smith now counts since he's HOF) in his original run, and everyone else he absolutely smashed. We're talking him fighting a guy who's got very little live combat experience.

It's funny to me that we've got Bruce Lee, this paragon of progressiveness. A man hailed as being the only person to ever cross train (despite the fact that no martial art in history is developed without cross training). He's such a genius for practising other styles. If only people did something like that these days, they'd surely be respected for it right? Right? *sits back and laughs at reactions to recent news*


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## No_Mercy (Oct 17, 2006)

The fact that he implements what he teaches is way ahead of the times. Almost all martial artists and philosophers alike have a dogmatic approach. Comparing someone nearly half a century ago to the present day is comical. Everything progresses overtime; technology, biological adaptation, intelligence, etc. 

He laid out the foundation then which still applies today.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

I'm sure he still would've adjusted cause Jeet Kun Do is the style with no style. That is how he advertised it. It was all about adjusting to a fighters style.


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## RangerClydeTheBlue (Jul 11, 2012)

No_Mercy said:


> The fact that he implements what he teaches is way ahead of the times. Almost all martial artists and philosophers alike have a dogmatic approach. Comparing someone nearly half a century ago to the present day is comical. Everything progresses overtime; technology, biological adaptation, intelligence, etc.
> 
> He laid out the foundation then which still applies today.


This. I'm comparing it, but only because we're acting like because he was cool in training that he could somehow suddenly compete in a high level competitive sport. For all we know, he had no chin, no heart and no in-ring cardio. How can anyone ever claim he was a great "fighter".

As a martial artist, he seemed fantastic. Nothing revolutionary or ground breaking as advertised though. Lee sounds like a lot of senseis across the world. He's a different calibre of martial artist than most of them for sure, but his teachings, implementations of martial arts and essentially everything else wasn't exactly "ahead of it's time". We're acting like doing two martial arts, or being open to martial arts from various disciplines, is something that was never accepted. Anyone who lives in a small town where one class closed and a new one opened up had experienced that. There was certainly some closed mindedness in some parts of martial arts, and still is, but the idea of taking different ideas and concepts from other martial arts predates Lee by thousands of years.



kantowrestler said:


> I'm sure he still would've adjusted cause Jeet Kun Do is the style with no style. That is how he advertised it. It was all about adjusting to a fighters style.


But he might have been KOed by a jab so who cares how he'd have adjusted? He never in his entire life competed against someone as good of a fighter as any of the 500+ fighters in the UFC today. You can't just assume he'd have been able to propel to that level. There are much more experienced and much stronger guys who fell in the early beginnings of MMA because they couldn't handle the different aspects of the sport.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Admittedly he would've has size issues when the UFC came around cause even Royce Gracie was larger then him.


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## Liddellianenko (Oct 8, 2006)

Looks rigged af, typical of martial arts demos from the pre MMA era. One guy walking around looking threatening but doing nothing other than falling, the other guy pulling punches and still the other guy goes flailing.

Sparring gear doesn't make choreography any more legit.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Well as you pointed out this was an exhibition match so no point in debating whether it was legit or worked considering in the end it doesn't matter.


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## Liddellianenko (Oct 8, 2006)

kantowrestler said:


> Well as you pointed out this was an exhibition match so no point in debating whether it was legit or worked considering in the end it doesn't matter.


It does matter when people are using it to judge the actual fighting capabilities of an actor and philosopher though.


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## RangerClydeTheBlue (Jul 11, 2012)

kantowrestler said:


> Admittedly he would've has size issues when the UFC came around cause even Royce Gracie was larger then him.


If we're talking Bruce Lee in UFC 1, this is essentially what we're talking about:-

Bruce Lee had no grappling experience. So "rolling with Gene LePell" once doesn't stop him from being tapped within the first 2 minutes by Royce or Shamrock. Jason DeLucia's track record is sort of proven since UFC so I'd say his grappling calibre was high enough too, 

So let's talk strikers. 

Gerard Gordeau, a Dutch Karate World Champ for 7 years and a European and World Savate Champ before the event. Wikipedia seems to say he had 31 fights on record before the event. 

Kevin Rosier, a multiple time world kickboxing champion with a couple of professional boxing fights to his name.

Patrick Smith, wikipedia bills his kickboxing record at 65-4 prior to UFC 1.

Art Jimmerson, professional boxer with a record of 29-5 

Zane Frazier, national karate and kickboxing champion as well as world karate champion.

Trent Jenkins, no idea.

Teila Tuli, sure Bruce would have likely beat him probably maybe.


But outside of Jenkins and Tuli, and the grapplers who would have likely won and submitted him quickly...who exactly are we saying Bruce Lee was a better striker than?


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

So you're saying he is overrated?


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## Liddellianenko (Oct 8, 2006)

kantowrestler said:


> So you're saying he is overrated?


Yes, he is a fighting legend of his own marketing creation, much like other actors such as JCVD and Seagal.

He had some nice fighting philosophies but the man would have been destroyed by the best fighters of his time, let alone the ones of today. He was an actor, fitness celebrity and philosopher, not a proven fighter, but this discussion has been done to death on the internet already.


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## RangerClydeTheBlue (Jul 11, 2012)

kantowrestler said:


> So you're saying he is overrated?


I'm saying he wasn't at any stage of his entire life a fighter, and can't be judged on merits he doesn't have. To call Bruce Lee a fighter is akin to saying "He'd probably be a great footballer too. He can kick hard. That would be good for taking penalties".


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

And the fact that he faced constant racism throughout his life on both sides of the Pacific due to his being of mixed ancestry.


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## Trix (Dec 15, 2009)

I like how Bruce Lee weighed 150 to 170 lbs. And could bench press 400 lbs.

And old school boxing greats would run marathons for fitness reasons to stay in shape.

Their work ethic is not to be underestimated.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Yeah the Diaz brothers do the exact same thing in order to keep in shape which is why they were able to step in for fights when someone dropped out. That's why Nate was able to take out Conor McGregor the first time around and also why he went five rounds with him the second time.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Yeah Bruce Lee was a very well rounded practitioner who exposed the west to the idea of the eastern martial arts that were pretty much spiritually based.


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## Trix (Dec 15, 2009)

The spiritualism aspect comes from eastern martial arts and eastern mysticism which train the spirit and a person's life energy.

The way someone lifting weights would train their body.

Basically things Joe Rogan would say isn't real.

But. They are real.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Yeah Joe Rogan has a certain way of thinking and it is basically a western way of thinking like many western athletes think in that they just go all out. Eastern athletics trains the body and mind in order to maximize not just athletics but also life. Anyone who adapts both like I try to do will do a lot better in both areas.


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## Trix (Dec 15, 2009)

Joe Rogan always makes fun of things like "astral travel".

I think there are a small number of people who can actually do things like that.

There are interesting similarities between christianity and eastern mysticism.

In the bible, Moses never tastes death but instead ascends directly to heaven. 

The chinese yellow emperor and others who lived nearer to that time period were claimed to have done the same.

There are mountains of intelligent, insightful and interesting commentary that could be made on topics like religion no one ever talks about.

Its like all of the smart people on this planet disappeared.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Is all the smart people disappearing going to be your new saying?


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## Trix (Dec 15, 2009)

I don't know what people think about my level of intelligence.

Takes I see posted on the internet, by the media. 

Are so unbelievably and overwhelmingly derp.

It makes me feel like I'm a genius.


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## kantowrestler (Jun 6, 2009)

Yeah I know the feeling.


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