Bruce Lee matchups

When bruce lee was alive he was unstoppable; unbelievable speed and power for his size, incredible cardio, and a well rounded knowledge of martial arts.

Skip ahead 34 years and assume brucelee is still in his early 30's (and alive). If he competed in MMA how far would he go? He weighed 135 so lets say he fought in the lightweight division. Could he take Sherk? Gomi? Penn? or get stopped early by nick diaz?

What do you think?

no, i dont even want to risk carpal tunnel by typing anymore to explain

I'm sure that his striking would be decent, but if you don't have a ground game (which I'll assume that he didn't) you aren't going to get very far in this sport...

I'm sure he could have been decent in like K-1Max or something (at least they have a 145 div)

He trained with a Judo guy, can't remember who. Anyways, if it was now and he was alive and competing, of course he'd be training his ground game.

yeah didnt he submit somebody with an armbar at the beginning of enter the dragon? lol

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Posted by greshamfighter

yeah didnt he submit somebody with an armbar at the beginning of enter the dragon? lol

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yeah, i remember that hahaa

I guess what you're saying is: With his ma abilities what could he have done with modern training? I'll answer according to that (because, like has already been said- the ground game question). I think his abilities were amazing, his thought process about how to approach it was amazing and his application was just as good. Assuming his ground game was learned as well as the striking he could've been a real force. 155 might've been hard for him tho. But even all this assumes he could learn submissions as well as striking, very few can do that. I've done my best to answer an unanswerable question. He always believed in cross training, I just think the way he thought about it would've changed severely.

bruce lee weigehd i think 145 i heard them say. and he did train jiu jitsu for a time and said in his book to train in the ground aspects. i believe if he was alive, he'd have taken the ground game just as serious as striking. whatever bruce lee trained in, he became the best.

Could Jaa do well in MMA? Personally I dont think so, but I think he could be very good in K-1. He has an insane level of skill in MT, and has fantastic power in his strikes to*.


*And no, Im talking from footage of him training, working Thai pads and heavy bags etc, I know his movie fight scenes are faked, before someone calls me out on that.

Bruce Lee, as has been previously mentioned, was an artist amongst sports practitioners. Of course back in the 70's, cross training was unheard of, yet his discipline required cross trainign of many different artforms. Had Lee been in his prime today, I am positive he would be incredible at cross training and perfecting his art even more. The man was a true master, which is the reason why this thread is around to begin with.

his striking would be too awkward and unorthodox. he would be murdered by lots of guys, especially on the ground. its like being a master of aikido and using that in mma. its just so unpractical it wouldnt do any good. a wrestler like sherk or a guy like florian would control him on the ground. im sure he couldve trained as a more modern ma like kempo or judo he couldve perfected fairly easy. but his ma from back then wouldnt much of anything in todays game.

It's hard to say, as far as I know there's not a single video of Bruce in a street or limited rules fight.. And training and fighting are two different worlds, so it's really kinda hard to say how he would do..

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Posted by mkiv9secsupra

his striking would be too awkward and unorthodox. he would be murdered by lots of guys, especially on the ground. its like being a master of aikido and using that in mma. its just so unpractical it wouldnt do any good. a wrestler like sherk or a guy like florian would control him on the ground. im sure he couldve trained as a more modern ma like kempo or judo he couldve perfected fairly easy. but his ma from back then wouldnt much of anything in todays game.

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saying that bruce lee's striking would be too awkward and unorthodox is asinine dude. He is infamous for taking out all the inpractical moves and only incorporating the most effective moves for certain situations. All of which played to his strengths.

...Now i really think his striking would be above par, by a mile. His ground game is lacking, but he is extremely strong for his size. I mean he could curl 130 lbs. Also his takedown defense would seem like it would be at least average, as he did incorporate defending against wrestlers in his style.
It is hard to think of a lightweight that doesnt have a solid ground game though. So in htat respect he is lacking. But against chuck liddell. I could see chuck losing the standup battle against bruce lee

Bruce Lee also was currently training on ground tactics before his death, as he realized judo, jiu jitsu, and wrestling had amazing aspects in a fight. Unfortunately he passed on. Bruce Lee also perfected every technique he chose to. i think he'd be a force at 145, hell, even beefing up to 155.

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Posted by Pookie

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Posted by mkiv9secsupra

his striking would be too awkward and unorthodox. he would be murdered by lots of guys, especially on the ground. its like being a master of aikido and using that in mma. its just so unpractical it wouldnt do any good. a wrestler like sherk or a guy like florian would control him on the ground. im sure he couldve trained as a more modern ma like kempo or judo he couldve perfected fairly easy. but his ma from back then wouldnt much of anything in todays game.

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saying that bruce lee's striking would be too awkward and unorthodox is asinine dude. He is infamous for taking out all the inpractical moves and only incorporating the most effective moves for certain situations. All of which played to his strengths.

...Now i really think his striking would be above par, by a mile. His ground game is lacking, but he is extremely strong for his size. I mean he could curl 130 lbs. Also his takedown defense would seem like it would be at least average, as he did incorporate defending against wrestlers in his style.
It is hard to think of a lightweight that doesnt have a solid ground game though. So in htat respect he is lacking. But against chuck liddell. I could see chuck losing the standup battle against bruce lee

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so you honestly think that if wanderlei silva grabbed the back of bruce lees neck that he could do something about it?! or do you really think if a left head kick from hell came at him he could do much about it other than block it?! do you think he knows how to defend against a superman punch?! no he didnt... he never trained mma. he trained MA which just like boxing each sport will have a different stance, different tactics, different almost everything. so how could his style be up to par? hell he stould with his hands near his waist for god sake?!

another post of supras that i disagree on..

wanderlei silva and bruce lee are not in the same weight class man, not even close. ur talkin about a 50+ pound difference. and the hypothetical question would be if bruce lee trained TODAY, not only fighting with what he knew in the 70's. if you think kenny florian would win bruce lee, you're CRAZY

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Posted by loller90278

another post of supras that i disagree on..

wanderlei silva and bruce lee are not in the same weight class man, not even close. ur talkin about a 50+ pound difference. and the hypothetical question would be if bruce lee trained TODAY, not only fighting with what he knew in the 70's. if you think kenny florian would win bruce lee, you're CRAZY

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well i know that, but there arent too many guys in his weight class that i could compare to that are excellent strikers. im just saying if he were at those weights he wouldnt do well.....

and please quit nuthugging bruce lee everyone....he was fast and strong but he was never the best fighter. he was just the first super human fighter to be known by many. so there was a fan frenzy and everyone started telling superman stories of him. obviously he would kill me but in Lee vs Sherk id bet my life on sherk 1st round tko.....

I think he would kill everyone will his bare hands for sure!!!

bruce lee could hold his hands that low because he was faster than just about anyone with his hands or on his feet. wanderlei would get hit with 5 punches by the time he got one hand behind bruce's head. plus, Bruce Lee is the father of mma. so he didnt get into a ring or used gloves, big deal.

Well I'm not one to really promote or doubt the 'real' skill of Bruce Lee as far as physical side of martial arts goes. The man was a martial arts genius when it came to the philosophy of martial arts. That coupled with his obsession with fitness would make him a top contender for sure.

As for unorthodox striking? come on. Hermes Franca and Chuck Lidell hav some of the most unorthodox striking in MMA and look how well they do.

Bruce's ground game? Even if his ground game was next to nothing (which it probably wasn't) I think it would only take him about 6 months to get enough to get him up to par. Look at all these guys in MMA that are in the UFC and they only trained in martial arts for like 2-3 years prior. Yes, they're not great fighters, but all in all, if you look at the best fighters in MMA right now, they are experts in one art and have supplemented it with other styles. I don't think there is one fighter today (champion) that started doing MMA from the start.

Problems? I see one major problem with Bruce fighting in MMA. He liked techniques like eye gauging and attacking the neck too much. I don't know if he would be able to cope with the rules. I really think that his movies were a testiment to how he thought fights should be fought (chest stops and such).

Now that I've rambled on, my answer is that I think Bruce Lee would be a top contender in MMA for sure and probably a champion in K1.


BTW, the guy he subbed with an armbar in Enter the Dragon was Sammo Hung (a guy that trained with Jackie Chan)

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Posted by Rush
As for unorthodox striking? come on. Hermes Franca and Chuck Lidell hav some of the most unorthodox striking in MMA and look how well they do.

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i do see your point. hermes will probly never be champ though. and liddell throws some unorthodox punches often but he isnt an unorthodox fighter. i do agree that he could be a top contender but id be really iffy about his wrestling. subs im positive he could master but a great wrestler with good sub defense could deal with him. we all know he would have a great record but champ material would be really hard to tell.

How do you define orthodox striking? I define it as classical boxing (stances and arms up, etc), of which Chuck does not use. IMO

well pretty much the same...but chuck keeps his hands up........just not when he fights tito, haha... and he does have a stance somewhat. basically mirko, rampage, and shogun are all orthodox. unorthodox to me is someone like henderson, wanderlei, hermes, fedor, etc. They all use very wild combos. And henderson's and hermes' striking keeps them off balance.


this is unorthodox

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Posted by mkiv9secsupra



this is unorthodox

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That looks just like Chucks stance to me.

Chucks stance




Hermes has his right hand by his ass all the time, that can't be good for balance. lol

he is circling around so he isnt in his right stance yet

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Posted by mkiv9secsupra

he is circling around so he isnt in his right stance yet

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In a traditional boxing sense, Jackson has the crisper, more technically proficient standup.

He keeps his left hand high and fires snapping jabs. He sits down and gets excellent leverage on a right hand that he fires straight down the pipe, making sure the crushing strike travels the shortest possible distance before it reaches the target. He often follows up that strike with clean up left hooks thrown with good hip turn to maximize its power.

It is a very clean approach to boxing – one that appeals to the eye of traditional boxing fans.

Liddell, on the other hand, stands with his shoulders more square than most traditional boxers or kickboxers prefer. As a result, many of his punches travel a bit from the outside giving the perception that he loops his shots, something associated with weakly thrown arm punches because such shots don’t take full advantage of hip and shoulder turn.




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