Where are the modern day Bruce Lee's?

[Bubonic]

That's my question, and I'm not sure if there is an answer.
I just yearn to visually experience raw excellence on the level of Bruce Lee in the world of MMA.

I see a lot of excellent fighters, but I don't see any so wondrously excellent as to be truly legendary.

I look at Bruce Lee's wiki page, and this sticks out at me.

Physical feats

Lee's phenomenal fitness meant he was capable of performing many exceptional physical feats.The following list includes some of the physical feats that are documented and supported by reliable sources.

• Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.
• Lee could spring a 235 lb (107 kg) opponent 15 feet (4.6 metres) away with a 1 inch punch.
• Lee's combat movements were at times too fast to be captured on film at 24fps, so many scenes were shot in 32fps to put Lee in slow motion. Normally martial arts films are sped up.
• In a speed demonstration, Lee could snatch a dime off a person's open palm before they could close it, and leave a penny behind.
• Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs
• Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.
• Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.
• Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger
• Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.
• From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125 lb (57 kg) barbell straight out.
• Lee could break wooden boards 6 inches (15 cm) thick.
• Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-lb (68 kg) punching bag
• Lee could cause a 300-lb (136 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a side kick.
• In a move that has been dubbed "Dragon Flag", Lee could perform leg lifts with only his shoulder blades resting on the edge of a bench and suspend his legs and torso perfectly horizontal midair.
• Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened steel cans of Coca-Cola, at a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.
• Lee could use one finger to leave dramatic indentations on pine wood.

Why isn't anyone this amazing anymore, is it because no one can really dedicate their entire lives to martial arts, from cradle to grave anymore?

No one in MMA keeps perfect records for very long because of the volatile nature of the sport, but I'm pretty sure Lee, or someone like him could.

So I'm 23, think I'll see someone of his epic greatness grace the sport in my lifetime?

[Odin's Lapdog]

bruce lee would get his ass handed to him in mma.

please don't think anything else.

ps, performing push ups on your thumbs is hardly a feat worth mentioning.

stop living up to the myth. people existed before, during and after his time that could kick his ass. He merely basque in the televised glory of it all.

[Bubonic]

Seriously?
You figure he is just an overhyped icon?
He did one hand, one finger pushups... The guy was lightning fast... And it isn't like it wasn't documented, so how can you justify denigrating him so much as to say he'd get his ass handed to him in MMA.

[Odin's Lapdog]

because ultimately it comes down to how well you can handle getting hit/taking pain etc....

what proof do you have that it would be impossible to get him in a grapple/on the floor or that he would be impossible to get into a submission hold?

stats mean nothing in a real fight.

[Bubonic]

Well, neither us got much more of a leg to stand on then people debating theoritical comic book battles, but I will give it a shot anyways.

If he was as fast as he was recorded being, if a grapple went to shoot him, they'd get knocked out with a knee before they realized what happened.

The guy trained for most of his life in various arts and you can't question his physical conditioning.

No one since him has been recorded as being as amazing as him.

[Odin's Lapdog]

dude, let the bruce lee loving go.

there are plenty of people who study martial arts for all their lives and end up as stunt men, many don't make it to the limelight because that's not what it's about.

We happen to live in a world where we are saturated with feats so it's no longer that big a deal.

if a wiki page was dedicated to every hardcore martial artist/mma of their 'feats' this would probably hit home more but honestly, no one cares.

I've never seen bruce lee in any real fighting situation so there's no way i'm going to vouch him above a high quality mma because numbers and facts don't mean much when your face down out cold on the tarmac.

I think putting down other people's real feats based on hypothetical situations of a dead man is bad.

kinda like saying sylvester stallone could beat real heavy weights because of the shape he was in for some of the earlier rocky films. I understand he trained to fight and he could have been a decent fighter but there was still nothing to back it up.

[Bubonic]

Well he's got 13 fights on wiki, all wins, but that isn't comparable to someone like Ernesto Hoost who fought 118 times and one 98...

But as far as I know the MMA game wasn't worth it back then, especially when he was making money off of movies.

I can't imagine that this guy couldn't take a hit, with all the years and form of martial arts he took, he obviously spared in that time and took some hits.

The guys speed is still stuff of legends, and speed combined with power and skill is going to win the fight.
Who in MMA now is as fast as Bruce Lee was?

I don't think he can be written off so quickly, and I find it ludicrous to bring up Stallone to disprove the possibility of him being a contender.
I'm not talking about Arnold, or Bruce Willis...
Not even of Seagal or Van Damme who apart from being decent martial artist never did anything exceptional.

There is more to Bruce Lee then just rumour and sensationalism... I seen others talk about old sensei's that apartrently could teleport and hit you from across the room with their chi... That's not the sort of b.s. claims I'm dwelling on.

There are people that play basketball their whole lives, but they aren't Mike Jordan, Lee was more then a guy that studied martial arts and was good, he was obviously spectacular.

[danger]

Originally Posted by Odin's Lapdog

bruce lee would get his ass handed to him

this made me laugh.

[Odin's Lapdog]

meh, keep believing bruce lee is the greatest martial artist that has ever lived?

it's highly funny.

[Bubonic]

Granted, I'm not doing much to substantiate my claim that he'd be a fearsome contender, apart from delivering his track record, but I don't see you explaining how Bruce Lee would be as much of a chump as your making him out to be.

You make it sound like I'm defending Steven Seagal.

[Odin's Lapdog]

I don't see why there's all the fuss. He was a martial arts expert filmstar. So are plenty of people, big whoop.

he created his own fighting style, so have plenty of other people.

is his style the best? Debatable...

is it directly translatable to a mixed martial arts style of combat, probably not.

speed and strength is all fine and dandy bug ultimate fighting shows you need to be able to take some licks, it's a whole 'nother playing field. It had a very steep learning curve of people realise they had to adapt to deal with it.

physically, i don't think bruce lee's strength is any more impressive than a olympic gymnasts, it's probably a lot less. Skillfully, I don't believe he is leaps and bounds beyond anyone else and you do get full blown grand masters getting their arse killed in mixed martial arts.
most importantly, his heart was in entertainment and when you get to that stage then you lose it a lil. I feel he'd get eaten up for some real glory hungry brutal people out there.

If he was a live today,he'd probably be alright, but it's not like he'd come out and completely dominate the sport in his weight category. I fell the same way about ali to some extent, the world has changed, they'd both get done badly in today's world of fighting.

if they were born into today's world of entertainment with the right set of atitudes, it would be a different story but if he was transported here from the past, he'd get beaten.

that's not to say an old school samurai or ninja could not keep up with today's world but they were built for combat and fought regularly with their lives on the line, the world has become infinitely soft in comparison.

[Eggyman]

Be like water

[Arkady Rossovich]

Martial arts is philosophical not a method of fighting. That's what some really think it is...Bruce Lee is a legend and he could beat most,I would guess all mma fighters.

[Kargo Warrior]

Originally Posted by Arkady Rossovich

Martial arts is philosophical not a method of fighting. That's what some really think it is...Bruce Lee is a legend and he could beat most,I would guess all mma fighters.

And i would guess you have never trained a martial art in your life...a highly trained muay thai stylist would destroy Bruce Lee,a BJJ black belt will choke Lee unconcious,what do you think will happen if theoretically a guy like Anderson Silva who's a BJJ black belt AND a Muay Thai master do to him?

Wake up,this is the real world not some low budget 1 against 350 Chinese movie...if a guy like Mirko Crocop kicks Lee anywhere:legs,body,head serious injury would happen...so before posting something like ''he'll beat every MMA fighters'',have some knowlegde on the topic.

And martial art is a broad term...there is nothing philosophical in Muay Thai,kids from age 7 are fighting in Thailand,it's brutal it's physical to the max and it's not for everyone.The worst thing that has happened to martial arts are movies with Jackie Chen and Jet Lee and stuff...where a 4'6'' guy would demolish a 6'5'' guy with ease...and people would really believe that it's possible.

[BAH HUMBBUG!]

A lot of people have a bad taste in their mouth about Bruce Lee. The problem is, none of us, either the ones that love him or the ones that hate him really have anything to measure him against.

Did he become incredibly famous and the world's first martial arts action star. Yup, sure as hell did. Was he incredibly strong? Yes he was. Don't get it twisted Odin. He was ridiculously strong for his size. Arnold was very impressed by his physique and commented on how great of shape he was in.

I am not saying this means he can kick everyone's ass. I am not saying he is the greatest martial artist ever. Yes he did invent his own martial art form, yes so did a lot of people.

But I think you forget, Bruce Lee pretty much invented MMA. Um, yes, before him everyone was restricted to a single style. Lee's philosophies opened up this stigma and he combined many other forms to create his own style, which was none.

But Lee even said himself, he trained for speed and strength, he knew that if a much larger and stronger opponent ever got his hands on Lee that he really wouldn't be able to do much. So he tried to be so fast and strong that he could end a fight in three or four blows so he wouldn't have to engage the opponent for longer.

If he couldn't he knew he was in trouble. There many other great martial artist, but don't think Lee was Jean Claude Van Damme. Lee could fight and kick some serious ass. He grew up before Hollywood exploits of martial artists and studied with a genuine wing chung master.

How would he fare in the UFC or Pride? I don't know. Their fighting style is very effective and very centered around either striking, ground and pound or submissions that do massive amounts of damage. I couldn't say either way if he would get his ass kicked by the pound for pound best fighter right now Anderson Silva (who is a beast and really only has one legitimate loss to his record. His first fight and loss was a decision, his last one was due to an illegal kick and the one previous was a complete lucky flying scissor hold, watch it if you haven't seen it Anderson was kicking that dudes ass) or if he would kick Silva's ass.

There is no way to know.