Actor on set of Big Boss confirmed a fight with Bruce Lee with a thaiboxer

Bruce supposedly got the better of Norris, according to an LAPD officer, in a sparring match.


Joe Lewis refused to be the white fall guy for Fists of Fury and that part went to Chuck instead.


Joe Lewis refused to train with Bruce until Mike Stone, who was already a Karate tournament bad ass and good friend of Joe's, recommended Bruce.


Bruce NEVER wanted to spar Joe, according to Lewis.


Joe Lewis if memory recalls correctly.l was voted either the decades or century's best fighter. (10 years straight of being a Grand Champion)



Fighting was vanity to Bruce. Movies were his real talent and passion.


I have read that Yip Man was not even his instructor, as he only dealt with higher skilled students and much to Bruce's anger and dismay, refused to be videotaped on his movements and training.


Bruce never entered any comps. Besides a dancing comp. He won. Woopty doo.

The boxing one is shady and cannot be confirmed 100%

 

The pressure of being a "martial arts bad ass" led Lee to carry a gun in China.


He was said to have pulled a knife on the big boss director over an argument.


Supposedly Bruce kicked the ass of some guy that jumped his fence and challenged
Bruce. The man never was revealed as to who he really was. Who wouldn't step forward as to say they lost to the legendary Lee and make a buck off it?


Bruce's "fight" against the best that the "masters" had to offer was against Wong jock strap man. Lee ran around chasing him before catching him and punching him numerous times in the back of the head and sitting on the "fighter" until the guy submitted. Bruce would later say he just sat on him because he was too tired to do anything else.


Bruce later became a better conditioned ATHLETE due to this event.

 

- According to eyewitness accounts - Ted Wong, Danny Inosanto and others - Norris did spar with Lee, and was left 'red faced'. Not sure who this LA officer is.

- Lewis turned down Way of The Dragon. Apparently, he didn't want to be seen losing to a little chinese guy. Norris took the role instead. One had successful film and tv career, the other tried afterwards but didn't.

- See earlier post about Lewis and Stone.

- According to Lewis they never sparred; according to other people who worked out when they did, they had full contact sparring. The truth is probably somewher in the middle in that they had full contact work but not actual sparring. I tend to think neither egos would have allowed it without either one backing down and developing into a real fight, which would have not been conducive to a nice training relationship that they had.

- Joe's tournament records speak for themselves.

- Time and time again, Bruce expressed that he was a martial artist first and an actor second. The fact that he is renowned for both nowadays doesn't seem possible, because people only know of his films and opinionate accordingly. Films were his 'vanity' projects.

- Yip Man was his sifu. Such is the heirachy in Wing Chun, the sifu rarely teaches juniors in class, and in the case of Bruce, he was in the early stages mainly taught by Wong Sheung Leung. Wong was the one who used to take Bruce to challenge matches between rival schools on the HK rooftops to get more experience fighting. As Bruce's experience improved he asked and got one-to-one tuition from Yip Man. Yip Man was a known acquaintance of Lee's father as well, through his Cantonese Opera connections.
This was the reason Man accepted Bruce into his school.

The filming request is true, as Bruce did not learn all the forms for the wooden dummy before he left for the US. However, whatever Man's real reasons for refusing to oblige in having Bruce film him is pure conjecture, though the rumour was that he was aware that Bruce was teaching to non-Chinese in the US. Though that never soured their relationship, and Bruce was respectful of his wishes.

- Bruce was a cha-cha champion of HK. He was apparently a skillful dancer and learnt steps easily. As for 'whoppty do', I'm feeling a hint of jealousy at the fact that Bruce could also dance well.

- The boxing match between Bruce's school and the George V school is documented. And has been repeated by people who were there, such as Rolf Klausnitzer.

Thank you for reading.

 

- Bruce Lee loved guns. He learnt to shoot in Seattle, and according to Jesse Glover was a good shot. There are photos of Bruce in Jesse's book of Bruce with guns. Steve McQueen gave him his holster from Tom Horn ( IIRC) which is still in Lee's family possession. Robert Lee, his younger brother, sent Bruce a present of a gun hidden inside a can from the US to HK.

Since guns are illegal in HK, he would have never been able to use it and as such, it was just as an ornament. Not sure how this ties in with being a 'martial arts bad ass', whatever that means.

- Lo Wei, the director of the Big Boss was never liked by Bruce. And though his directing was mininal at best, he claimed he discovered Bruce and was responsible for the film to become a hit. Most of the time on set, he was more interested in his next gamble on the horses.

It came to a head when Wei met Bruce after Wei had recently spouted more self-aggrandising pronouncements on his directing abilities and in being the man behind Bruce's success. Bruce warned his should shut his mouth in future, and Lo Wei promptly called the police saying he was threaten by Bruce with knives.

Bruce was asked about this as the media got hold of the story - probably leaked by Wei - and he asked them to look at Lo Wei - a fat old man usually chomping a cigar - and asked them if they thought anyone would really need a knife to threaten Wei.

- Bruce mentioned the guy who jumped into his garden, and how he gave the guy a sidekick to the chest, in a letter to a friend. Bruce was annoyed that he intruded onto private property, and whether he was a fan or not, he was an intruder nonetheless and felt justifed in attacking him.

It's true that any connection to Bruce would have made the media take notice back then, and indeed all types of stories appeared about people beating Bruce all the time. Another one no doubt made the papers after the intrusion. I'm sure people can find it if they look hard enough.

- Bruce Lee was challenged by Wong Jack Man. After the fight, Bruce refered to him as 'The Runner', and because he turned and ran rather than actually fight, Bruce said he (Wong) must have a really sore head and back as his hands are sore after hitting him so much. In order to stop him running, Bruce tripped him and sat on him - very MMA - and ground and pounded him, asking if he conceded, which he duly did.

The fact that the fight lasted for much longer than he thought, and that he became so winded, changed Bruce's approach to martial arts. This incident showed him the importance of cardio and cross-training, something which martial artists of the time rarely did. This incident was also the birth of JKD - the idea that one system was not enough to fight.

 

A lot of guys didn't like him, but the guys who he impressed were the more progressive thinking ones - the likes of Wally Jay, Hayward Nishioka, Jhoon Rhee, Ed Parker, Skipper Mullins, Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Mike Stone, Danny Inosanto.. the list goes on...

 

Gung Fu,


Well stated. The cha cha win was put in as a wave to the fanatics who place that with a list of accomplishments when asked about Bruce's fight record.


I grew up worshipping Bruce. Then I grew up. Slightly.



The truth is indeed somewhere in between and I still love what Bruce has inspired in my life and training and still feel for Linda and Shannon's loss of father/son/brother/husband.


Lee was as strong as he was vulnerable and weak. It was his battle against his limitations and the way he introduced teachings we ordinarily would not know or care about, into our lives.

 

All I read is a bunch of people typing out information with no sources, pictures or videos

 

It's all there, mate.

You just have to open your eyes - and mind - to the facts. Oh, and a bit of research usually helps. And talking to people who knew Bruce, like his family and friends. I've done that. Obviously, you haven't. So, whatever...you can only judge on what you know, eh?

 

So you have video of him fighting? Video of him training that doesn't show his shitty-boxing skills? Testimony outside of people his public relations brought in to make money off of him? Someone besides the bunch of burnout actors on his history channel special who don't know **** about fighting?

Sounds like you can only judge him on what you don't know.

 

If by opening eyes and mind to the 'facts' you mean naively believing a few word of mouth opinions, then please, go ahead. I'd rather stick to the real world, where facts and evidence are usually a bit more substantial.

 

joe lewis is quite simply the greatest western martial artist ever! i wasnt sure wether people were aware of this man on here or not! he was twice voted the 'the man' above lee/wallace etc not just by his fans but by his peers too , legend!

 

lee was an artist a pioneer a genius! all this 'he would get ****ed up by so & so' is playground talk! you are not grasping what he was about nor indeed the essence of true martial arts! he was a GREAT man and would be in anything he applied himself too!

 

Jesus, I just asked why theres nothing on print, video, radio clip disparaging, brushing aside Lee when he was alive. You had people back then debating whether Wilt was better than Russell etc etc. Somewhere there must be a tidbit of some Martail arts guy especially those who compete in tournaments that Bruce wasnt as good as they portray on TV. Especially since Bruce is chinese and very popular with MA at the time.

Its human nature, say I'm the baddest man in the planet. ****, I would have exposed that little ****er making millions in movies while I'm broke. I mean you have Van Damme getting lambasted, Seagal, all these guys.. Its human nature to question. I remember when Seagal was asked about Norris, he said, hes gotten better lol.

Even the Gracies back then had respect fro Bruce.. but all these hes just an actor claim I just heard post mortem.

Another thing is, why is that famous celebrities like Steve ****in Mcqueen, Kareem, Coburn etc etc would want to be trained by this guy when Norris and Lewis were the real deal? I mean I wouldnt waste my freaking time nor money if I was a huge celebrity to sought this guy after. Again, if I was badass I would be a little jealous and call Bruce out so I get them business.

 

lewis is the godfather of modern day kickboxing! and undisputedly the greatest western karate fighter in history!his legend extends beyond karate! in fact he regularly trained with marciano and ray robinson he even appeared on the front of ring mag.

 

i could 'ave' em both though! in fact i trained tong po!