I've watched a documentary and it was said that he was training western boxing as well as other fighting styles. Concerning his talent, movement, speed and hard working attitude, how do you think he could do at boxing in the past or even nowadays, if he goes for it 100%?
Bruce used as his main text for boxing a book written by the coach of the University of Minnesota's boxing team in the 1940's. Its a great book though long out of print now, far better then any I've read in the last three decades including those by Nat Fleisher. I would imagine Bruce a very good boxer, but its just too hard to guess how he would have done. Boxing by itself is quite different then the free style of fighting he established.
............These questions are impossible to answer. He certainly had the drive and athletic ability, so one could imagine him going a long way, but comparing one discipline against the other isn't like doing math. There's no way to know.
I need to find the source, but... Lee trained extensively with Ali's style. He could literally recite any Ali match from memory. He would watch the film and mimic all of Ali's moves, from a southpaw stance.
He was a legitimate martial artist. You can't really dispute that, just because he didn't fight in tournaments, he proved his practical fighting ability's several times. I don't think he was a superman like some do, but he was more than just an actor.
I think the Bruce Lee that actually existed would have been able to be very successful as a pro-boxer, he had speed, reflexes, power and some boxing training. Had he pursued boxing from the start instead of other martial arts he had the physical assets and dedication to have become one of the greatest of all time IMO. One thing that I think is still a question mark is whether he had a decent chin or not, I've not read any accounts of Lee taking a punch well, or at all for that matter, just that he was in many street fights and won them all.
He definitely had the speed and dedication. Depends on how well he could take a punch. He won an amateur school boxing competition in 1957 beating the 3 times holder Gary Elms. Not bad for the first boxing comp he entered in Hong Kong but professional boxing is on another planet. His favourite fighters were Sugar Ray Robinson, Ali, Dempsey and Willie Pep. He studied Championship Fighting Book by Dempsey and had rare books by Jim Driscoll. Never read any of those but the Dempsey book is great. Anyone read any books by Jim Driscoll?
As best as I know, Bruce Lee never competed in actual amateur martial arts tournaments on the national level. I'm talking about real, athletic events comparable to the AAU, Golden Gloves, etc. Thus, we have absolutely no way whatsoever of knowing how Lee would have fared as real, competitive martial arts fighter or as a boxer, amateur or professional. Lee was an accomplished martial artist, teacher, stunt man and actor...but nothing more. How would Lee have reacted to being hit hard in an actual amateur or professional fight? How would he have reacted to the gruelling physical punishment? Did Lee even have world class athletic ability? We can't conclude that he did on the basis of his movie stunts, or on the basis of his displays at his martial arts schools. It takes much more than that to make a world class amateur or professional fighter.
I think it'd be fair to say he was at least a decent fighter in real life situations in addition to being a "martial artist". Of course, we'll never know how good of a fighter he could have been since he rarley competed, but what fights he was in he won in rather devestating fashion for the most part.
Joey Orbillo, a friend of Bruce and 1960s Heavyweight contender said Bruce was amazing and the real deal. He also trained Joe Lewis - the karate full contact champ who took Ali to the floor. Lewis said Orbillo used to knock a young Ken Norton out in sparring all the time. Dunno how true that is? A shot to the liver did it.
How can you say he had the ability to be the best ever? You could say that about any athlete and say its potential, at least they are actually proving their athleticism in some real way. Whatd he do to lead you to believe that he could be the best ever in one of the deepest talent pools in the world? Theres way too many things relating to fighting that were never seen from Lee, we have no real indication of his power as it pertains to hitting a resisting opponent on the move, no idea of his chin, timing, anything along those lines. I don't think he was anything special as a fighter, he never actually fought, theres thousands of gymnasts who could have done the same things to be honest.
Because he had amazing dedication for one thing. Had he pursued boxing as his primary vocation and dedicated himself to it alone rather than to other martial arts and film he would have been obsessive at training and improving his game. He also had incredible physical assets, unreal hand-speed and amazing P4P punching power. He demonstrated his speed and power several times, so even though none, or few, of those demonstrations were actual fights, his speed and power were definitely real. At any rate, the OP asked how I (we) thought he would do as a boxer, this is my opinion. Oh, and another thing, I never said he would have been the best ever, all I'm saying is he could have been one of them.
Oh god, wait for the ******s to come and claim that an actor would be a great boxer, or even worse, that he'd beat proven world class fighters. atsch p.s. Steven Seagal could've been undisputed heavyweight champion if he wanted to, but he was disqualified for making 20 identically bad action movies. p.p.s. Am i the only one who feels embarrassed that someone making those ridiculous sounds and moves is associated with fighting? Everytime one of his **** movies comes along, i have to explain people that boxing does not look, work or sound like that. :-(
