Lee Would Possibly Dominate Any Division He Was In From Lightmiddleweight Down,he Was Extremly Knowledgeble,extremly Fast,and Reportadly As Strong As A 245 Pound Man ,and Problobly ,not A 245 Pound Beer Bellied Man
I heard a skeptic didn't believe Bruce was all that, jumped his fence and challenged him to a fight then departed in bits and pieces.
An enigma. There are countless stories (many of them in front of dozens of reliable witnesses) that pay testimony to his oustanding speed, flexibility, power and explosiveness. On the other hand, actual fight stories are very rare. Some claim Lee had many street fights back in his youth in Hong Kong, but it is usually nothing more than a loose reference to something that may or may not have happened. As I understand things, most street fights in Hong Kong were more like organised sparring sessions, with two combatants trying to force each other over a demarcated line. They certainly were not a 'traditional' street fights. There is one such encounter between Lee and another guy I have on record which Lee won, but is was not a knock-em-down, drag-em-out brawl. The story of him winning an amatuer boxing contest is true, but he used his traditional wing chun style there. Whether this was a help or a hinderance is unclear. Then, we have a documeted episode when an extra on the set of Enter The Dragon challenged Lee. The identity of the man is not known, but it is said he was a pretty decent martial artist. Lee handled him rather easily before splitting his lip with a punch. The other fight is consequence is the one where he was being harassed by the Chinese community to not teach martial arts to westerners. It wasn't much of a fight as the opponent simply wanted to compare forms, but Lee insisted on a no-holds-barred fight and got his way. In any event, fighting an unwilling opponent doesn't really count for much. That's all the ones I know of. There are probably more episodes I'm not aware of, but safe to say none were particularly demanding or brutal. The big question hangs over his intangibles, his ability to take a punch, his resistance to cuts etc. Without knowing any of these critical factors, it's impossible to predict how he'd fare. He could have been really good or a flop.
How he would have faired at Boxing professionally is pretty tough to figure, speed, power, timing etc he had in abundance, whether he had the mentality for such a profession is a different matter. I say this because he wouldnt compete in any combat cometitions as he thought true combat has no rules, but he was a scholar of the art none the less, he used all forms of combat in his repertoire, as far as boxing was concerned he said Ali was the best there was.... Bit of worthless info, Way Of The Dragon fight scene with Chuck Norris was shot from same angles as Ali's fight with Cleveland Williams, even some punches were duplicated as a tribute to The Great One....
I think the only real question in whether Lee could have been a great boxer has to do with how much punishment he would have been "willing" to cause and endure. One thing about the Martial Arts is that kind of intense training teaches you how to master technique, and surprisingly, the more advanced you get the more basic your training becomes. The point of that kind of training is to breakdown complex movements to the most minute details, and then to repeat that movement ad nauseum. When you see a master spinning around and delivering a back kick in mid air, it's really the mastery of a set of simple mini-movements you're obseving. Once you learn this process you find you are better at learning any technique of movement. The one sport that I was always hopless at growing up was basketball, but after training in shotokan karate for a few years, I found that I was able to break down my shots inch by inch, find my developed, "learned" flaws and then correct them one by one. Before too long I was hitting from downtown consistently. There's no doubt that a martial arts master like Bruce Lee could have figured out the techniques of boxing whatever his style would have to become, but boxing is unique in that that's only the start of it. Boxing is the one sport where the whole point is to deal and sustain damage, to seperate your opponent from his consciousness. How much stomach you have for that, round after round, fight after fight, year after year, is the question.
He never boxed so its impossible to say how good he would be, but he does have speed and athletism so the attributes were there. He also said a fighterwho masters western boxing and aquires the approriate wrestling skills would be unbeatable. Looking at current MMA he has been found out to be correct. There is rarely is ever a UFC champion who is an expert in only eastern disiplines like Karate or Kung Fu... which in escence, only work in theory.
Of course that's the kind of question we will never know the answer, that's obvoius... that's why we are in Classic Forum to discuss all the oportuniteiss... I'm quite convinced, that Bruce Lee would be top ten in his weight, for sure serious contender if not a champion. Why? Because of his athletism, speed, and the most important - his dedication to the sport at all... As far as I heave read, he had been training for 4-5 hours a day.. everyday... that's uncommon nowadays... It reminds me Rocky Marciano's habbit of running 6-10 miles 365 days in a year, even in the Christmas....(!) ...If somebody has a pure, raw big talent, combined with a bit of luck and we mixed it with a huge amount of training... excsuse me, but we have a champion...
Looked up wikipedia Interesiing stuff there on Lee. Dan Inosanto said, "there's no doubt in my mind that if Bruce Lee had gone into pro boxing, he could easily have ranked in the top three in the lightweight division or junior-welterweight division." Here are some of his feats: Lee's striking speed from three feet with his hands down by his side reached five hundredths of a second.[50] Lee could spring a 235 lb (107 kg) opponent 15 feet (4.6 metres) away with a 1 inch punch.[49] 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.[51][52][53] 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.[54] Lee could perform push ups using only his thumbs[42][49] Lee would hold an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer.[48] Lee could throw grains of rice up into the air and then catch them in mid-flight using chopsticks.[42] Lee performed one-hand push-ups using only the thumb and index finger[49][55][42][49] Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups.[56] From a standing position, Lee could hold a 125 lb (57 kg) barbell straight out. [48][42] Lee could break wooden boards 6 inches (15 cm) thick.[57] Lee performed a side kick while training with James Coburn and broke a 150-lb (68 kg) punching bag[48][58] Lee could cause a 300-lb (136 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a side kick.[49] 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.[59] Lee could thrust his fingers through unopened steel cans of Coca-Cola, at a time before cans were made of the softer aluminum metal.[60] Lee could use one finger to leave dramatic indentations on pine wood.[60]
As far as Bruce Lee goes,I've read up a lot on him,and those who knew him personally were in real AWE of him. Like he was almost superhuman. Those are the opinions that one would think would be considered closest to the truth.
Most of these have been certified by witnesses, film or photographs but the two I highlighted I just don't buy. The one inch punch - there is just no way Lee could generate that much power with a punch, let alone a one inch punch. If monsters like Foreman, Tyson, Liston etc. could not do that with all their weight behind a punch, there is no way a 140 pounder is going to. Perhaps with a kick, but a one inch punch? He did demonstrate his famed one inch punch in California in the late 60's, and although he did knock the guy off his feet into a chair, the guy hardly flew backwards; he sort of just fell into the chair. Holding a 57 kg barbell out straight - more believable, but improbable. Lee didn't train with heavy weight at all. In fact, the most he used in any one exercise that I know of was 41 kg, and that was for good mornings. (which is how he ended up injuring his back, by the way.) That's not to say he lacked strength or power. One time, he was hired as a fight choreographer for a movie (forget the name) and these two stuntmen took exception to the fact that this little-known Chinese guy was telling them what to do. They started questioning his judgement and giving him some attitude, so one day the film director asks Bruce to give them a demonstration. Bruce, who had his kicking boardwith him, challenged the two burly men. They had to hold the board while he gave it a kick, to demonsrate his kicking power. I'm not sure why, but they demonstration took place next to a swiming pool. Lee warned that that he kicked "kinda hard" but was met with sneering disdain by these guys. Anyway, the first guy steps up and holds the board, bracing against it. Lee takes a short hop-skip forward and nails the board, sending the guy flying backward into the middle of the pool. The other guy steps up, braces really low, and Lee proceeds to do exactly the same thing to him. Another time, on the set of one of his movies (I think it was The Big Boss) Lee between takes put a can of soda on a rafter, around ten feet up in the air. He practiced and practiced until he could knock the can of soda off the rafter with a kick. Eyewitnesses claim it was one of the most fantastic physical feats they had ever seen.
