Could Bruce Lee beat a Professional Boxer?

[MysticNinjaJay]

Lee could obviously fight, but it's his screen presence, charm, speed, ripped body and timing that made him the legend he is, we'll never know how good he was and most sources put him down as a being a gd street fighter, and u know the standard thug in the street is prob not trained to pro boxer lvl.

Lee against a pro boxer....who knows?!

Let the man RIP

It's fun to speculate. Bruce Lee can not rest in peace. He's been immortalized.

People are going to talk about him for years and years.

He died in his prime. We never got to see him grow old and see his physical abilities decline. That image of Bruce Lee as the cocky badass, the invincible Martial Arts icon who revolutionized the world's perception of Martial Arts is going to live on. I enjoy having intelligent conversations on this subject with people who are able to distinguish fantasy from reality. We know that Bruce Lee was just a man. He couldn't beat up a room full of Black belts. He couldn't beat any man in 60 seconds. He could lose a fight just like any one.

The question is how good was he?

Well truly we'll never know but it is fun to imagine how good he was based on all of the facts available.

[richardt]

fck you neo, trinity, and morpheus.

I love that video. Always nice to see when some jackass body builder thinks that muscles mean he can beat any guy who does not have big muscles. Then they get skunked by some 130-150 pound guy who really knows how to fight.

[TheRichCoward]

He made his own form of fighting. The Rich Coward would weight drain him

[betmen]

Ofcourse, put him in the octagon or ring with opponent in the same weightclasses and MMA rules or Kickboxing rules i bet 100% he'll win.

[RAV3N]

They are the baddest men on the planet. They actually fight lol. They dnt say 'ok lets fight, but youre not allowed to use your legs, and you cant grab me. you can only punch me but you must only punch me above the belt and not behind the head. and if you knock me down, you have to give me 10 seconds to recover.'

In MMA, minus eye gouging and groin shots, its actual real fighting.

You are a dimwit, you are not allowed to punch to the back of the head in mma either.

You cant headbutt, break fingers, bite, several strikes are illegal whilst your opponent is on the ground, etc, etc.

As you can see there are many rules in mma as well, which means that it isnt real street fighting.

[MysticNinjaJay]

You are a dimwit, you are not allowed to punch to the back of the head in mma either.

You cant headbutt, break fingers, bite, several strikes are illegal whilst your opponent is on the ground, etc, etc.

As you can see there are many rules in mma as well, which means that it isnt real street fighting.

Obviously they're both combat sports with rules. MMA is closer to a real fight than Boxing. In a street fight between a Mixed Martial Artist and a Boxer the Mixed Martial Artist has the clear advantage, especially on the ground.

I think that Bruce Lee was very close to being the complete fighter that Mixed Martial Artists are. What he lacked was the experience of fighting elite competition on a regular basis. For that reason I think he would lose to elite Mixed Martial Artists today but he would have some advantages over an elite Boxer in a street fight.

[LoadedWraps]

I enjoy having intelligent conversations on this subject with people who are able to distinguish fantasy from reality

We can start having intelligent discussions when you set the example of distinguishing your fantasys and agendas with reality by publicly admiting that mma is neither closer to a real fight than boxing, nor is it more useful in a street fight.

[MysticNinjaJay]

We can start having intelligent discussions when you set the example of distinguishing your fantasys and agendas with reality by publicly admiting that mma is neither closer to a real fight than boxing, nor is it more useful in a street fight.

MMA is both closer to a real fight than Boxing and more useful in a street fight.

It's still a sport with rules, but really how can you dispute this?

MMA allows more techniques than Boxing. The less restrictions on what is allowed in a fight the closer a combat sport is to being a real fight. That's just a logical and factual statement.

Because Mixed Martial Artists know more techniques they are therefore more effective street fighters than Boxers. It is a statistical fact that the majority of street fights end up on the ground. MMA fighters specialize in ground fighting. It's a major part of the sport. Boxers only specializes in punching. There are many aspects of a real fight that Boxing does not prepare you for.

Of the few professional Boxers who have competed in Mixed Martial Arts few have been competitive fights. Royce Gracie destroyed Art Jimmerson. Randy Couture schooled James Toney. Ray Mercer did knockout Tim Sylvia with one punch but he lost to Kimbo Slice (that one is particularly sad as Kimbo was known for bare knuckle Boxing and had only trained in MMA techniques for a short time while Mercer was a former world champion in Boxing).

There are countless videos on Youtube which confirm the statements I've made. Feel free to debate me on this but I don't think there's anything that you can refute.

[Masters01]

We can start having intelligent discussions when you set the example of distinguishing your fantasys and agendas with reality by publicly admiting that mma is neither closer to a real fight than boxing, nor is it more useful in a street fight.

You consistently come up on this website talking dumb ****. This is just more dumb ****. I will give you a list of things that are permitted within the rules of MMA that are NOT permitted in the rules of boxing that more closely assimilate a real street fight, and then you come up with a rebuttal:

- kicking
- backfist punch
- kneeing
- elbowing
- grabbing
- wrestling
- take downs
- ground n' pound
- submission locks
- no 10 second rule to recover from knockdowns

[billeau2]

I think it's fairly ignorant for people to seem to think they know what Bruce Lee would've been like against an elite level boxer. I don't see how that could be determined since Bruce Lee generally did not even attend martial arts tournaments because his style was an amalgamation of a number of styles and he would refuse to conform to the rules and standards of the bulk of competitive fighting.
If you've ever actually done any research on his fighting abilities the examples you would find would be limited to footage of him sparring, his observed movements and defensive techniques as well as stories from friends, family and people who may have known Lee. Such information can be taken with a grain of salt but if you discover many people with a reputation for honesty describing similar circumstances or encounters they may possibly be true.
A common reference to Bruce Lee is that his strength was unparalleled in that his level of focus or as he referred to it, the level of "chi" or energy in his body was so concentrated that he could easily knock people back and onto the ground with one quick, short motion. He had reputedly done this on several occasions to individuals much bigger than himself.
He was an actor yes but his reflexes and overall speed were incredibly high. He trained more rigorously than most boxers today and was in absolutely peak physical condition.
I honestly don't know if he would beat the best boxers in the world but I really don't think it's possible to say for sure one way or another. His legend has certainly been associated with a lot of myth over the years, no doubt due to the plethora of unofficial films that fictionalize his abilities and history.

Thats because Bruce Lee was a teacher. He was radical at the time because he took traditional ideas and subjected them to real conditions. When you read about his so called "fights" you are reading about Bruce testing a hypothesis. He fought traditionalists to see if his ideas were on the mark, not to try to win a fight. He fought against boxers to see if a straight punch could work, and he was severely limited because straight punches do not work with big gloves.

One can have opinions about Bruce's innovations....IMO compared to what people like the Dog Brothers do today Bruce's ideas were somewhat principle laden, obtuse and the actual content was very limited....but his ideas created a lot more thorough research and development and there are guys who did use his knowledge and consider it primary.

The biggest misconception boxers on a boxing website have about Lee is what he did: Lee was a reformer, not a traditionalist. He was not using his art to fight and win at competitions. He was developing principles....NOT TECNIQUES!! that would enable one to train properly in the martial arts. Lee did not want to see people beat up out of ignorant assumptions such as "well ancient warriors would kick high to kick people off of horses." Yes people believed things like that.

Lee was not alone. Dante (John Keenan), a student of Robert Triase was another innovator, Riley Hawkins developed Okinawan fighting techniques, Ed Parker deconstructed Hawian Kenpo movements....Someone like Riley Hawkins, a man who was big, strong and fast as greased lightening looked like a fighter...Ed Parker was also a big fast guy, while Lee was smaller and looked more like a dancer than a fighter...But looks can be decieving! All three guys just mentioned were major theoretical innovators of the martial arts. They also all knew and respected each other.