Could Bruce Lee beat a Professional Boxer?

[RichCCFC]

He would **** up guys in UFC, boxing if he trained specifically for lets say 6-7 years he would have success too.

We are talking about an elite athlete and fighter with extraordinary gifts.

[MysticNinjaJay]

I don't really place much emphasis on eyewitness accounts of Bruce to determine if he could have killed a guy, ect. I am a big proponent of judging form with my own eyes.

I agree. Eye witness accounts are good especially if there is consistency in the statements but nothing beats witnessing something yourself.

Bruce had impeccable form. He truly was a marvel in that regard. His footage on the heavy bag is mocked because he swings from the waist and has a "jumpier" style than is typically accepted in boxing. He passes the eye test to me though. Know who else had a jumpy swing from the waist style? Naseem Hammed.

I think people look at Boxers as the standard when judging Bruce Lee's punches on the heavy bag. He was practicing the Wing Chun straight blast not trying to punch like a traditional Boxer.

Also discussions of whether Bruce had a chin are ultimately moot for street fighting.. He always preached defensive responsibility.. Either outmaneuvering or intercepting an opponent's strikes, then retaliating in kind. With the speed and dynamic explosiveness he was working with, this could all happen in a half a second or so... He was big on using maximum force and any tactic to end a fight as soon as possible. The philosophy being: The longer you are in a fight the more probable of sustaining an injury that degrades performance.

Bruce Lee intended to end fights quickly but that's not always practical.

I believe Mike Tyson said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Bruce Lee could have encountered someone who could take his best shot and deliver one of his own. If that happened his durability would be tested as well as his heart. We don't know what that aspect of Bruce Lee's fighting ability was like. When comparing him to larger and equally skilled opponents his durability is especially relevant.

Too much debate is dedicated to the basic question "was Bruce a badass?" But, One final piece to this puzzle is fight choreography. There is a reason Bruce insisted on doing all of his own fight choreography in his movies. No one, to date, has managed to put so much actual martial application in a movie's fight sequences as Bruce did. There is a reason for that. Life imitates art and art imitates life. That's enough for me.

There's a couple of good Martial Artists in Hollywood who are comparable to Bruce Lee. I think he paved the way but let's give credit to the other movie stars who have done their own fight choreography and looked great doing it.

[ThePunchingBag]

Wing Chun destroys boxing in a streetfight.

In the ring playing by pro boxing rules, he'd struggle but put up a good fight.

I don't think he'd win though since a pro boxer has adapted to win scoring contests. Bruce knew how to seriously harm a person multiple ways and would probably feel limited using only the end of his fists.

It's like putting an elite football player in a rugby match. The football player has all the ability and athletic gifts to succeed, but it would take him awhile to adapt to all the rules.

A boxer is a specialized fighter who puts himself in a specific box or niche of combat and there excels in that specific niche. Bruce Lee didn't like niches. Just like sprinters are to triathletes, so is a pro boxer to Bruce Lee. The best triathlete could beat a mediocre sprinter, but they're never coming close to Usain Bolt in sprinting. Bruce's mastery of combat would be enough for him to beat mediocre boxers in a boxing ring, but he wouldn't be able to beat the elite in the sport. Bruce's saving grace is that he is far more versatile than any pro boxer and can do much more outside of that niche.

[Elroy1]

Wing Chun destroys boxing in a streetfight.

In the ring playing by pro boxing rules, he'd struggle but put up a good fight.

I don't think he'd win though since a pro boxer has adapted to win scoring contests. Bruce knew how to seriously harm a person multiple ways and would probably feel limited using only the end of his fists.

It's like putting an elite football player in a rugby match. The football player has all the ability and athletic gifts to succeed, but it would take him awhile to adapt to all the rules.

A boxer is a specialized fighter who puts himself in a specific box or niche of combat and there excels in that specific niche. Bruce Lee didn't like niches. Just like sprinters are to triathletes, so is a pro boxer to Bruce Lee. The best triathlete could beat a mediocre sprinter, but they're never coming close to Usain Bolt in sprinting. Bruce's mastery of combat would be enough for him to beat mediocre boxers in a boxing ring, but he wouldn't be able to beat the elite in the sport. Bruce's saving grace is that he is far more versatile than any pro boxer and can do much more outside of that niche.

I know many Wing Chun dudes,

I have never met anybody who was good at Wing Chun who could even fight very well against anybody simply bigger than they were and when they were in a fight they reverted straight back to hayemakers as soon as it became competitive.

Conversely boxers mostly clean up in real fights.

Kind of ****s all over THAT theory!

Any kickboxer would even beat them up I reckon.

The difference is that they don't actually spar, don't actually fight and don't even train properly to fight.

Their whole training is based totally around "the technique". All my Wing Chun mate does is carp on about his punching technique and how he "punches through" people LOL (when in reality, his technique is what we would consider an "arm punch" and a "push punch").

In boxing, punching form is only a very small part of the formula. Nowhere in Wing Chun do they develop "timing" and "accuracy" like the boxer does and they are by and large nowhere near as athletic either!

All facts my sad, sad friend!

Show me a wing chun practitioner who has ever gone on the dominate..

"boxing"
"kickboxing"
"wrestling"
"MMA"

???

I rest my case...

[A-Wolf]

Big Bruce Lee fan and there's a few things here that are fresh. Karma delivered.

[MysticNinjaJay]

Big Bruce Lee fan and there's a few things here that are fresh. Karma delivered.

Thanks. I put some thought in to this thread and hoped to have quality discussions.

I recommend that people check out Jesse Glover's book Bruce Lee: Between Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do. It's really interesting. Glover gives a detailed account of the fight between Bruce Lee and a Karate practitioner on a YMCA handball court. The fight sounded absolutely brutal. The Karateka had goaded Bruce Lee in to the fight, agitating him over the course of days until Bruce Lee lost his temper and accepted the fight. Glover's account is really dramatic.

[Unseen]

On a Facebook group by BJ Penn. Most of the UFC fans said Lee would beat Muhammad Ali... LOL.

They said Bruce can use kicks.

[Syf]

I think people look at Boxers as the standard when judging Bruce Lee's punches on the heavy bag. He was practicing the Wing Chun straight blast not trying to punch like a traditional Boxer.

Does not look like a wing chun punch to me. Wing chun is based on a universal Kung fu concept of stick, follow, issue. The strikes involved in wing chun are usually from in "congress". The origin point being from a point of leverage over your opponent. Wing chun is huge on positioning yourself close to your opponent, and besting their body positioning with your own with a series of parries and grabs...

Any technique long and dynamic was coming from BRUCE, NOT wing chun.

Bruce Lee intended to end fights quickly but that's not always practical.

I believe Mike Tyson said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

Bruce Lee could have encountered someone who could take his best shot and deliver one of his own. If that happened his durability would be tested as well as his heart. We don't know what that aspect of Bruce Lee's fighting ability was like. When comparing him to larger and equally skilled opponents his durability is especially relevant.

Bruce trained speed power and arresting tactics... Momentum stealing. In a street fight all of this would serve him well...

I think the key question is can he pull the trigger. Many martial artists suffer from this stigma they train and train and train but except in life threatening situations they cannot bring themselves to hurt another. Many of the best martial artists basically need a moral high ground, with competition fighting not being enough impetus.

There's a couple of good Martial Artists in Hollywood who are comparable to Bruce Lee. I think he paved the way but let's give credit to the other movie stars who have done their own fight choreography and looked great doing it.

Who? Tony jaa.. Jet li... Jackie? Donnie yen? Jaa too acrobatic with not enough actual fighting application...jet not as dynamic...Jackie concentrated on being entertaining not enough application... Yen is good, one of my favorites, but still inferior to Lee. Which silver screen martial artist are you referring to that includes actual martial application as seamlessly as Bruce did?

[MysticNinjaJay]

Who? Tony jaa.. Jet li... Jackie? Donnie yen? Jaa too acrobatic with not enough actual fighting application...jet not as dynamic...Jackie concentrated on being entertaining not enough application... Yen is good, one of my favorites, but still inferior to Lee. Which silver screen martial artist are you referring to that includes actual martial application as seamlessly as Bruce did?

Donnie Yen and Jet Li are names I had in mind.

Also Michael Jai White. He's a very underrated actor who I've been very impressed with lately especially in his movies about Martial Arts. Have you seen Blood and Bone or Never Back Down 2?

[Syf]

Michael jai white is better than Wesley... About on par with JCVD to me. Both karate guys. So it fits. Machida has shown karate can be used as a base to fight effectively. Most intriguing to me about Bruce is the combination of physical specimen, long range techniques (kicks, leaping strikes) and of course wing chun technique that would make him a nightmare to engage at close range.

Jai White is good, in a classic karate kind of way.. But doesn't have the same diversity of technique as Bruce had. At least to me.