Bruce Lee as UFC figther

[alko]

Bruce Lee was know also as a street fighter and so called rooftop fighter in Hongkong.

What do you think, how good could he be in this time UFC? Naturally, in his level. Because he was very small and skinny.

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[pistolpete11]

If we are taking Bruce Lee from the 60-70's and magically dropping him into a UFC fight today, he'd probably get his ass kicked. MMA has evolved so rapidly from the 90's and 00's and is still evolving today. Everything he trained is either common practice today or proven to be ineffective. On the other side, there are probably a ton of techniques that he never learned that he'd have no answer for, specifically I don't think BJJ was so wide spread when Lee was alive.

If we are assuming he was born in the 90's and still had his same mindset, physical abilities, grew up with today's best practices, etc. who f***ing knows? Part of it would probably depend on if he fought at 135 which is one of the best divisions in the UFC now or 125 which is still pretty weak.

 

[Taytro]

If we are taking Bruce Lee from the 60-70's and magically dropping him into a UFC fight today, he'd probably get his ass kicked. MMA has evolved so rapidly from the 90's and 00's and is still evolving today. Everything he trained is either common practice today or proven to be ineffective. On the other side, there are probably a ton of techniques that he never learned that he'd have no answer for, specifically I don't think BJJ was so wide spread when Lee was alive.

If we are assuming he was born in the 90's and still had his same mindset, physical abilities, grew up with today's best practices, etc. who f***ing knows? Part of it would probably depend on if he fought at 135 which is one of the best divisions in the UFC now or 125 which is still pretty weak.

Exactly this, if we're talking the skills and abilities that we know him go have and just putting him in modern MMA, he'd get dominated. Hell, UFC pioneers and champions from 10 years ago would get dominated in today's UFC. The growth, popularity, and availability of the sport has made it so much more accessible to so many people that the competition in the UFC is now the best of the best.

Their training regimens, their strategies, their ability to train with each other and focus on every martial art from high level coaches in each discipline etc. It's all brand new and leads to fighters being better than they've ever been before. Including better than Bruce Lee.

There's no way to tell what would happen if he was born in this day and age, does he join one of the huge gyms or do his own thing like Tony Ferguson? Who knows.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Somebody would just take him down and beat the piss out of him. I assume if he was born when the UFC existed he would learn BJJ as he studied everything else. I think he would be small in 135.... but I have no clue what he weighed.

 

[sdf]

That would be bad idea

 

[CDJ]

He could possibly do ok at UFC 1


He’d get absolutely murdered by Chito Vera today

(he’s 141 pounds according to google so I have him figuring at bantamweight)

 

[chicagoskycam]

He could possibly do ok at UFC 1


He’d get absolutely murdered by Chito Vera today

(he’s 141 pounds according to google so I have him figuring at bantamweight)

but there were no weight classes, although the talent was fairly bad. Tank Abbott vs. Bruce Lee..... fight!

 

[CDJ]

but... there were no weight classes although the talent was fairly bad. Tank Abbott vs. Bruce Lee..... fight!

also true lol

him vs a sumo wrestler would be nifty

 

[Chaels Arms]

I pretty much agree with everything @pistolpete11 said but I will add a few other observations.

1. His striking speed was bonkers even by today's standards and you can see that objectively in all his video demonstrations. Whether that would have translated into actual fighting against pro MMA fighters we will never know but his raw physical abilities were legit. His workout regimen was completely insane. He also loved the oblique kick and emphasized it heavily in Jeet Kune decades before Jon Jones began terrorizing people with it.

2. Lee was not completely oblivious to wrestling and grappling. Obviously he wasn't trained in BJJ but he was friends with wrestler Gene LeBell and trained with him. He literally submits an opponent with an armbar in the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. He showcased striking more in his movies because he felt that's what kept people entertained (sound familiar?) but he was well aware of the importance of grappling and submissions at a time when it would not necessarily have been easy (or expected) for him to learn those techniques.

3. The main importance of Bruce Lee in the MMA context IMO is that he embraced the idea of training and mixing multiple different martial arts during a time when most instructors and practitioners thought that was insane. During his time the idea of "my karate style is better than your tae kwon do style" was the prevailing approach and his willingness to challenge that philosophy was significant. If you took a time machine back to the 60's and showed Lee a current MMA fighter's training schedule with boxing in the morning, grappling in the afternoon and muay thai/striking in the evening he would have been one of the few people in that era who would have thought made perfect sense.

 

[16Skippy]

I pretty much agree with everything @pistolpete11 said but I will add a few other observations.

1. His striking speed was bonkers even by today's standards and you can see that objectively in all his video demonstrations. Whether that would have translated into actual fighting against pro MMA fighters we will never know but his raw physical abilities were legit. His workout regimen was completely insane. He also loved the oblique kick and emphasized it heavily in Jeet Kune decades before Jon Jones began terrorizing people with it.

2. Lee was not completely oblivious to wrestling and grappling. Obviously he wasn't trained in BJJ but he was friends with wrestler Gene LeBell and trained with him. He literally submits an opponent with an armbar in the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. He showcased striking more in his movies because he felt that's what kept people entertained (sound familiar?) but he was well aware of the importance of grappling and submissions at a time when it would not necessarily have been easy (or expected) for him to learn those techniques.

3. The main importance of Bruce Lee in the MMA context IMO is that he embraced the idea of training and mixing multiple different martial arts during a time when most instructors and practitioners thought that was insane. During his time the idea of "my karate style is better than your tae kwon do style" was the prevailing approach and his willingness to challenge that philosophy was significant. If you took a time machine back to the 60's and showed Lee a current MMA fighter's training schedule with boxing in the morning, grappling in the afternoon and muay thai/striking in the evening he would have been one of the few people in that era who would have thought made perfect sense.

And they even had the small MMA type gloves!

That goes back to why I don't like when people say he was just an actor. He literally popularized and developed a lot of what would eventually lead to modern MMA.