what if bruce lee was a boxer instead of a martial artist?

[BroughtonRulesRefuge]

- Kinda disappointed in the rather low discussion this forum has taken over the guy that branded Oriental martial arts into the western conscious that ultimately gave rise to the mma movement.

Let’s start with the first international MMA tourney near as I can tell held in Japan, a couple of dozen disciplines circa the early 90s. A young San Antone boy was intrigued enough to answer the call, his sole expertise in the physical arts being a high school football lineman and enjoying quick shoots over to a Nuevo Laredo bar for some drinkin’ and fightin’ out back. I’m sure he’d seen some Lee movies, near every boy and many women have, and he may have even logged some boxing sparring, point being he made it to the quarterfinals before having to pull out with injuries, probably hands that were never meant to go through a full 16 elimination tourney. His opponent who received the bye was none other than Royce Gracie who won the tourney. Could our bigger, stronger SA boy have taken Royce? Popular opinion says no, but popular opinion said the kid would never be close to the quarter finals. Reminds me very much of the popular opinion on this thread.

When the mma punks started polluting the boxing boards bac when with their 2 bit punkery, I checked out some fights and wasn’t impressed much. I told’em than the top guys would be learning boxing and start to dominate and GSP proved to be the one, most of his latter fights boxing carefully to decisions by never giving the other guy a chance to roll around.

I’m surprised some of you ain’t given Bruce two club feet as far as comparing him to today. Really, now, nobody did more to study and combine the various factions of martial arts, but here you got him stagnating in 1973?

Words may fail to register my level of derision, but good news is there is a new bio out by a Michael Polly and another in the que by one of his buddies that details his fights and life. Bruce turns out to have some Jewish blood and smoked the good stuff back then and seems to have been a ladies dandy, the latter two I had long surmised though the Jewish genetics a revelation to be sure.

Regardless, Bruce had the natural attributes to be a very good lightweight and welter, the only question of if he had a good enough chin to become a p4p top 20, and then if he had the temperament to dumb himself down to just one discipline, boxing. So yeah, he could never be a good boxer because he weren’t DUMB enough.

Bruce Lee has already entered the great pantheon and remembered forever, and that’s quite good enough for those of us who knows how it goes.

[Sequitorian]

Bruce Lee has no place in any serious discussion about anything ...

[Caractacus]

The Mannasa Mauler also had some Jewish genetics in their with his Scots-Irish and Cherokee Indian ( on both sides)
I find it hard to believe all this revisionism over the last few years to try and bring Bruce Lee down from his greatness.
If nobody was fighting MMA in the 1960's,who are you all comparing him too back in his time ?
( Also most likely IMOP ,Bruce Lee was smoking "The Good Stuff" for his painful back injury he got training with weights earlier to eleviate the pain)

[Caractacus]

( I came across this interesting clip,interesting because Bruce Lee's fighting Kaiee appears to have been restored to the film's soundtrack .
When I first saw this movie at the Drive-in back in 1974 ,the soundtrack was dubbed with some Funky Cool music instead).

[Controversial]

Martial arts are overrated.

[Caractacus]

Some 3 years later (1972)

[Abradolf Lincler]

Although Lee had much better hand skills than McGregor does.

Yeah? Any proof?

Yeah, I've seen Mcgregor box. You think his hand skills are better than Lee's?

Yes, I do. His hand skills are proven. Lee's are not.

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

[Sequitorian]

Someone has a man-crush ... na na na na na na ...

[Caractacus]

check this out.

[HomicideHenry]

This has become the new "Wilt Chamberlain Could Have Beaten Ali" thread

[APerno]

They signed to fight but Wilt Chamberlain backed out at the last minute; it's a fact. They argued over whether Lee could kick him in the shins or not.

[Sequitorian]

They signed to fight but Wilt Chamberlain backed out at the last minute; it's a fact. They argued over whether Lee could kick him in the shins or not.

... uh it's Ali ... not Aah Lee ... ...

[Caractacus]

check this out (you just would have no defense from his Flashing Fists of Fury !)

https://cscottrollins.blogspot.com/2012 ... ragon.html

[HomicideHenry]

The greatest never was in history, sorry to say... I respect him more than flat out liars like Frank Dux though.

[Caractacus]

Well all I have to say to that comment is this.

[HomicideHenry]

I'm sure you believe Uma Thurman was really that badass too

[Caractacus]

Bruce Lee studied films of boxers,Particularly studying the footwork of Willie Pep the explosivness punching power of Jack Dempseythe in-fighting technique of Joe Louis and others..
( Bruce Lee even studied the fighting prowness of The Big Cats like Leopards,Tigers etc)

[sweetviolenturge]

I owe my pro boxing career to Bruce Lee. But, with that being said all this talk about him being a great fighter is just utter nonsense.

When I was 13 years old back in 1974 I went to the drive-in with my parents to see a double feature of ENTER THE DRAGON & THE CHINESE CONNECTION ( aka FIST OF FURY ). And, I was blown away by Lee's on-screen skills & charisma. Before we even left the theater I was begging my parents to allow me to take Martial arts lessons so that I could emulate my new found hero.
After a week or two of pestering them, they relented & I began my lifelong relationship with the martial arts & combat sports. Which began with various colored belts in Karate, Judo & Tae Kwon Do but eventually led to a black belt in Kajukenbo Kempo & amateur & pro boxing. So, I'm well schooled in both traditional & hybrid martial arts as well as the sweet science.
So, I believe that I can rather accurately separate actual combative skills from onscreen magic. And, in my opinion, what fuels the vast majority of the Bruce Lee worship that we see from so many people is a result of what he did onscreen as opposed to what he was actually capable of in reality.
I don't mean to disparage Lee at all. Hell, to this day some four decades later, I'm still a big Bruce Lee fan.
But, I'm also a realist. While he was a very innovative martial artist who is responsible for many revolutionary ideas, we're also talking about a man that battled a chronically bad back for much of his adult life. Which would have severely limited his effectiveness in actual combat. Not to mention the fact that we have no idea how he would have reacted to getting hit on the chin. Or the body for that matter.
So, for some to say that he may have become a world champion or even an all-time great had he devoted his time to boxing is rather silly. I sincerely doubt that he'd have been able to compete with a competent regional area Golden Gloves boxer.

[Caractacus]

Dang,you could see for yourself how amateurish that Bruce Lee had made all of those other Martial Art Champions and even boxers look who also did movies over the past 45 years.
Name some boxers or Martial Artists who looked better then Bruce Lee beating ass on the cinema screen then.

[Sequitorian]

... troll alert ...

[Caractacus]

Bruce Lee would have probably boxed professionally as a Southpaw not because he was left handed but the old school way was to have his power side leading.
and Man, Bruce Lee would have been Cool as a Cucumber under pressure in boxing too.(IMOP)
Check his opponents Bell getting rung at 0:46 of the clip.

[sweetviolenturge]

Dang,you could see for yourself how amateurish that Bruce Lee had made all of those other Martial Art Champions and even boxers look who also did movies over the past 45 years.
Name some boxers or Martial Artists who looked better then Bruce Lee beating ass on the cinema screen then.

It's called choreography.
Surely you don't believe that how someone looks kicking ass onscreen translates to how they'd actually do in real life?
I mean, for Pete's Sake, Patrick Swayze looked damned good cleaning up on guys in ROADHOUSE but something tells me that he couldn't walk into the world's roughest bars & actually take care of business.

[sweetviolenturge]

Bruce Lee would have probably boxed professionally as a Southpaw not because he was left handed but the old school way was to have his power side leading.
and Man, Bruce Lee would have been Cool as a Cucumber under pressure in boxing too.(IMOP)
Check his opponents Bell getting rung at 0:46 of the clip.

It's a friendly sparring session with a longtime training partner. Not a real fight.
Surely, being the boxing fan that you are you've heard about great "gym fighters". Guys that tear up their training partners in the gym & even get the best of top-notch fighters & champions while in camp sparring with them but once they're in the ring in front of the crowd in live combat where it counts they have mediocre records.
That could very well have been the case with Lee for all we know.
Sure, there's an outside chance that he'd have been an excellent boxer with a successful career had he dedicated himself to that endeavor but the odds, frankly are against it.
Just watching him hit the heavy bag in training I can see a plethora of flaws that he'd have had to work on to just get to the level of a good novice fighter.