Is Bruce Lee the greatest fighter who ever lived?

[bmd]

I hear this quite often...

but what has he actually accomplished in terms of actually fighting?

All I have ever found were anecdotes of him beating up some Chinese bums on the street in China.

There is literally zero proof that he was ever even in a fight, much less won a fight, much less should be considered the greatest fighter ever.

A lot of his "feats" are also ridiculous, and impossible:

"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." (as if just snatching the dime wasn't enough... he had to leave a penny behind lol).

"Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups." <-- so much bullshit.

"Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick." <-- As somebody who has done martial arts for years and has friends who train in Muay Thai... this is out of this world ridiculous.

"Lee held an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer." <-- Not a chance in hell. This is an elevated v-sit:





How did this legend get pumped up to insanely mythical proportions?

[SourPatchKids]

[B-Low]

1. Charlie Z
2. Ghengis Khan
3. Bruce Lee
4. Carmello Anthony
5. Mike Tyson

FACT.

[AlphaWolf24]

Was he th greatest "fighter" of alltime...no....

Was he one of the most influential fighters of alltime?.....yes.

He trained multiple diciplines and understood the value of each.

He trained modern "MMA" before 90% of the population even knew what a armbar or shoulder lock was.

[BMOGEFan]

I hear this quite often...

but what has he actually accomplished in terms of actually fighting?

All I have ever found were anecdotes of him beating up some Chinese bums on the street in China.

There is literally zero proof that he was ever even in a fight, much less won a fight, much less should be considered the greatest fighter ever.

A lot of his "feats" are also ridiculous, and impossible:

"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." (as if just snatching the dime wasn't enough... he had to leave a penny behind lol).

"Lee performed 50 reps of one-arm chin-ups." <-- so much bullshit.

"Lee could cause a 300-lb (136.08 kg) bag to fly towards and thump the ceiling with a sidekick." <-- As somebody who has done martial arts for years and has friends who train in Muay Thai... this is out of this world ridiculous.

"Lee held an elevated v-sit position for 30 minutes or longer." <-- Not a chance in hell. This is an elevated v-sit:





How did this legend get pumped up to insanely mythical proportions?

I don't know why u dispute the bag hitting the ceiling...there is a video of it somewhere..not with a sidekick but a double dragon type jump kick.

[Legend of Josh]

This is like asking if Michael Jordan the best basketball player of all time (or ever lived). On paper, yes. How could you respectfully say otherwise? Until there's a "proven" better, we have to go with what we know.

Having said that, I believe it's quite possible there has been potentially better bball players than Jordan (Earl Manigault just to toss a random possibly meaningless example out there) that simply never made it, or somewhere along the way got derailed and scored a different path in life.

In terms of fighting... LOL, there's no doubt some brawlers out there. Hell, I can throw them thangs, but any MMA professional would beat my ass senseless, etc. Who's to say some MMA fighter in the next 5-7 years "couldn't" have defeated Bruce Lee if given the impossible opportunity?

It's an interesting ? ... there's just no way to know for sure. Bruce Lee's story is just as significant as his raw fighting ability IMO.

Besides ... if Johnny Cage were real, no doubt he'd make BL his bee I tee see h.

[AlphaWolf24]

This is like asking if Michael Jordan the best basketball player of all time (or ever lived). On paper, yes. How could you respectfully say otherwise? Until there's a "proven" better, we have to go with what we know.

Having said that, I believe it's quite possible there has been potentially better bball players than Jordan (Earl Manigault just to toss a random possibly meaningless example out there) that simply never made it, or somewhere along the way got derailed and scored a different path in life.

In terms of fighting... LOL, there's no doubt some brawlers out there. Hell, I can throw them thangs, but any MMA professional would beat my ass senseless, etc. Who's to say some MMA fighter in the next 5-7 years "couldn't" have defeated Bruce Lee if given the impossible opportunity?

It's an interesting ? ... there's just no way to know for sure. Bruce Lee's story is just as significant as his raw fighting ability IMO.

Besides ... if Johnny Cage were real, no doubt he'd make BL his bee I tee see h.

on paper Lee is no where close to bieng the best fighter...just as on paper Jordan is not close to bieng the best Basketball player.

[StateOfMind12]

Really? Nobody has mentioned SinJackal yet?

[Legend of Josh]

on paper Lee is no where close to bieng the best fighter...just as on paper Jordan is not close to bieng the best Basketball player.

Who's a better proven fighter than BL? Who's a better proven bball player than Jordan?

If you ask the majority of the world population who's the best at each respective skill, who do you think gets the most votes?



Maybe "on paper" (if you want to talk purely stats, etc... I was thinking more along the lines of commonly accepted perception) wasn't the best term to use... but you get my point.

[bmd]

Was he th greatest "fighter" of alltime...no....

Was he one of the most influential fighters of alltime?.....yes.

He trained multiple diciplines and understood the value of each.

He trained modern "MMA" before 90% of the population even knew what a armbar or shoulder lock was.

He never trained modern MMA. And 90% of the population still don't know what an armbar or shoulder lock is.

Bruce Lee trained a little bit in Judo with Gene Labell, but he didn't seriously cross train like people today.

And Bruce Lee was NOT the first person to do it.

Frickin' Teddy Roosevelt used to practice boxing, wrestling, judo and jiu jitsu.

Ever heard of Danny Hodge? Of course you haven't. But anyway, he was a silver medalist in the 1956 Olympics in wrestling, and was also a professional golden gloves boxer.



He would have destroyed Bruce Lee.


So could you say Bruce Lee was one of the most influential "martial artists"? Sure.

Could you say he was one of the most influential "FIGHTERS"? No.

[bmd]

I don't know why u dispute the bag hitting the ceiling...there is a video of it somewhere..not with a sidekick but a double dragon type jump kick.

No there isn't. I can guarantee you. But if there is, show me.

And it is impossible because I know how heavy a 300 pound bag is, and nobody could make it hit the ceiling with a kick.

It would be the equivalant of little 140 pound Bruce Lee kicking Shaquille O'Neal so hard he flies through the air and hits the ceiling.

[Godzuki]

no he's not. he's exaggerated but people don't want to hear it. they'd rather believe in the myth of bruce lee than the reality.

i posted a thread a long time ago here breaking it all down from one of his students.

[bmd]

This is like asking if Michael Jordan the best basketball player of all time (or ever lived). On paper, yes. How could you respectfully say otherwise? Until there's a "proven" better, we have to go with what we know.

Having said that, I believe it's quite possible there has been potentially better bball players than Jordan (Earl Manigault just to toss a random possibly meaningless example out there) that simply never made it, or somewhere along the way got derailed and scored a different path in life.

In terms of fighting... LOL, there's no doubt some brawlers out there. Hell, I can throw them thangs, but any MMA professional would beat my ass senseless, etc. Who's to say some MMA fighter in the next 5-7 years "couldn't" have defeated Bruce Lee if given the impossible opportunity?

It's an interesting ? ... there's just no way to know for sure. Bruce Lee's story is just as significant as his raw fighting ability IMO.

Besides ... if Johnny Cage were real, no doubt he'd make BL his bee I tee see h.

Because Bruce Lee has no actual documented fights. It is just stories.

And even in the stories he's not fighting anybody good. He's fighting unknown scrubs.

It would be like some guy from the streets claiming he's awesome at basketball, but nobody has ever seen him play. The only things we know about him are what his boys say. They say he's awesome and he's beat these scrub basketball players behind closed doors. Nobody has ever seen him compete against scrubs, much less NBA players. Yet they say he is the greatest of all time.

Makes no sense.

[magic chiongson]

bruce lee can beat 2 mountain lions

[bmd]

Who's a better proven fighter than BL? Who's a better proven bball player than Jordan?

If you ask the majority of the world population who's the best at each respective skill, who do you think gets the most votes?



Maybe "on paper" (if you want to talk purely stats, etc... I was thinking more along the lines of commonly accepted perception) wasn't the best term to use... but you get my point.

That is just the thing... Michael Jordan IS a proven basketball player. He's proven it against the best in the world.

Bruce Lee is NOT a proven fighter. He hasn't proven it ever. Nobody has ever seen him fight apart from a few "witnesses", who are his close friends and family.

Bruce Lee is not proven at all. Not even on paper.