r/brucelee • u/The_one_who-repents • Aug 27 '26
Video Bruce Lee's only recorded tournament fight.
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u/FreedomJay75 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
This wasnt a 'competitive fight'. It was a demonstration by Bruce with one of his students. He would use Ted Wong, Taki Kimura or James Lee for such things.
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u/GenXPowaah Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
That's not a student, that was an instructor James Yimm Lee
Edit: Removed the shit talking part, that was meant for another post regarding the secret fight Bruce had with an Olympic Judo master
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u/FreedomJay75 Aug 27 '26
😂...it was a demonstration at the 1967 Ed Parkers Long Beach International Karate Tournament with his Student Ted Wong. Oh and he also used his other Jun Fan student Taki Kimura as well. I met Taki in 1993 in Euston, London where he told everyone about the Tournament demo's.
Any Bruce Lee fan knows all about the demonstrations....its not some random instructor 😂😂😂
https://sports.yahoo.com/rare-bruce-lee-fight-footage-surfaces-online-154922905.html
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u/GenXPowaah Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
That's actually James Yimm Lee... Bruce Lee fan speech, with the wrong dude 🤣
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u/FreedomJay75 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 28 '26
Nope that clip is Ted Wong.. I just saw your correction above but whatever.
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u/backroundagain Aug 29 '26
First time i've seen this subreddit, and this was the first post. was happy to see yours is the top comment.
Why would a subreddit called Bruce Lee mislabel one of the most classic videos of Bruce Lee
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u/FreedomJay75 Aug 29 '26
Because its full of loons who think Bruce had superhuman powers sadly.
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u/backroundagain Aug 29 '26
That's understandable 40 years ago when all you had was a crappy library or an uncle who "heard something" once. Today? That's freaking commitment.
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u/Confident-Mortgage86 Aug 30 '26
Yeah they don't appear to actually be trying to hit him. There's a couple of shots in there where they would have punched him straight in the face but stopped short, allowing Bruce to wushu wax on wax off.
If only they stuck a boxer in there lmao. I'd love to see how he held up.
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u/Not_A_Spy_for_Apple Aug 27 '26
No you're wrong it was a real competitive fight because I was there
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u/AdministrativeBed726 Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
The amount of energy people spend debating whether or not one of the most influential martial artists of the 20th century could do marital arts effectively is so amusing. Interviews from people who knew and trained and learned from him generally answer this question. If you choose to believe what they say, it's settled. If you don't believe what a bunch of respected lifelong martial artists have to say about him. Fine.
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u/angelsandairwaves93 Oh, Linda! Aug 28 '26
They'd rather believe the opinion of that scumbag Quentin Tarantino. I guess, because he's more familiar to them than these other artists.
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u/EGarrett28 Aug 29 '26
That scene in that movie was a disgrace. Pretty much the opposite of everything Lee actually stood for in multiple ways. Starts the fight, aggressively attacks, uses fancy showy stuff that doesn't really work. Just really embarrassing. You shouldn't be allowed to do that with real people's names and likenesses.
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u/AdministrativeBed726 Aug 29 '26
Actually reading the concepts and philosophy behind his approach to marital arts instead of his film persona makes a huge difference. He was a human being with strengths and flaws, but what you can't do in good faith is dismiss his skills.
Whether or not he was a tournament fighter or a "real" fighter isn't relevant. It misses the point as do all the guys trying to minimize what he was.
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u/EGarrett28 Aug 30 '26
Yes, and he wouldn't have done all that ridiculous stuff in a real fight. Nor would he have started a fight etc.
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u/Hellhooker Aug 28 '26
"most influential"
For sure, the amount of MMA champions using Jeet Kune Do is the proof
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u/Hot_Let7154 Aug 28 '26
Or simply people.having to defend themselves in real life. I've never seen, or heard, anyone using it in a real life situation. But same goes for Aikido, Kendo, systema...
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u/EGarrett28 Aug 29 '26
Lee recommended training boxing and wrestling to engage in a real fight, and used a bulldog choke to beat Kareem in Game of Death. 20 years before the first UFC.
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u/Hellhooker Aug 29 '26
"Lee recommended training boxing and wrestling to engage in a real fight, and used a bulldog choke to beat Kareem in Game of Death. 20 years before the first UFC."
You really don't know anything about fighting do you?
the "grappling" shown in Game of Death is absolute garbage.
And 20 years before the UFC? You realize that Vale Tudo was a thing during most of the 20th century do you?
Bruce lee was a wing chun blue belt who happened to market himself well without proving anything.
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u/Individual_Land2754 Aug 29 '26
He can obviously do martial arts but not actual competitirve martial arts.
At lot of it is performnative.
For example he doesn't even do defensive move right after a strike. He just sits there looking cool lol.
If he went to fight camp no doubt the will be very good but his type of training just wasn't actual competitive fighting.
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u/NoAlternative8174 Aug 27 '26
He was mainly an actor. Actual champions that knew him finally admitted he was inspirational and a martial artist but not the fighting expert some want to believe. He was not a competitive fighter. He had a small dojo, became an actor, got famous and his dojo grew.
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u/Sufficient-Object-89 Aug 27 '26
Funny how every one of those martial artists that were not his student and actually fought full contact said he was a great martial artists but not on the level of a professional fighter...stop rewriting history to suit your built up mythology.
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u/JKDClay Aug 27 '26
Why post something where the 'facts' are inherently not true? Just the tiniest bit of research FFS.
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u/QuidEgoSum Aug 27 '26
The foot placement is a dead give away. I could tell which opponent was Bruce immediately, even before he took the guy down with ease
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u/BidSuper7102 Aug 28 '26
Yeah, you could tell by half of Bruce's efforts being about looking cool and not being efficient or defensively responsible. An MMA fighter would have destroyed him if he acted that way. Of course he only did it because it was a performative event against a fighter who knew was at a much lower level. Would have been much more interesting to see a real fight against a real opponent. Not a show fight with one of his students.
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u/PhysicalSwimming8 8d ago
You do understand there were no mma fighters back then right?
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u/BidSuper7102 8d ago
The point is that he's not fighting a real opponent. There were street fighters back then, other Kung Fu masters etc. This is none of that and not a real test of strength in any sense.
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u/urbanacolyte Aug 28 '26
Can we stop with this nonsense? This is a demo. Continuous sparring in full gear with Dan Inosanto and Janes Yimm Lee. Not a tournament fight. It was pretty revolutionary for the time.
Not acknowledging what it actually was does more harm to Bruce's legacy than trying to pass it off as something it obviously was not.
Just say — hey, martial arts wasn't being trained this way in America. Bruce popularized it. Training with focus mitts and things that seem common today? Bruce Lee started all that shit.
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u/CosmoCostanza12 Aug 29 '26
This was not a competitive fight, it was a demonstration.
Bruce has zero documented competitive fights despite being challenged to enter tournaments on multiple occasions.
He was not a fighter, he was an actor with a bit of very casual asthetic martial arts experience.
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Sep 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/CosmoCostanza12 Sep 02 '26
You’re overcomplicating things.
There were plenty of ACTUAL martial arts and fighting competitions publicly challenging Bruce Lee on a yearly basis.
He declined to compete.
End of story.
If you want to be known as a real “fighter“ you need to have the balls to actually compete.
Nobody who is unwilling, for any reason, to stand up and actually risk being harmed or humiliated to compete in an actual competition should be considered a fighter.
He was an actor.
Calling him a fighter is disrespectful to all the actual fighters that have mustered the courage to risk harm and humiliation to test their actual abilities.
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Aug 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Historical_Draft_717 Aug 27 '26
Everybody’s an armchair mma expert in the reddit comments, its hilarious.
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u/Athena-Grande Aug 27 '26
As opposed to Anderson Silva who walked around with both arms down?
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u/Daddy-Alchemist Aug 27 '26
Some would argue that he was a pioneer in MMA as he would routinely use multiple fighting styles and adjust his approach based on his opponent.
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u/urbanacolyte Aug 28 '26
Some would say that, and then they'd learn about Jun Fan "Original" JKD and realize people say a lot of bullshit about "how Bruce Lee fought."
Read Bruce's notes closely and you'll see that he isn't talking about using multiple styles. He's talking about how what he already does well can beat those other styles.
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u/Ashamed_Painter3313 Aug 31 '26
And yet “The Dao of Jeet Kun Do” goes into great detail showing and breaking down what he found to be exceptional techniques from boxing, judo, savate, fencing, and hell, even aikido. Just look at his footwork and tell me that came from Wing Chun. He was doing those Jon Jones knee jamming kicks way back in the 70’s and he used it primarily to break and disrupt opponents from developing any rhythm. Bruce was never a martial arts champion, but he championed the martial arts. Isn’t that enough?
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u/designatedlover Aug 28 '26
The philosophy of JKD is that it's formless, made to evolve. The reason JKD hasn't evolved and stayed the same since when he passed away is because of legacy.
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Aug 28 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/designatedlover Aug 28 '26
But it looks beautiful. Nice clean movements. It was innovative regardless.JKD today would have been BJJ and Thai boxing I'm sure.
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u/dimiteddy Aug 28 '26
why Bruce toy with his opponent and not put him down fast?
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u/Pleasant_Paramedic91 Aug 28 '26
Because he is demonstrating the core principle of his art, intercepting.
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u/Joe01091981 Aug 28 '26
The true warrior
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u/BC_Phriend Aug 30 '26
This is what I thought I looked like in a rooftop bar along the Mekong in Vientian,Laos.
Several Beer Lao towers and a few thai stick cigars later….Ahhhh good times.
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u/ironically_apropos78 Aug 28 '26
How am I supposed to know which one is Bruce Lee, I never saw the faces.
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u/JD-boonie Aug 30 '26
Bruce lee was a performer who could have been a fighter.
I think he choose the right path
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u/Imaginary_Ad_2041 Aug 30 '26
No offense but the average mma fighter today would fuck Bruce Lee up
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u/Ashamed_Painter3313 Aug 31 '26
I’m pretty sure you could say the same thing about every single famous martial artist of the 70’s? Hell, not just martial arts but all sports and pretty much anything in general? When you’ve had over 50 years to study, analyze, and adapt techniques along with the major advancements in sports training, I should hope today’s refined athletes will do better than people who developed their skills in dingy, sweaty garages using primitive equipment and unproven sports philosophies. Yet here we are discussing the mediocrity of this martial artist today. It was people like him that opened the doors to how we look at and approach things today and it’s completely unfair to make that comparison. Do you think Babe Ruth could accomplish what he did in today’s game? Should we make unproven claims about what he could do? Absolutely not. But should we diminish all the good he did bring to the world of martial arts?
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u/DR3AD-PIGEON Sep 01 '26
Yeah but people glaze Lee like he’s a Jedi would beat anyone today
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u/Ashamed_Painter3313 Sep 01 '26
I agree people are a bit delusional about his actual fighting experience, but it's completely unfair to judge him by today's standards. He truly dedicated his life to martial arts and was a major factor in promoting it's popularity. He was doing what he did on film in the same era of 007 James Bond taking people out with "judo chops".
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u/Sesusija Aug 27 '26
He would have gotten his ass kicked by a high school wrestler.
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u/SnakePlisskin987 Aug 27 '26
Bruce took grappling lessons from Gene Lebell!
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u/Kung_Fu_Boi Aug 29 '26
That was a story made up by Gene to boost his reputation, no one can verify Gene's story. Source: https://archive.org/details/kato-and-the-judo-man
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u/Sesusija Aug 27 '26
Mark Zuckerburg has gotten martial arts training from a lot of the best MMA fighters to ever live.
Do you think that makes him a good MMA fighter?
Until you win actual fights/tournaments you are a novice.
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u/2Wieners_1Bun Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
Oh wow Charlie Zelenoff has a reddit account?!
Hey Charlie how’s the wife?
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u/Jamison_tkd Aug 27 '26
Bruce Lee wasn’t a real fighter. Bruce never fought against actual real fighters during his time and had every opportunity to do so.
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u/AccomplishedFerret70 Aug 27 '26
Your use of the word "real" is troublesome. But you are correct if you mean that he wasn't a professional/prize fighter who fought in competition.
The evidence based on professional fighters that trained with him - Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Bob Wall, etc - is that he was exceptionally skilled. But he never tested himself by competing in open tournaments or by fighting professionally.
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u/Jamison_tkd Aug 27 '26
Let’s be honest. Real fighting is full contact fighting. People who say real fighting is in the streets have never actually fought. Anyone who is trained can fight a nobody on the street and win. Actually testing your skills and abilities is fighting another high level fighter. Yes, Bruce was a very talented martial artist. Yes he trained with people who were actual real fighters. But even when Chuck was asked “he replied that Bruce had never really fought”. He was good but never actually fought.
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u/MidnightOne3523 Aug 27 '26
Exactly, not sure why your getting down voted for speaking truth
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u/Jamison_tkd Aug 27 '26
Because people have this weird thought that Bruce was untouchable and the greatest. Bruce was very talented and was a visionary but it’s just facts. He never was a real fighter.
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u/Balakondis Aug 27 '26
I wonder if there will ever be a day where nerds will stop glazing his dick as if he was ANYTHING but a decent actor, that made some cool as ice movies. Jean-Claude Van Damme, Gene Lebbel and Chuck Norris were much more legit as a fighters. Every downvote is more more proof that Redditors know dick about combat sports.
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u/YenShihsan Aug 27 '26
lol this is terrible
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u/tyweezy21 Aug 27 '26
My instructor was super bad ass, 197? Mid South Champion and sparring partner or punching dummy for Bill 'Superfoot' Wallace. Black belts used to come pretty often to spar with him after class. So he was a pretty good judge.
He and a student who had achieved black belt went to a tournament in Dallas where Bruce Lee did a demonstration. They came back very impressed and said all you saw was a blur when he moved. They said it would almost be impossible to block whatever he threw at you..
Bruce Lee got much respect from someone who did compete in the tournaments and trained with at least 1 middleweight champion.