Bruce Lee and lightweight fighters

Spiritwarrior3000

Does anyone personally believe Bruce lee could beat a good fighter over 200 lbs? Considering Bruce lee was 5ft 3 and 135lb. And also do you believe its possible for light weight fighters to be able to beat heavy weights? :smokin:

synthomarsh

what type of fight?

and yes of course Bruce Lee or any light weight fighter has a chance to beat any heavy weight in my opinion. In a fight anyone could win or loose there is no garuntees. Really old UFC had some where they purposely put heavys vs light weights and I think the light weights won most of the fights.

now back to Bruce.... do I think he would beat Jon Jones in a ufc sanctioned event.... i would say his chance is super slim on that one, bruce didn't see the evolution of bjj and the evolution of the grappling in the sport.... not to mention Jon Jones has a reach that is probably twices Bruces..... so it is hard to really compare the argument can be made if bruce was coming up now he would be trained in all that. So my answer is yes, they have a chance.... any fighter in any fight has a chance

j75j75

Benny Urquidez bested several fighters bigger then him during his career, although some of it is controversial. In 1974 he defeated Dana Goodson (6' 1", 230 lbs), while Urquidez was 5' 6", 145 lbs...

Tat2dDom0105

Speed would definitely be on his side, and he was strong as well.

default

Bruce Lee was an actor, he never fought professionaly.

Madmadz77

A guy like Jose Aldo would have him on his back and submitted within a round. It's like asking if Bjorn Borg could beat Federer, The game has just evolved way too much.

tigerblood78

Royce Gracie

michaelocampo

He was 5'7" 157ish lbs. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. Reason? Evolution of mixed martial arts.

mani_r

I think Bruce Lee would have been competitive in sanctioned MMA about 10 years ago. Since then, fighters have become a lot more well rounded, and I don't know how versed Bruce was in grappling or if it went to the ground.

Maybe he'd do better in Glory/K-1 (kick-boxing), but even then, I see the muay thai guys being more aggressive at 135.

Smaller fighters can definitely beat bigger fighters. Not in a slug-fest, but by endurance and a possible submission.

rms922

The advantage lightweight fighters have istheir speed and agility, not to mention flexibility if they train right. In Bruce Lee's case, the fact that he was a relatively small guy (5"7, 157 pounds I believe) didn't really matter. He had virtually no body fat and had lightning fast reflexes. It was Bruce Lee's quickness, and finesse that made him such a great martial artist. He is an inspiration to all lightweight martial artists out there (such as myself).

Alehmer

Weight and strength make a difference, but if you look to the older All-Japan Judo competitions you could see some very mis-matched weights in the Open division with the lightweight fighter winning. Of course that's purely grappling, but that's also where you would expect fighters to have even a tougher time.

As someone who's had a 400lb+ guy on top of me... f'ing A that is an advantage if they can get up there. Tapped out to a guy who simply flopped on my face and smothered me in his belly. Miserable, miserable feeling.

ttippie2000

I have no idea how Bruce Lee would have fared in MMA. The thing I'd like to convey is that cross training wasn't easy back then, and Bruce Lee broke a lot of rules when he found a way. Back in those days you trained at one school in one style. He also had to wade through a martial arts culture with a lot of secrecy, poor training methods and some intentional mis-information. (Paraphrasing Dan Inosanto here) Since the #1 guy in any given school wouldn't teach a Wing Chun student of Yip Man, Bruce Lee went to the #2 guy in Choy Li Fut and said, "I'll trade you some Wing Chun for some Choy Li Fut." He did the same thing for the Northern Shaolin guy and the Hun Gar guy and the Hsing-I guy and so on.

Once in the U.S. he also caught flack for teaching howlies. Kung Fu practitioners in those days taught to other Chinese people. They didn't want it to get outside of the Chinese community. When he started teaching people regardless of race he got a lot of abuse and challenges.

The point is I respect the man because he paid a lot of dues to learn different styles and synthesize them into a mixed martial art. Accessing knowledge these days is sooo much easier. And less painful. And less political.

verdemujer

I have no idea how Bruce Lee would have fared in MMA. The thing I'd like to convey is that cross training wasn't easy back then, and Bruce Lee broke a lot of rules when he found a way. Back in those days you trained at one school in one style. He also had to wade through a martial arts culture with a lot of secrecy, poor training methods and some intentional mis-information. (Paraphrasing Dan Inosanto here) Since the #1 guy in any given school wouldn't teach a Wing Chun student of Yip Man, Bruce Lee went to the #2 guy in Choy Li Fut and said, "I'll trade you some Wing Chun for some Choy Li Fut." He did the same thing for the Northern Shaolin guy and the Hun Gar guy and the Hsing-I guy and so on.

Once in the U.S. he also caught flack for teaching howlies. Kung Fu practitioners in those days taught to other Chinese people. They didn't want it to get outside of the Chinese community. When he started teaching people regardless of race he got a lot of abuse and challenges.

The point is I respect the man because he paid a lot of dues to learn different styles and synthesize them into a mixed martial art. Accessing knowledge these days is sooo much easier. And less painful. And less political.

Very well said. I believe he would have continued to grow his skills and easily included grappling and anything else he came across. The man was constantly thinking about how to improve his own skills.