The transcript below is from the video “Bruce Lee vs Tony Jaa | Jeet Kune Do vs Muay Thai” by BRUTAL TV.
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Bruce Lee vs Tony Jaa – Who wins in a street fight?
Who would win in a fight between Bruce Lee and Tony Jaa? A question that has appeared in every martial artist fan’s head.
Welcome to BRUTAL TV. Today, we will finally decide who would win in a street fight – Bruce Lee or Tony Jaa. Place your bets and make sure to watch till the end to find out the winner. But before we begin, let’s remind you just who these martial arts beasts are.
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Tony Jaa
Japanom Yeerum or Tony Jaa was born on February 5th 1976 in the northeastern province of Surin, Thailand. Surprisingly, his parents were elephant herders. Jaa admired martial arts films as a young kid and emulated some of his idols from Jackie Chan to Jet Li and even Bruce Lee himself. Jaa learned martial arts at the local temple school and after a scholarship at the physical education college in Konkan, Thailand. He continued to learn Muay Boran, Muay Thai, Wushu, Judo and Taekwondo.
Jaa later did some stunts in a film for Panna Rittikrai. This ended up in Jaa being seen and getting work, doubling as James Remar and Robin Shou in “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation”. His demo reel was noticed by director Prachya Pinkaew for the film “Ong-Bak”. The Thai Warrior was made for Jaa. Later, Jaa adopted the English name Tony Jaa. In 2013, after ending his cooperation with Sahamongkol Film, Jaa was contracted by Universal Studios for a role in “Fast and Furious 7”. Jaa then starred in several international films being filmed in 2014 and has since focused more on international audiences.
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Bruce Lee
It’s needless to cover the whole story of Bruce Lee, right? You came here for him, already watched all of his movies and all of our videos about him. Bruce Lee is still the greatest icon of martial arts cinema and a significant figure of modern trending media. Without Bruce Lee and his films in the early 1970s, it’s doubtful whether or not the martial arts film genre would have ever drilled and influenced mainstream North America and European cinema and crowds the way it has over the past 4 decades. The impact of East Asian martial arts cinema can be seen nowadays in so many other movie genres, including comedies, action, drama, horror, science-fiction and animation. All of them have their roots in the miracle that was Bruce Lee.
So, who is better? Here is a skeptical opinion from one of the redditors. Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do is wholly based in Wing Chun, a style notorious for not being practical in a real fight, although you would principally find hearsay from practitioners denying the claim and many other martial arts schools proving it.
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However, that is the reason why Jeet Kune Do was begun in the first place. It has a primary focus on simple techniques that are quick and efficient, like the straight jab. But its practicality is questionable. The problem is that Bruce doesn’t have any known record for fighting and all the claims of his street fights are fabled and stories at best. Bruce is a beast, no denying that. And for his build, you could place him in the running for peak human status. I think he’d probably win but it’s perhaps closer than most people would think. Others declare that Bruce Lee would definitely win.
BRUTAL TV:
Tony Jaa’s an actor. He indeed learned Muay Thai. But after coming into an acting field, he practiced moves in which his opponent would behave in a definite way to the actor’s attack. But Bruce Lee practiced real-life situation fights. It may be that Tony Jaa’s moves look good but that gives him enough time for an opponent to react. In contrast, Bruce Lee’s moves are direct and straightforward, giving significantly less time for an opponent to respond. Moreover, Bruce Lee’s speed and strength are much higher. So, is it Bruce Lee without a doubt?
BRUTAL TV:
Tony Jaa only learned martial arts for 4 years to do action movies. Bruce Lee not only invented a martial arts style but trained for his entire life. There will be specific disciplines that would take years to master. Although Jaa has done more movies since then, he has learned martial arts whereas Bruce Lee put his life of training into films. Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, only Bruce Lee has ever expressed a bit of interest in learning to use the martial arts in the way they were intended; physical combat.
Although Tony Jaa is every bit as gifted a physical performer as the other three men, there is nothing in his background to suggest he would be any better in an actual fight. From a very young age, his focus in training was to look like Jackie, Bruce and Jet and not to fight. Although he cites training in Muay Thai and taekwondo, there is no evidence that he ever fought competitively or for real.
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Bruce Lee was talented and dedicated but generally overhyped to a ridiculous extent. To the trained eye, it is immediately apparent that his fighting skills suffered from a deficiency in proper formal instruction. Jeet Kune Do is basically a not completely successful effort to compensate for that inadequacy. Nevertheless, simply because he did in fact focus on developing practical combat abilities in a fight, Bruce Lee would beat any of the other three individuals we mentioned.
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To sum up, here are Bruce Lee’s stomps. They both have relatively false fighting histories. Although leaving out the information out there, Bruce Lee still had considerably more fights and different combat forms. Bruce Lee’s strength and physical feats bump off Jaa’s. Also, not only was he more powerful, he seems to be much faster as well. Bruce Lee’s knowledge and dedication to fighting was incredible. He was a lifelong student of martial arts, studied and practiced almost every form of fighting and placed it all in his book long before MMA.
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But what do you think, Tony Jaa or Bruce Lee? Maybe there’s someone better than both. Make sure to leave your opinion in the comments section below and don’t forget to like, share and subscribe to BRUTAL TV so you don’t miss a future upload. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time.
