The transcript below is from the video “Does Bruce Lee Stand A Chance Against Modern MMA Fighters?” by BlueGum.

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In today’s BlueGum video we will see how Bruce lee would do against modern MMA fighters!

Bruce Lee is the greatest legend in martial arts and combat sports history, even though he never fought professionally. So, of course, the question arises: Would Bruce Lee stand a chance against modern MMA fighters and how would he fare in the UFC, the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world.

Nowadays, many people think that Bruce Lee would surely lose because he was an actor and not a professional fighter. In reality however, he was more than that, after all, he basically invented MMA in the first place.

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Bruce Lee is the greatest legend in martial arts and combat sports history even though he never fought professionally. So, of course, the question arises: Would Bruce Lee stand a chance against modern MMA fighters? And how would he fare in UFC, the largest mixed martial arts organization in the world. Nowadays, many people think that Bruce Lee would surely lose because he was an actor and not a professional fighter. In reality, however, he was more than that. After all, he basically invented MMA in the first place. Dana White, president of the UFC, said this about him, ‘Actually, the father of mixed martial arts, if you will, was Bruce Lee.

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If you look at the way Bruce Lee trained, the way he fought, and many of the things he wrote, he said the perfect style was no style. You take a little something from everything. You take the good things from every different discipline. Use what works and you throw the rest away. With this way of thinking, Bruce Lee was thirty years ahead of his time. Back then, everybody was still training the respective disciplines such as wrestling, karate, taekwondo, kung fu, or boxing and only competed against fighters of the same style. There were no official bouts where almost everything is allowed as it is today. And although Bruce never had the chance to properly prove his skills in the ring, he has still trained a lot with great fighters like Joe Lewis, for example, one of the most dominant heavyweight kickboxing champions of all time. In many interviews, he told us how impressed he was with the power and speed of Bruce Lee.

Joe Lewis:

For a guy who only weighed 138 pounds, and he weighed less than that when he passed away, he hit extremely hard. He could hit as hard as a heavyweight. He had real fast twitch muscle fibers, something he was born with. He trained hard. He worked on a lot of his stabilized muscles. And especially his speed, I always thought he was like the fastest guy who ever stood in front of me. He had blinding speed, especially with his hands. And I know this because he stood in front of me and caught me a few times.

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According to the United States Heavyweight Kickboxing Champion, World Heavyweight Full-contact Karate Champion, and United States Black Belt Kata Champion, Joe Lewis, Bruce could hit like a heavyweight even though he only weighed 67 kilograms. This statement may be slightly exaggerated but it still speaks for the talent Bruce Lee possessed. Besides Lewis, other martial arts legends like Mike Stone and Chuck Norris were also students of Bruce Lee. Together with them, he also did something that most martial artists did not do at the time and that was sparring. According to Bruce Lee, a fighter who doesn’t spar is like a swimmer who doesn’t go into the water. It’s the best way to train for a real fight. For today’s MMA fighters, sparring matches are still an important part of training. Only those who already know what it feels like to get hit can remain calm during the fight and react accordingly.

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Nevertheless, at that time, it was an almost groundbreaking innovation, as only a few martial arts, such as muay thai, integrated sparring into their training. When he was a child, Bruce learned the basics of tai chi. But because he did not like it so much, he started wing chun, which he learned from the well-known master, Ip Man himself. And after that, he began to add various styles to his arsenal. For example, taekwondo, where he learned his famous side kick, and also muay thai, savate, boxing, and judo. Picking the best thing out of all these different styles of fighting, was the reason why he was something special. Bruce Lee, along with the lesser known Helio Gracie, is probably the most important person in the history of mixed martial arts and has inspired countless fighters to get started with the sport. But how well would the 30-year old Bruce Lee do in the UFC if you could bring him to the present with a time machine? Would he stand a chance against the best fighters in the world? Let’s take a closer look.

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Bruce was about 64 kilograms when he had his ideal weight. For a while, he bulked up and built some muscle, which brought his body weight up to almost 74 kilograms. But he felt this slowed him down and took the weight of again. With his ideal weight, he would fight in the featherweight division up to 145 pounds or 66 kilograms. But with the small weight cut, he could easily compete in bantamweight up to 135 pounds or 61 kilograms. And with a big weight cut, he could even fight in the flyweight division, up to 125 pounds or 57 kilograms. But this division got laid off recently so that’s pretty irrelevant. During the weight cut, the fighters lose water weight so that they stay below the limit on the weigh-in the day before the fight. After that, they would re-hydrate and get up to their normal weight again on the day of the fight.

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Most fighters cut five to ten kilograms but some even more than that. With a height of 1.71 meters or about five foot seven, he would be average in size at featherweight; a bit above average in bantamweight; and weigh above average in flyweight. Bruce had extremely long arms for his height and is said to have had the same reach as a six-foot-tall man, which equals 71 inches or more. This would be well above the average in all weight classes that are possible for him. And the reach advantage is worth a lot in MMA. Two of the best UFC fighters ever, Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre, both had a big reach advantage over the average in their weight class. Bruce Lee’s physique comes with many benefits. And he was also extremely fast and athletic which you can see in his movies. For example, he demonstrates his speed against the karate fighter Victor Moore, who holds the 10th dan, the highest level you could achieve in karate. In this video, you could see how Bruce counters the missed shot of his opponent with a right roundhouse kick.

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I rarely saw a kick this fast. Without head protection and at full strength, this kick could very well lead to a knockout. We’ve seen something similar in the second fight of Jon and Daniel Cormier. That Bruce Lee has good punches and kicks can be observed in many videos and in his movies. However, he was also one of the first to connect amazing striking with grappling and submissions. In the Coliseum fight scene, he defeats Chuck Norris with a standing guillotine choke. In another movie, he uses an arm triangle choke. Although many think that wrestling and jiu jitsu are his biggest weaknesses and modern MMA fighters could easily defeat him with this skills, a lot of scenes proved that he mastered at least certain techniques. And he did that many years before they became popular. Bruce was also one of the first people to set up a takedown with punches. His records also contain many other techniques and submissions. His knowledge of martial arts and fighting in general was at least 30 years ahead of everyone else during his lifetime. This became obvious at the first UFC tournament which took place 20 years after the death of Bruce Lee.

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It was the first big tournament where different styles could compete against each other and you could use almost anything. At that time, even low blows were still allowed. Most fighters only mastered one fighting style and usually had no ground game at all. That’s why Royce Gracie could easily compete against bigger and stronger opponents with his Brazilian jiu jitsu skills and win the tournament. It took a few more years for MMA to become what it is today. If you consider that Bruce Lee has made this development alone so many years prior, it’s all the more impressive. Of course, there are still much that Bruce could learn today, but I’m sure he would have no problem picking up new techniques and learning good Brazilian jiu jitsu and wrestling skills. A really good takedown offense would already be enough because his striking was exceptional. Successful fighters such as Steven Thompson or Connor McGregor also rely on their punches and kicks and only try to prevent the fight from going to the ground. In addition, Bruce has something priceless that only very few fighters have, and that is an innate talent for fighting. We saw how important that is when Jon Jones who became a champion at the age of 23 easily defeated fighters with much more experience. Everyone who trained with Bruce Lee said that he possessed such a rare talent.

Jon Jones:

It just makes you feel powerless because no one’s gonna be like Bruce Lee no matter how much you stay, how much you know, how much you probably be that type of person. He’s just a truly extraordinary one of a kind individual.

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In the few videos of Bruce, you can see that he used complex methods back then already. He tries to find the rhythm of his opponent and places traps to counter, which you can see in this video here. Because he was not just a martial artist but also an entertainer, I’m sure that not only Bruce Lee would become a UFC champion, but also one of the highest-paid athletes of all time. Especially if he would do fighting full time so he doesn’t have to deal with filming movies. Many MMA fans think that Bruce is pretty overrated and has no chance against real fighters. And it’s true that Bruce Lee was certainly not the demi-god that many fans make him out to be when they tell everyone how he would defeat ten people in the street fight. But I have no doubt that if you were to bring him to the present day, that he could defeat some professional fighters, and with a little training would even be able to become a dominant UFC champion. But if you don’t believe me, then maybe you believe this guy.

Connor McGregor:

He’d need to reincarnate Bruce Lee and that would be the only person he could bring in that could mimic me of what way I’m coming at him. So, no.”

No doubt he would have been world champion in MMA. No doubt. He’s fluid, he’s loose, he’s fast. His movement is fluid. It’s efficient. It’s functional. So many guys are addicted to strength and condition. He’s got both doping stick and slow and Bruce was free. His body was nimble.

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If Connor McGregor, who is still the biggest star in the UFC, thinks that Bruce Lee could become a UFC champion, it means a lot. But what do you think? Do you believe the legend would have a chance against today’s MMA fighters? Vote and write it in the comments. I hope you liked this video. Have a nice day and until next time. Bye!