Why do so many ppl think Bruce Lee was a real fighter?

[Cheek busting]

Didn't he create his own martial art or something like that?

I do agree that he's overrated in the sense that some people think he was this real life superhero with 20 lives and rechargeable power, but make no mistake, the man could fight.

Who did he fight and beat?

How many karate or martial arts tournaments did he fight in?

Differrnce between putting in a display of fighting and actually fighting

[Cheek busting]

He is a legend. So legendary stories and mythical feats will always be associated with him. His actual skills are irrelevant. There is no way to prove or disprove what he was actually capable of at this point. Trying to say he wasn't this or that is a waste of time because no one is listening. He was a childhood hero to a lot of people, including myself. I remember having three posters on my wall in the late 70's. The Six Million Dollar Man, Farrah Fawcett and Bruce ****ing Lee.

Im not trying to prove anything. I don't have to. He wasn't a fighter. He never had a single fight.

There's a huge difference between fighting a choreographed fake fight and actually fighting another person for real.
.of course real fighters like Norris have nothing but good things to say. But you could tell Norris was like "is this guy serious? Ahh poor kid he actually thinks Bruce was a legit fighter"! When asked about who would have won in a real fight.

You guys can keep living in make believe land cause a hollywood actor was ur hero idol doe hahah

[madsweeney]

Whenever this question gets asked, I always side with the best fighters of his time that ALL said he was a great fighter. When guys like Gene LeBell, Mike Stone, Joe Lewis (kickboxer), Jim Kelley, Bob Wall see him as an equal...I believe them.

[madsweeney]

Im not trying to prove anything. I don't have to. He wasn't a fighter. He never had a single fight.

There's a huge difference between fighting a choreographed fake fight and actually fighting another person for real.
.of course real fighters like Norris have nothing but good things to say. But you could tell Norris was like "is this guy serious? Ahh poor kid he actually thinks Bruce was a legit fighter"! When asked about who would have won in a real fight.

You guys can keep living in make believe land cause a hollywood actor was ur hero idol doe hahah

You realize he became an actor as a result of his training and skills, not the other way around. His reputation as a martial artist got the attention world class fighters and THEN of producers. He made one Hollywood movie, a movie that premiered after his death. His films and acting was in Hong Kong, not Hollywood.

[Anthony342]

Im not trying to prove anything. I don't have to. He wasn't a fighter. He never had a single fight.

There's a huge difference between fighting a choreographed fake fight and actually fighting another person for real.
.of course real fighters like Norris have nothing but good things to say. But you could tell Norris was like "is this guy serious? Ahh poor kid he actually thinks Bruce was a legit fighter"! When asked about who would have won in a real fight.

You guys can keep living in make believe land cause a hollywood actor was ur hero idol doe hahah

Why do you keep mentioning Norris as being a higher standard? Chuck Norris did compete for sure and won some karate competitions, but they were point fighting competitions, like in The Karate Kid. Norris never competed in any full contact fights either. With Lee, there's the famous story of him winning a fight in front of some old Chinese masters for the right to continue to teach his art to non Chinese and anyone else he wanted. And the stories of him fighting an amateur boxer. So his experience is limited, yes.

The reason why Lee is respected is because he invented a whole new martial art. But the Gracies are more respected because they not only invented a new martial art, but went out and fought a bunch of guys with limited rules to prove how effective it was. But you still gotta give a guy credit for using what came before and coming up with a whole new system, being able to teach it to a whole lot of people and gaining the respect of a whole bunch of highly respected guys in the martial arts community.

So to answer your original question, it's because of the mythology, the legend built up from his movies but also from the people who knew him and worked with him and sparred with him. The truth is, his experience is too limited to know how good he truly was. But that's where the term legend comes from. When there's limited information, people love to fill in the blanks and build someone up a lot bigger in their mind until they're larger than life, like the old time boxers there's only a few filmed fights of to go on. Other than that, there's only writings or journalists, authors and historians that saw them to go on, so with each generation the legend grows and the stories get wilder.

If we had youtube and smart phones centuries ago, I doubt you'd have as many people believing stories about Davy Crockett killing a bear when he was only 3 or the other stuff they tell us in history class, like George Washington chopping down some famous cherry tree, Babe Ruth's called shot, which has since been called into question.

So the short answer is because people love to inflate the legends more and more as time goes on.

[Anthony342]

I thought this was kind of interesting too:

http://www.sagacombat.com/blog/famou...they-fighters/

[Willy Wanker]

I'll always respect and admire Bruce Lee.

But my boy Van Damme was the real deal, he actually competed in kickboxing.

18-1 with 18 knockouts baby!

[ukbox]

Bruce Lee would nunchucka the fück out of jcvd, mighty mouse & roland rat quicker than most yanks could spell ufc


Nobody rating the UFC guys has ever seen them get an accidental finger to the face?
How do they respond?

Bruce Lee made the eyes a target..50 years ago along with his promotion & demonstrations of mma

This is why the Chinese masters wanted to protect their arts.

The lack of respect & general attitude shown reflects their fears

[ukbox]

Who did he fight and beat?

How many karate or martial arts tournaments did he fight in?

Differrnce between putting in a display of fighting and actually fighting

So what do you fight in fella?

[Derranged]

He actually did compete there just isn't much footage of it.

What I will say though is that traditional martial arts in it of itself is questionable. There's this myth surrounding martial arts; that one is practically invincible if they master it. Problem is that it quite a bit of it is really just demonstration and NOT against a resisting opponent, which makes a world of difference.