Posts Tagged ‘Modern MMA’

Was Bruce Lee the Godfather of modern MMA?

Everyone  who is involed in Martial Arts has probaly heard of Bruce Lee who is considered the “James Dean of Martial Arts.”  Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White has been quoted as stating that Bruce Lee was the Godfather of MMA. This statement has raised a lot of questions as to the credibilty as to how Bruce Lee would have done in modern mixed martial arts competion. ‘Bruce Lee only had one documented official boxing match in high school’, Bruce lee never fought in MMA type matches”, Bruce was only a movie actor.” I think a lot of folks are missing the point as to what that statement means. There have been many great martial artists of the past that predate Lee that have done MMA type matches. Legends such as Helio Gracie come to mind. The question of how well Lee would have done in the UFC/Pride is not what is being implied, rather, his insights that preceded and set the foundation for MMA. What makes Lee a good candidate as the “Godfater of MMA” is his his adherence to athletic fitness as a focal point in his training, as well has one of the first to advocate full contact training with focus pads, football sheilds, and full contact sparring while wearing protective equipment. This was in the late 60’s and 70’s during a time when traditional martial art training was limited to katas (forms) point sparring, and ‘one-hit on kill’ mentality. He shattered a lot of myths in traditional martial arts with his teachings and writings and laid the foundation for more modern training methods that were expanded and improved upon nearly 30 years later with the advent of modern MMA. his concepts of strength and conditioning were the prototype that many of today’s fight trainer employ for their proffessional fighters. The techniques he demonstrated in his movies featured modern concepts seen with today’s top fighters which included boxing, kickboxing, and submission wrestling. need proof? Keep in mind these movies were made circa 1970’s-over 20 years before Royce Gracie submitted his 1st opponent in UFC 1:

Bruce featuring submissions in his films Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury:

Bruce Lee finishing Kareem Abdul Jabbar with a side choke:

Bruce Lee featuring modern boxing footwork and kickboxing vs. Chuck Norris:

In closing, it isn’t that Bruce Lee would have wiped the floor in UFC-as it’s likely that he would have had more than his hands full with athletes such as BJ Penn or GSP, nor was he the “founder of MMA” as there have been many great martial artists before him that could lay claim to that title before him. He is considered the “Godfather of MMA” because his awareness and foresight of what reality combat is, and his contributions and training methods and conditioning theories that he advocated decades before they became the “standard’ for modern mixed martial artists.