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I'am sure most of you saw that Bruce Lee bio movie starring Bruce Li (The Man,The Myth). In it there was a part were Bruce got into it with some Thai boxers while filming a movie in Thailand,'Fist Of Fury' I guess. Anyway, did any of those fights between him and those Thai boxers ever really happen?
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As far as I know he has been challenged many times on the sets in China and had to fight back. I read that he fought especially during Enter the Dragon and that his fights didn't last long-opponents were knocked out or just realized they didn't stand a chance after the first exchange. Don't know about fights in Thailand, though. -
Bruce Lee mentions muay thai elbow and knee techniques through his quick drawings in Tao of Jeet Kune Do. He probably got some exposure while filming the Big Boss in Thailand; supposedly he got challenged by a Thai boxer. Not sure what happened - but it'd be fun to speculate.Comment
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I also heard that Bruce fought a thai boxer while filming in thailand. As far as I know, no one really knows what happened. The only thing that I've heard was that both Bruce and his opponent came away with a mutual respect for one another. Bruce came away with a deep respect for the unbridled power of the thai boxer. The thai boxer supposedly came away with a respect for Bruce's speed and strength.Originally posted by Tom Yum View Post
Interesting to think about...Comment
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Apparently Sigung Lee picked up a little Escrima while he was visiting the Philippines (as well as what Guro Dan showed him)...this is supposedly him at about the 4:30 mark kicking at an eskrimador he's sparring with.Comment
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I read once that Bruce fought a thai boxer on the set of the Big Boss. Basically a draw according to thai rules, and Bruce would have wone if it was str8 american boxingComment
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So we can say, maybe he did, maybe he didn't.Comment
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Bruce Lee has fought Thai Boxers!
Yes I had a magazine in the 80's that stated Bruce Lee travelled to Thailand to fight not one but two Muay Thai fighters at the same time. There was no mention on who had won but Bruce said he had respect for the Muay Thai art because of their extreme conditioning to both apply and recieve great punishment... PS My magazine was confiscated by my teacher as I was reading it in class and someone stole it out of her desk draw so I'm still searching for another one after 18 years.Comment
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acc, to some older magazines, Bruce did have a five-round match, a consensus draw, with a thai boxer. How good a tahi boxer, who knows? An American serviceman who witnessed the fight claimed that Bruce won by a fair margin, but he was unable to dominate or KO the thai. For what it's worth, I have never read this story on the web or anywhere in 20 years.Comment
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I'd be interesting to hear if Sifu Tackett has any info. on this...Comment
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Some comments from Guro Inosanto on Bruce Lee's exposure to Muay Thai: (http://www.thaiboxing.com/inosanto-interview.php)
This quote implies to me that Bruce Lee never had any high-profile fights against top Muay Thai guys, as Guro Dan would presumably have mentioned it if he had. On the other hand, Guro Dan says that Bruce Lee didn't have MUCH time in Muay Thai, which could imply that he did at least some training, sparring or fighting with Thai boxers.T.T.: Ajarn Chai has been asked whether Muay Thai is part of Jeet Kune Do. Could you comment on this?
D.I.: To say that Muay Thai is part of Jeet Kune Do is incorrect. People do not take entire systems and put it into Jeet Kune Do. JKD is supposed to be a person's own personal expression. It's just like if you were writing a term paper. You would extract from and refer to different books, but you cannot copy a whole book into your term paper. You can only put it in your bibliography.
But Sifu Bruce was highly influenced by Muay Thai. Whether he was doing it correct by the standards of the Thais would be another thing, but he tried to put the essence of Muay Thai into his training.
[Late 1960s era photograph of Dan Inosanto, Bruce Lee and students]
T.T.: Could you expand on your vision of the relationship between Muay Thai and Jeet Kune Do?
D.I.: Before I met Ajarn Chai, Sifu Bruce was trying to do what he called his personal expression of combat. And if you look at his notes you will notice that he investigated different arts. He listed the strengths and weaknesses of arts such as Tae Kwon Do, Shotokan, Boxing, Savate and Thai Boxing. Thai Boxing was one of the systems he really liked. He extracted the front round kick from Savate, and he liked the headbutt from Burmese boxing. But the powerful rear leg and the use of elbow and knee is copied and highly influenced by Muay Thai. But he didn't have that much time in Muay Thai, so he didn't have the chance to go in deeply. So whether it was bad or good Muay Thai is debatable. But he did incorporate Muay Thai techniques into his personal expression, Jeet Kune Do. It is true that he did copy it.
T.T.: In the mid 1960s Muay Thai had not yet been taught in this country, so it must have been difficult to learn Muay Thai extensively. Did you have trouble with this?
D.I.: In my opinion as I look at it here in 1995, Lee delved into Muay Thai but maybe not as deep as he thought he knew it. When we trained, he didn't know exactly how the Thais did it. But we improvised a foam forearm pad from football, which is sort of copying what we observed from the Thai pad. But we held it incorrectly, with the palm facing inward instead of outward like the Thais. I was corrected after I started studying under Ajarn Chai and Nyom.
Sifu Bruce told me once, and I don't agree with him now, "They're like the John L. Sullivans with the feet." [i.e., lacking mobility] and that's not really true in my opinion. Because I see that the Thais have footwork and they are really mobile when they kick, depending on what camp they are from. So right now here in 1995 I think that had he studied longer he would have been able to take more from Muay Thai.Comment
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Just my two cents here guys...from my understanding Bruce observed muay thai when he was in Thailand on a trip (filming a movie I believe) and this is when he first became interested in finding out more about Muay Thai. You have to remember that at the time (late 60's early 70's) we did not have dvd's or vhs tapes, we did not have training videos that Bruce could run out and buy in order to really take a good close look at the art. Instead he had 8mm film that he would watch and learn what he could from that in a lot of cases. Also remember that back in that era that martial arts was not as open and accessible as it is today. Bruce had no way of calling up some of these guys and saying "hey, I am Bruce Lee and I would like to study your art and find out more about it." This just simply was not an option back then because the martial arts community was so closed minded. Thai fighters would not have let someone from the outside come in to study. Just like the Chinese Masters were mad at Bruce for teaching non-chinese. Bruce based his opinions on what he saw at the time. He liked the Thai elbows and the knees but thought that the thai's left themselves open when throwing a roundkick and even wrote that they telegraphed their kicks far to much and had little footwork. This is all written in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. I have also talked with Larry Hartsell about this and have asked Dan about it years ago at a training camp. Bottom line is Bruce was still way way ahead of his time for even looking at other arts as a way to improve his martial arts.Comment
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I think had Bruce lee lost it would have been in headlines and we would know about it, if he had won everyone wouldve thought welldone and wouldve been not too surprised as he did this often, and so wouldnt have had much to tell eveyone about in comparison to if he lost. Thats my point of veiw on it.Comment
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