• KuroiKaze@lemmy.world
    274·
    2 days ago

    I really feel an as a lifelong martial artist and MMA practitioner that Bruce Lee’s fans have made him so insanely uncool that I don’t ever want to hear about him ever again. I am so tired of being told that all of the best fighters in the world would absolutely lose to him one-on-one and he had all these magic powers despite never fighting professionally on camera. He’s an actor first and foremost and he knew he wouldn’t do super well in professional fighting and hence never entered that arena.

    • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
      261·
      2 days ago

      I mean the dude basically developed protein shakes and Jeet-kun do which is considered the precursor to modern MMA and jkd students have historically done well in professional fighting. He won a boxing tournament in Hong Kong before his US emigration. Obviously we don’t know how he’d fare in further professional fighting, but I think it is a reach to say he didn’t do it because he wouldn’t do well. He simply wanted to be an actor not a professional fighter.

      Yeah, he’s overhyped but he was still a cool dude.

    • otacon239@lemmy.world
      20·
      2 days ago

      I don’t think Bruce Lee being cool is dependent on whether or not he was a “real” martial artist. He can just be cool as an actor.

      I don’t think the comic is implying anything beyond this.

    • riverSpiritEnglish
      212·
      2 days ago

      An MMA bro isn’t the best metric for what’s cool or not.

      • hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        61·
        2 days ago

        Also “professional fighting” when talking about points games for money sounds like a joke. They’re athletes competing, not fighting

        Or actors, if we’re talking about the largest and most well known “leagues” or whatever they’re called

        • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
          41·
          2 days ago

          This is a kind of pedantic take… Yes, they’re professionals competing in combat sports, the sole purpose of which is to fight in a controlled environment, so that you can determine a winner with as few deaths and grievous injuries as possible.

          If we’re talking about MMA, then it’s literally a combat sport that was designed with the intent of settling the discussion of “which martial artist would win in a fight”, hence why pretty much all techniques are permitted (of course there are exceptions if you want to nitpick).

          You can’t look at a sport where people are intentionally knocked/choked unconscious or have bones broken by opponents and say “they’re not fighting because there’s points and they get paid”. Professional combat sports is the closest we’ll get to modern gladiators.