Bruce Lee Research Paper

8 November 2013
Bruce Lee
One of the most famous persons in the world has changed the way society perceives the use martial arts are of course Bruce Lee. Were we no longer limit ourselves to one style but multiple styles for various situations, and today we use these fighting styles in various action films. Bruce Lee is the most influential martial artist and action film star of the twentieth century. Now days we have a sport called MMA, mixed martial arts, if it wasn’t for Bruce Lee this might have would never existed as far as we know. “Jeet Kune Do, which translates into the way of the intercepting fist, and that, is the attitude you build your own style using whatever works for you that very thought right there is the corner stone
“In reality you have to have a little piece of everything to be a complete fighter that’s what mixed martial arts is and Bruce Lee is the father of mixed martial arts” (White). Every single person that is a professional fighter always relates back to Bruce Lee. Lee changed the world with his skills and knowledge of martial arts. You need a little bit of every fighting style to have an advantage in a fight. Mixed martial art is one of the fastest growing sports around the world where people compete against each other with various styles of martial arts. All the UFC fighters have said that they were influenced by Bruce Lee; they study his martial arts and philosophy since young ages. Every fighter’s aspect of fighting has been changed when they were introduced to Bruce Lee’s style of fighting. Bruce Lee worked on circular movement so he can open up more targets on the opponent. Fighters in MMA, which adopted the same principle of redirecting motion to counter strike their opponent is influenced by Bruce Lee. “In Enter the Dragon, the first scene of the movie they have mixed martial art gloves. Those are almost exactly the same kind of gloves we fight in today” (Varner). Bruce Lee
“I told people all over the world that Bruce Lee is one of my idols, mainly because of his mental stability, because of his fighting spirit, it was more mental than just physical” (Leonard). Ray Leonard was not just influenced by Lee’s fighting skills, but mainly because of his mentality and fighting spirit. This influenced him a lot that he became the best fighter of his generation; he has earned 6 championship titles and 5 weight classes! Bruce Lee influences people all differently some philosophically, some action film stars and some as a fighter with different fighting styles. “To have no style is a style that was very influenced by Bruce Lee” (Bravo) this is what all the MMA fighters live by most of the time; to have a style is to stick to one thing like wing chun, or karate. You stick to one thing a person who knows the weakness of karate will overpower you with a better style of their own, but if you mix your fighting techniques you will be stronger than then person you must have no style but not having a style is a style according to Bruce Lee. Jeet kune do, the way of the intercepting fist is more than just one type of style but multiple styles together to whatever fits you best. This is just so much influence to professional fighters in MMA, and not only just UFC fighters but famous people like Chuck Norris, Jet Li, and Jacki