An ?Ugly Win? Over His Rival Gave Bruce Lee a Harsh Reality Check Once

Bruce Lee?is highly credited for bringing an essence of novelty to primitive martial art styles. The master strongly believed that the traditional repetitive moves were ineffective in fighting the opponent. Hence, Lee began promoting modern martial arts in the early 1960s in the Chinese community in America. However, soon the master realized his fighting ideology was insufficient after an ugly win over the legend Wong Jack Man.

Lee?s biography, Bruce Lee: A Life, revealed that Lee was highly upset with his fighting prowess after winning a controversial battle with Wong in 1964. It made the legend wonder about his martial art skills.

What upset Bruce Lee about his fight with Wong Jack Man?

When Bruce Lee started his martial arts classes in Seattle, his business flourished, and he opened two more schools in Oakland and Los Angeles in 1964. The master taught many Americans as well. However, teaching martial arts to non-Chinese people was not well entertained by orthodox Chinese martial arts gurus. Hence, the legend Wong Jack Man challenged Bruce Lee to a conditional fight. If Lee loses, he would have to close his schools. However, the fight was in favor of the master.

Although Lee defeated the legend, he was upset with his “ugly win”. In his biography, his wife Linda explained,??The fight, he realized, ought to have ended with a few seconds of him striking the first blows ?instead of which, it had dragged on for three minutes.??Moreover, Lee found himself panting three minutes after the fight. This made him realize that his fighting prowess was still not-up-to-the-mark.

The realization of his capabilities discouraged the master. He comprehended that traditional martial art skills were not sufficient for an effective fight. The ugly win made him accept the truth that he needed to work harder. ?Modifying a few techniques was insufficient. He needed to start from scratch and formulate his own personal brand of martial arts??was the master?s biggest reality check. Nevertheless, he also wondered if he wanted to spend the rest of his life teaching martial arts.

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Soon, in 1967, after a profound study of martial arts, Lee founded a hybrid fighting style, Jeet Kune Do, which was developed with a unique ideology.

Bruce Lee’s idea behind Jeet Kune Do

Bruce Lee is known as?the founder of Jeet Kune Do (JKD)?which is a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawn from different combat disciplines. The master introduced it as a defensive combat style.

With JKD, the master intended to engage in direct combat with his opponent rather than waste time. It was a straightforward form that concentrated on self-defense more than causing trouble to others. Nevertheless, the master never showed off his style as he believed in??Showing off is the fool?s idea of glory.???The JKD technique concentrated on helping the practitioner to calculate the opponent’s move and counter-attack it accordingly.

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Eventually, Jeet Kune Do revolutionized Hollywood?s way of showing fighting scenes after watching Lee in The Big Boss and Enter The Dragon. Many celebrities also paid the master to learn JKD from him. Moreover, Lee?s style also became the foundation for today?s MMA.