?I Was the Only One Ever?: Chuck Norris Overcame a Huge Exception With Bruce Lee?s Controversial Fight Scene in 1972

In 1968 Chuck Norris became the world champion in Middleweight Karate, which he held for six consecutive years. This earned him the respect of his friend-cum-foe and one of the greatest martial artists, Bruce Lee. They each enthralled their fans with their movies, especially with martial arts sequences. But in 1972, Lee came up with a proposal to provide their fans with a fight sequence, which had been a long time coming. What resulted was an iconic and an all-time classic scene.

In an interview from 1995, Chuck Norris revealed to Conan, how Lee called him up and offered him a role in his movie. They were to fight in a manner that was different from any of Lee’s previous fights. The caveat, of course, was that Norris had to lose at the end. However, it was Lee’s respect for Norris that got him the role. Thus began an enduring legacy of the two.

Bruce Lee’s respect for Chuck Norris and how they created their most iconic fight scene

The Return of the Dragon (The Way of the Dragon in China) was a Box Office success. It is to date most widely remembered for the long and intense fight sequence between Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee inside the Colosseum. Inevitably, Conan O’Brien, the late-night talk show host, brought up the subject with Norris when he appeared on the chat show in 1995.

Norris said to Conan, “No. I was the only one who ever did really do that… he respected me because of my ability as a world champion at the time”. He was referring to how Bruce Lee hardly ever let anyone retaliate in a battle against him even on-screen. But Norris, a Karate champion himself, was different from the rest. He could fight Lee back and thus create one of the most enduring fights in cinema history.

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Conan earlier brought up the movie in the discussion, in relation to the fight itself. Norris said, “I still consider it a classic”, to which O’Brien replied, “it holds up. I watched it today”. Norris recalled his fight training with Lee which he did for three years before Lee left for Hong Kong to pursue a movie career. He called Lee “way ahead of his time”, which he thought contributed to the allure of that fight. Norris also recalled how Lee offered him the role.

How Norris got the offer from Lee

Norris got a phone call from Lee regarding the offer and this is how their conversation went down. Lee said, “I wanna do a movie with a fight scene that everyone will remember. So would you come over and do the fight scene with me?” Norris replied, “Do I have to lose?” and Lee responded, “Yeah! you have to lose”. When Norris narrated this incident on Conan, he couldn’t help but break out into laughter.

Bruce Lee’s enduring legacy is well known in popular consciousness, ridden with mysteries that still keep getting unraveled. But one thing is for sure, his friends and enemies all respected him alike. Lee went on to make one more film called ‘Enter the Dragon’ (his highest-grossing) in 1973 before he sadly passed away.

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