Dont like MMA? You don't like Bruce Lee

[KenpoDave]

Hmmm...I think Bruce had much more charisma than skill.

I disagree that he was the Father of MMA. Sure, he cross trained, but I don't think that any of his principles are any different from what an advanced practitioner of any good traditional art would know.

What Bruce Lee and modern MMA have in common to me is that they each advanced the martial arts through popularization.

Nothing wrong with that. The fact that karate was even available to me has a whole lot to do with Bruce Lee. The plethora of choices available today have much to do with MMA.

 

[JowGaWolf]

I like MMA as a sport and not as a guide to Jow Ga Kung Fu. I like Bruce Lee as an actor and definitely not as an inspiration to Jow Ga Kung Fu, which he didn't do. I think others may have a similar perspective where a person likes MMA for what it is and Bruce Lee for what he was, but it has no influence on other martial arts, unless you are taking the same martial art system that he took or created.

If MMA is known for mixing different fighting systems together and using them to fight, then Bruce Lee is definitely not the first martial artist to do that. There are many popular and old fighting systems that were born from combining 2 or more different fighting systems to create one fighting system. There have always been purist in the world of martial arts, but the majority of the people who do martial arts aren't purists.