Unsupported Claim: Bruce Lee fought and taught many champions who were his students. Boxing champions in the military and National Judo Champions.
Fact: There were only 3 students who studied with Bruce Lee were authorized to pass on his JKD tradition.
1) Taky Kimura-no martial arts experience prior to Bruce Lee
2) James Yimm Lee-kung fu experience (not sure what style),
3) Dan Inosanto- kenpo black belt and others
While extraordinary martial artists, none of those three held any championships prior to (or after) studying with Bruce Lee.
Ted Wong held a certificate in both Jun Fan and JKD, but wasn't authorized to teach JKD. He also had no prior martial arts experience before studying with Bruce Lee and never won any championships.
Back in Seattle, before JKD there was a group of students, which seem to be the focus on the "champion" claim.
Jesse Glover: From his own website, "Seattle NCGF": Jesse Glover was born October 15th 1935 in Seattle, Washington. He was Bruce Lee’s first student and assistant instructor. Prior to meeting Bruce, Jesse studied Judo primarily. He excelled as a Judo player, winning many tournaments against higher ranking belts due to his superior technique. From prior research, Jesse Glover won the Pacific Northwest Championship in the Brown Belt Division. No claim or record of any national championships.
Also, of note when Glover asked Bruce Lee about teaching, this was the response, "When I told Bruce that I wanted to teach he said it was okay as long as I didn't call what I was teaching either Jun Fan or Wing Chun". (Just point that out that he wasn't an instructor in either of Bruce's systems of Jun Fan Kung Fu or JKD).
James Demile: Amborse Academy claims that, "He (Demile) became the Heavy Weight Champion of the Air Force for two years. He found his aggressiveness as a street fighter worked well in the boxing ring. He was undefeated and won 128 fights." In his own words, James Demile never claimed to be HW Champion of the Air Force, but that, "All I remember was most of my fights were in Fairbanks and they were not only with the Air Force but with the army that was attached to our base. The championship bouts for the different divisions took place in Anchorage. Most of the fights took play during the winter, which was long and cold. Most of us who boxed in our unit did so to keep from having to work on the flightline which was often 50 or 60 below zero. The fights were refered to as "smokers" and were often only three rounds at two minutes a round. We would often fought two or three times in one day depending on how many competitors there were. It sounded like I was a good fighter, but to tell the truth the guys I fought were not that good. They were goldbricks like me who did not want to go outside into the cold. The good fighters were in the Navy and Marines, which we never had to fight. Since I was brought up in an Orphanage I liked to fight. I still have a Neanderthal mentality when it comes to fighting and it was what allowed me to survive, not only in the ring, but in the street. My memory is vague on those years, but I know they were a lot of fun."
James Demile went on to create "Wing Chun Do" based on his training with Bruce Lee. Demile and Bruce had a falling out after Demile told some of Bruce's students that what Bruce was teaching wasn't practical. Bruce confronted Demile about it and that was the last they spoke. Demile also went on to say that the JKD Bruce purposely left out things that made his art work. "In all the years I have known people who trained in anything Bruce taught in his later periods, I have never known them to use the basic concepts as Bruce applied them. This includes Danny Inosanto. I do not mean this in a negative way, only that I feel Bruce cheated a lot of people by leaving out important details he used himself."
Bruce was VERY worried that someone might learn and be able to beat him.
