re: Settle a drunken argument: Tyson vs Bruce Lee no holds barred KO match

Lee stands NO chance against Tyson. A more fair question would be how would he do against Mayweather as he is in his weightclass. I think Mayweather wins.

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Check for all of those and I disagree. I train with alot of JKD guys and they know not to fight using their opponents style. Since this question will never be answered, I think Bruce Lee wins just for the sake of this thing needs to make it to 50 pages.

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I used to train a lot with all sorts of karate-kick wielding people as well. And the one thing I've always found is that they are all severely over-rated. If we're going to make this thing 50 pages, we have some work to do. CSB time.....

I had just stopped taking a class one time, and my former instructor calls me up and says he's got an MMA show THE NEXT DAY, and one of his fighters dropped out. He knew I liked that sort of thing (this was probably '98 or '99, so MMA wasN'T popular yet), and I told him yeah. He started telling me that the guy that dropped was heavier than I was, and I knew what he was getting at, so I told him it was fine, I'd fight whoever he put out there.

Well, we go to weigh in (which was a formality) and I'm at 135 Lbs, and my opponent, Joe Black Belt, missed his anyway at 186. So there's no cage, it's a boxing ring and a ref. Your boy chooses to fight in full gi, and I opted for cycling/running pants with some gym shorts over them. He's sporting his beautiful black belt, hell I never went past white belt.

Anyway, fight starts, and he's much bigger so I go toe to toe with him for a little while so big boy can get a little tired. After a minute or so of me staying within range, I hit him square in the mouth with a jab and shoot in for the takedown. I was on top, but in his guard, and he starts scooting toward the ropes, and since I only weighed 135, I was along for the ride. Well, we get to a corner and he starts trying to buck me off, and I had a good plan so I let him, and went to my guard. Well the crowd's cheering and all going crazy and I kept thinking, "Listen to these dicks..."

So I've got my legs grapevined, he goes to separate to throw a punch, and I moved my head, latch that arm, and slapped a triangle choke on him while his arm was right there. I could tell right away he'd never seen one because he didn't roll, he tried to stand up, so I was upside down at one point, but he crumbled back and resumed his top mount even though he was caught. I've got his head pulled in tight at this point, so the ref can't see him either, and after probably 15 secs or so, the bell rings for the first round. Well I let him go and scoot out, and he is fricking out cold, face down. The ref is looking around like, "WTF?" and calls the fight. After his 2 guys get him upright and coming to, the ref comes over to raise my hand and asks me what happened, lol. I told him, "He didn't train hard enough."

But that wouldn't have worked against Tyson, so Bruce Lee loses.

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I used to train a lot with all sorts of karate-kick wielding people as well.

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I really wish this was more of an arguement about a living BJJ guy facing Tyson than Bruce Lee. I just don't have enough concrete evidence to really say he could beat Iron Mike and feel 100% confident about that. All I know is what the JKD guys I train with can do and they are pretty good and Bruce Lee is like their god.

If Bruce can slip one of Tyson's punches and get his back or put a shin on his lead leg where he can't utilize all his power, then maybe we got a fight. I know Tyson has the punching power to knock Bruce Lee into another stratosphere but I also know how fst Bruce Lee was and what he could with that speed.

Lee on heavy bag:

LINK

Tyson on heavy bag:

LINK

One looks a great deal heavier and faster to me.

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And I agree that Mayweather would win but I'd at least give Lee a chance of winning, which against Tyson he'd have zero chance.

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In a western boxing match, Lee would have no chance against either.

The OP asked about a "no holds barred" match, and because of the variety of skills he possessed, his physical conditioning - overall athletic ability and the fact he was in a bunch of real world dustups all the way through his late teens DOES make this an interesting question.

Mike Tyson knocked out a bunch of other professional heavyweights in prize fights. He also had some real world experience with fighting as a youth - and we must assume, untrained, brawling type fights.

Tyson was fairly short for a heavyweight of that era - in many ways, just Joe Frazier, 20 years later, with 2 good eyes, better hand speed and a stronger right hand, and replacing, probably, the best left hook in history (Frazier), with the best uppercut (Tyson).

But Tyson didn't have the heart of Frazier, particularly from his marriage to Robin Givens on - he still won fights on talent, but was generally beaten if the fight wore on.

In a real world fight, patience is often a detriment, as whoever gets that first punch in has a decided advantage - Tyson, with his aggressiveness and combination of speed and strength would make a formidable foe - particularly if he knew there was going to be a fight an instant or two before you did.

However, a "no holds barred", however, isn't exactly a real world fight, either - both sides know they're going to throw hands. So, in the case of the OP - Lee is going to study Tyson and Tyson is going to underestimate Lee. Lee is going to overprepare, and Tyson is going to bullrush and throw combinations.

Tyson's speed at that size may be the difference. But, he does not have the reach advantage a taller heavyweight fighter, particularly an out boxer (of which the prototype is Ali) would have - and therefore, the danger for Tyson is that he has to close the distance to land punches, and that will probably give Lee the first contact.

I don't ignore the 70 pound weight advantatge, it is just not the trump card many want to make it out to be in a no holds barred outfit - otherwise, there would be no fight - there would just be a weigh-in and the heaviest man wins. In no holds barred and real world fights - generally, the guy most ready to fight wins.

Who is going to be more ready to fight in this case? Lee at 28 or Tyson at 22?

As I said earlier in the thread, there's just not enough direct evidence out there of Lee's overall fighting ability, although there's a ton of inference and conjecture. Likewise, theres not really anything to look to as far as Tyson fighting an elite but smaller martial arts fighter either.

If I was forced to pick, I'd have to say Tyson would win, skewed somewhat by the availability of evidence on and lack thereof on Lee, but would not be surprised if it was close or even if Lee won. There's just too many unknown but potentially dynamic variables regarding Lee.

I think it's funny that some people in here think that Lee would have a mentality advantage over Tyson.

I don't know who would win, but there isn't a scarier opponent than one who thinks like this.

LINK

I fricking love that documentary.

I get choked up when he starts talking about getting beat up as a kid and how his mentality changed once he became a boxer.