Mind Numbing Stupidity on the UFC Facebook page

**Rivington** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 11:51am

Originally Posted by Phrost

The point of tying Bruce Lee in with the UFC is to sell more pay per views to the silk pajama crowd that spends a billion dollars a year on stamp-cut shuriken and katanas made in Mexico.

I also wonder if it's a way of edging out the Gracies a bit.

**Gabetuno** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 12:17pm

While Lee's philosophy about aliveness and formless training may have been influential to the traditions now found in MMA, I would actually argue that without Bruce Lee, we might have gotten to this point in MMA a lot more quickly.

It was his movies that desensitized the American public to a very certain kind of violence: pretty choreographed bad guy/good guy violence. In my eyes, it's this expectation of a certain kind of encounter that jarred and repulsed so much of the populous when they were exposed to actual vale tudo combat, which, as we all know, can often be anything but pretty to the layman.

If we hadn't had this kind of nonsense filling our head when we first all got exposed to UFC 1, it might have been a bigger eureka moment for a lot of people, rather than the "OH GOD, those guys aren't doing kung fu. That's just street fighting" response that MOST people made before they actually had tried out their Wing Chun on an alive opponent.

Sure you can argue that Bruce's movies inspired a lot of people to take up martial arts, but they probably inspired a lot of people to believe a bunch of bullshit too. And since I think it's agreed we would have eventually gotten MMA anyway - since it came from a Brazilian family doing a Japanese tradition, not a Chinese guy breaking tradition on TV - it probably would have been better for most people to come watch UFC 1 with 0 preconceived notions of what combat should and shouldn't be, rather than their lofty dreams of Hollywood-come-to-life smashed against the hard pavement of reality.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 1:03pm

LOL. Shaw Brothers and Jackie Chan are the ones that desensitized America not Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris for that matter. Their movies were not pretty at all.

He did not do the BS that is equated with "that isn't real kung fu."

**Gabetuno** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 2:30pm

Originally Posted by It is Fake

LOL. Shaw Brothers and Jackie Chan are the ones that desensitized America not Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris for that matter. Their movies were not pretty at all.

He did not do the BS that is equated with "that isn't real kung fu."

I think those attitudes long predate Chan or the Shaw Bros. And if you go by the people who spout that kind of ****, you'd have to admit that Lee's films play some part in it. They themselves site him left and right as a "true martial arts" alternative to the big dumb MMA brawler.

But this is all kind of beside the point. The thrust of my comment is that, at least by their movies and acting, Norris or Lee can't be credited with much of anything besides an Emmy.

**Permalost** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 3:09pm

With or without Bruce Lee, I don't think America was ready for the protracted jiu jitsu match type of NHB fight. Without an Asian martial arts reference point, the public would probably view early MMA under a boxing lense, and from that perspective we'd probably still heard a lot of "get up and fight like men!" kinda stuff.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 3:09pm

Originally Posted by Gabetuno

I think those attitudes long predate Chan or the Shaw Bros. And if you go by the people who spout that kind of ****, you'd have to admit that Lee's films play some part in it. They themselves site him left and right as a "true martial arts" alternative to the big dumb MMA brawler.

Well it is established we will disagree on this point.

**Gabetuno** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 3:32pm

Originally Posted by Permalost

With or without Bruce Lee, I don't think America was ready for the protracted jiu jitsu match type of NHB fight. Without an Asian martial arts reference point, the public would probably view early MMA under a boxing lense, and from that perspective we'd probably still heard a lot of "get up and fight like men!" kinda stuff.

You're probably on to something there. Especially in the closing era of Tyson.

**Gabetuno** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 3:33pm

Originally Posted by It is Fake

Well it is established we will disagree on this point.

Wait... we can't agree to disagree... AM I ON THE WRONG SITE?!?!

**Phrost** · Posted On: 2/09/2012 3:36pm

Originally Posted by Rivington

I also wonder if it's a way of edging out the Gracies a bit.

Wouldn't doubt it. Especially given Royce's performance against Matt Hughes.

Then again, if another Gracie starts tearing up the MMA scene and gets a UFC contract, they'll have highlights queued up like a lactose-intolerant baby, ready to spew.