3 things Demetrious Johnson would do to beat Bruce Lee if they fought
MMA fans have often wondered how martial arts legend Bruce Lee would fare in the world of today’s combat sports.
Lee inspired an entire generation of martial artists with his classic films and his never-ending stream of inspirational quotes. To this day, fans and fighters continue to debate how Lee’s style would stack up against some of the best in the world today.
Appearing on the fightTIPS YouTube channel, ONE flyweight world champion Demetrious Johnson shared the strategy that he would utilize in a hypothetical meeting with Bruce Lee.
“Obviously Bruce Lee, you know, is one of the best to ever do it but what I’ve been told is he actually never competed. I could be wrong, or I could be right, I’m not sure. But he’s never competed in the mixed martial arts world, right?"
He added:
"I think for him, you know, he has that style of that back-and-forth karate. So, when you have someone like that there’s multiple ways to close distance.”
With that, ‘Mighty Mouse’ shared three ways he could close the distance on Bruce Lee to turn a hypothetical match with the martial arts legend to his advantage.
#.1 Take out Bruce Lee's lead leg
Lee has power in both his hands because of his constant weight shifting through the back-and-forth movement of his stance. Demetrious Johnson believes that by targeting Lee’s lead leg, the Chinese star’s ability to generate power could be disrupted, as is what happens to other fighters whose lead legs are taken out:
“You can always jump on that lead leg and that’s a big thing you see where people are just trying to take out that lead leg."
With a diminished threat from his opponent’s powerful strikes, Johnson could easily move forward and assert his own game.
#2. Aggressive Grappling
When Bruce Lee rose to prominence, concepts like grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu were largely unknown. Knowing that, Demetrious Johnson believes grappling would be the soundest strategy in a fantasy matchup against the iconic film and television star:
“Or you can do the Sakuraba style. It’s jumping in and then following it and collapsing and grappling him because when Bruce Lee was around, grappling wasn’t, it wasn’t in this space where it is now. Or you’ll see guys all the time where they’ll just run in and grapple."
He added:
“You look at Ben Askren who became a world champion doing just grappling right?”
#3. Muay Thai clinch
In the video, Demetrious Johnson demonstrated how he could time Lee’s attacks and counter them with a Muay Thai clinch:
“Then obviously, you know, he has that karate stance stepping on the outside and he’s throwing something in the middle coming here and then getting his hands and then starts doing the Muay Thai punches.”
While Lee has shown that he can be dangerous from a distance as well as up close (ever heard of the one-inch punch?), we haven’t really seen him deal with a Muay Thai clinch. Johnson believes that closing the distance this way could lead to trouble for the iconic martial artist.
Of course, fans can only speculate on how Bruce Lee would stack up in today’s fight game considering the legendary film star tragically passed away on July 20, 1973. He was just 33 years old at the time of his passing.