Bruce Lee's REAL Fights - The KFG Chats w/John Little | The Kung Fu Genius Podcast #7

For Linda and the BLF its ALL about MONEY!!! What did she get, 50%, 60%?!

Great interview and a gentleman so much history herd his name for years as big Bruce Lee fan and first interview I've seen great stuff could definitely do another part

Jkd is for self defense no doubt ,the first thing i learned was the finger jab, if that was all you knew , 90 percent of the time its fight over , and or a serious injury

Just read the book, brilliant research. I’ve made a compilation of all the interviews I can find of students and eye witnesses talking about fights they’ve seen of his and stuff purely on his fighting and not acting. It’s great to now have a book with it all recorded in there.

Thanks a lot to Alex Richter and John Little.
I have tons of email exchange with Jessie, and met an Albuquerque-located martial artist named Steve (Lee) Johnson 1996 in Bochum, Germany. Years after that he also met Bob Bremer and Tackett, as there exist some photos of this. Everything they told confirm John Little's view on Bruce Lee. Steve spent a summer in Bruce's house at Roscomare Road, Culver City. Later he also studied at Taky Kimura's school, I think it was with a guy named Roy Hollingsworth, and with Yip Chun in Hongkong. When I asked him about Bruce, he stated literally Bruce was "unbelievable". By the time he trained with Bruce in his house, he was still training Karate within the Japan Karate association. Since Bruce was already known to american audiences to the "Green Hornet"-TV-show, his Karate fellows asked him after that how Bruce would be in comparison to their teacher who has the headman of the Japan Karate association at this time. Steve mentioned their teacher was fast, powerful and already world famous. Unfortunately he didn't mentioned his name, but since it was during Bruce's Los Angeles period it is not unlikely it was Hidetaka Nishiyama who according to Jessie's first book impressed Bruce at a Karate demo at a local air base in Washington with such a high level of body control, that he left an impact on him of how he wanted to be able to kick. But I cannot confirm for sure it was him who Steve talked about. However, he replied to this Karate fellows question: "Our teacher against Bruce?... is like a turtle with its hands tied up!"....If you can get in contact with him, you probably can ask him about more details...

Warm regards from a former German Wing Tsun student...

You could mostly trust people with no rivalry or (clan) hiercharchy thinking to Bruce Lee, people who did their own thing and ran successfully their own business on another field / martial art, i.e. Hayward Nishioka, Jhoon Goo Rhee, Joey Orbillo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...

Thanks

Thanks

Just came across this comment someone left on my channel over a month ago

“Axel when were you born ?
if BL was a real Martial Artist and had schools which he had not why would he have few patato heads like inosanto who was in fact student of ed parker like richard bustillo. why only few bums ? if BL was a real Martial Artist and teacher where was his hundreds of schools in hong kong and in usa? where was his thousands of students ?
BL had none of that and why? Because I was there and in Hong Kong and he was not a real teacher and had no certification and authority to teach anyone. he was in hostess clubs drinking and sniffin coke.. he was found dead in apartment a mile away from his family home he rented and paid for by li tang mei aka betty ting pei and I remember that day very well I dont know who is the john little and matthew fatso but I eally wanna catch this john little and fatso matthew these two BL story con artists. im in korea now and i ll be in Hong Kong in September...
look what kinda con artist john little saying . he says why would a world champion train with BL if he was not real. dumb ass BL was the one approached them just appearing in martial art tornaments as a celebrity guest and asking to them to act in movies together, look at what he says bl was deadly and didnt wanna kill aynobody hahahahahaha hahahahahaaha i cant belive this jerk...BL was a soft like a gay doing his cha cha dance and we used to watch him
god almighty these people are nuts...”

I don’t even know where to be begin.

This might help the narrative of Bruce’s rooftop fight. Bruce’s younger brother, Robert Lee, shared his perspective of when the fight took place. Apparently, Bruce came home after that fight with a black eye, and his mother has him hold an egg over the bruising. Bruce saw Robert laughing at his black eye and says, “You think this is funny? You should see the other guy. He has no teeth.”

After that day, there was talk of Bruce having to move to the States to defuse things in Hong Kong. Whether he was at risk of any immediate consequences is up for debate, but Robert remembers his last day with his big brother before Bruce moved to Seattle. It was heart-warming brother-to-brother moments, and the gravity of having to say goodbye.

Robert had a lot of great memories with Bruce, even on movie sets of projects like Way Of The Dragon and the few scenes of Game Of Death that were filmed. He was a guitarist, so he’d bring his guitar so Bruce could sing along. “Guantanamera” by Celia Cruz was a favorite of Bruce’s.

Regarding the wong jackman fight. A few years ago, one of my students who was renting a house from two sisters in a Chinese community in South Bay, encountered one of Wongs students. The women were selling the house, and an open house had just begun as he was leaving to head to class while wearing one of my shirts. An older gentleman, who my student thought was probably in his late sixties, had recognized the shirt. He said he had been a long time student of Wongs. And then he brought up the fight. He said that wong had told him that he secretly wanted to train with bruce after the fight had occurred. Maybe he came to terms with it at some point, who knows.

Amen, brother. The difference between real fight and choreography.

“We have the skeleton key to open other systems and styles, but they have no key to open ours."
-James Lee (Oakland Jeet Kune Do Instructor)

V. Greatest. End. Of.

No1. History. End. Of.

Now. Talking. Sence. Lot. Heard. Crap.

Damn.. this entire interview was solid gold. I was riveted on every word. Thank you Axeman for sharing this link with me. So awesome. I wish every Bruce Lee hater could watch it and really soak it in, but even more than that, I wish every hater, every naysayer could have had the opportunity to put their fists where their mouths were and experience his "Realness" for themselves.😵🤕 😈😆 He was and forever will be, The Master. 🙏🐲❤️

Super interesting ! It would have been great if Bruce Lee would have had a friendly sparring session with other legendary martial artists such as Masutatsu Oyama of Kyokushin karate or a great Kung-Fu expert such as Chang Tun Sheng. These legends are now gone but not forgotten.

Wow, I am absolutely awed by how lucky you were, being able to get your hand on the enormously precious treasure scripts left by Bruce. Thank you very much for transcribing Bruce’s scripts into publication, so that Bruce’s legacy can be passed on for many years to come.

It's interesting that while some of the top point karate pracitioners of the 1960s and 1970s afterwards dismissed Bruce Lee as an actor, not a fighter, by contrast some of the greatest pro boxers admired Bruce Lee's speed and cunning as a fighter. For both Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao -- two guys who proved themselves in a real combat sport and who know a thing or two about how to hit, how to avoid getting hit, and how to survive a hit -- Bruce Lee was the one they grew up wanting to emulate in the ring. Pacquiao not only wanted to fight like Bruce Lee, he also wanted to look like him. Real fighters recognize talent when they see it.

Hi @thekungfugenius, im looking for your video where u speak to john little where he was saying he asked Joe Lewis what was the last wordsbruce lee said to you and Joe lewis said bruce lee called him a punk.. do you know where i can find this interview on your channel

The story of the Lau Tai-Chuen fight is perfectly detailed in the magazine "Bruce Lee Manía". With witnesses and press that document what really happened.

Lee had many jkd
Fighs wins nobody saw?
nobody knows?
nobody says!
that is B'S!
Man!
he was sports fighter!
talk to linda lee or her son Robert 😮😮😮😮😮!
Darko Bosniakóvich
CROATIA ❤

Bruce lee Pele or Jordan?
no difference!
Got it?!
Darko Bosniakovich
CROATIA 😂

A little late as a comment (3 + years), but what is often missing in claims about Bruce Lee’s learning/development and fight experiences most often lack a view of his period in Seattle as a UW student other than a few quotes from Glover and De Mille.

Bruce’s second student (or Third, depending upon which chronologies one might come across from witnesses) Skip Ellsworth (later to be a member of the Jun Fan/JKD “Nucleus”), was quoted in interviews that were published while Skip was still alive, talk about Bruce getting into street and bar fights in Seattle in the late 50’s when Bruce was still a UW student and after he opened his first school.

Skip related that he himself had seen Bruce in fights on several occasions. Skip was a quite a bit older than Bruce when he met him and himself was not inexperienced in street fighting (a bit of a brawler) related one particular event when he, Bruce and another student were having a post class beers and food at a local haunt when they got into an altercation with other patrons and it came to blows.

Bruce made quick work of his much larger opponent.

That same era is said to also be when Bruce met other Sifus in the area (one of which, from a different system, who likewise taught non Chinese, who remained a family friend to this day and is still teaching - Linda Lee and her Daughter had Takay Kamura - when he was alive, attending that Sifu’s school’s annual dinners, celebrations and exhibitions throughout the years since and that sifu may be who brice learned tiger/crane sets but that Sifu has never said anything to that effect - though there is evidence he might have taught Ed Parker)

Bruce also met a man by the name of Sid Woodcock. A teacher, black belt, in Shinobi Aikijitsu and trained in chin Na during his WWII stationed in China and post war info -China as part of his deployment as an in-theater OSS officer and later CIA that came out of it.

It is claimed by both Sid and Skip that Sid and Bruce discussed chinn Na and combat (Sid developed the smallest 45 gun frame in the arms industry along some of his combat related persists).

As both Skip and Sid had connections to the arms industry, I would not be surprised if shooting and combat firearms were part of Bruce’s exposure in combat arts during that time as well.

"Enter, trap & go."

Michael Jai White stated that Jacky Chan would beat Bruce in a real no holds barred fight 😂. Shows how much he knows about Bruce. Anyone's who done their research on Bruce & Jacky would laugh at that statement. Shows they're basing their opinion on the surface data, which is lazy af. That's like starting with a conclusion, before really looking into the subject.

This is so great after all the smoke from Michael Jai White's claims. Never even met him. He's been dead 40 years and Michael's making himself look good by talking about him. Ridiculous.

keep practicing kung-fu regardless of your age can keep you youthing

I don't think they ever slowed down cameras for chuck lol

Originally he wanted to use this necklace for The Big Boss.

I can't believe I haven't saw this before, I was training Wing Chun here where I live in Windsor Ontario Canada with a guy name Bob Fazecash.

Bob's Sifu was Jim Clark out of Monroe Michigan who was one of James DeMile's original students. He claimed to be teaching Bruce Lee's original modification of Wing Chun (Jun Fan Wing Chun) which is supposed to be what Bruce was teaching his students and what was the foundation of Jeet Kune do. He said James DeMile ended up modifying Jun Fan Wing Chun into Wing Chun Do eventually.

Anyways Bob was and still is an amazing Wing Chun practitioner, the system is amazing, They said Bruce Modified his traditional Wing chun because it wasn't effective against North American sized men, it was to rounded or flowing where as Jun Fan Wing Chun is straight to the point which makes it more practical.

They explained instead of doing Tan Sao and following steps A,B,C,D, Bruce modified it using almost scientific principles making it faster skipping steps B & C and going A - D. People says his movie moves didn't do his actual fighting skill any justice but there are clips where you can see the modifications being used. I believe the people that say they had to ask Bruce to slow down so they could catch his movements on camera, because after 3 years of training even I was extremely fast in a lot of sequence for example Tan Sao into Chung Choi.

Anyways, I never really understood what they ment and I didn't really care all I knew is I grew up boxing and learned some Karate kicking from a family friend and was undefeated in the street with just that and when I started doing Wing chun I couldn't do a damn thing to my Sifu Bob, he had an answer for everything, and everything I was learning made me way better, I was almost untouchable in the street, wowing anyone who saw me in action, quickly earning me a reputation in downtown Windsor bars back in those day (a reputation I'm no longer proud of... I think stupid kid these days 😂)

I didn't really understand the difference or understand why a lot of martial artists talked smack about Wing chun until I did a traditional Wing chun class at the University of Windsor, after about 3 months I quit and knew exactly why Bruce modified it, it was nowhere near the Jun Fan Wing Chun I had done for 3 years, and could understand why traditional Wing chun had a bad rep.

Anyways, learning what I learned training with Bob, seeing how good Bob was with 16 years of Jun Fan Wing Chun training, meeting and training with Sifu Clark and seeing how good he was even as an old man and hearing James Demile talk about how good Bruce was, anytime someone bad talks Bruce Lee I can't help but Eye roll the hell out of them, they don't know what I know, haven't seen what I've seen. Wing Chun has saved my ass countless times in the streets in many situations, destroying guys that were way bigger than me, in situations against multiple attackers, I give all the credit to Jun Fan Wing Chun, I could fight before but Jun Fan Wing chun help me end fight in seconds opposed to dicking around kick boxing with guys for undetermined amount of time, wars or attrition and also is probably what kept me from getting arrested. End that fight quick and get the heck out of dodge before the police sirens got anywhere near me.

Can't nobody tell me Bruce wasn't the real deal!! 😂😂

Mind the typos if any its to hard to proof read and correct on my phone, this input box is way too small...hopefully you can get the gist of what I'm saying😂😂

Fascinating interview! I Would love to sit and have a conversation with John! ❤🙏🏼

When you win a fight do you say to the loser that he is no good. Or do you say dam your fast, 11 seconds fast. You kick their butt then tell them that they are good. Thank you.

Great video!!!!!

Bruce Lee Was A Great Guy! And I Believe Him To Be The Best In His Day! My Respect To John Little For Having Him On The Show!

But have one quest of one person who says new brise Lee and family but time dates not mat h up if u can helpe on this I be interested but not wish state name as I do believe is a good Marshall artist but not all they I here they say and just wish to understand and know truth. Wish all well and good learning and training always

hi found this so helpful and I interested I start learning kung fu in the80s. And train
Ed for long time and as many life and things change but it has been inspiration and I wish say thankyou as has helped me ally life I had a gspe of trsing and am slowly ish getting my box splits back

But with our Bruce Lee I believe I would not of been as healthy in body and mind as I would not learned Marshall arts so to his family I say thankyou and I will keep the spirit a dedication always and learn each time xiexie

It wasn't just his physic and training, he had a twitch reaction like nobody else. Can't be developed or taught it's god given.

Bruce was the fastest in his time. His speed was incredible

I think the most interesting of all was game of death to adapt in all those different styles was fucking sick

Bruce was a real fighter. It's super clear that he was the fact people question it doesn't make sense.

Man, I’ve always had A LOT of respect for John Little’s rich knowledge on Bruce Lee, but I never knew he’s a fellow Canadian; in fact, a fellow Torontonian!👍