Who was the Better Fighter, Bruce or Mohammad Ali?
Man, there’s gonna be a knock down drag out up in heaven! I can feel it in the soul of my bones! The question is, will Mohammad knock down Bruce, or will The Little Dragon knock down Mohammad?
Okay, size it up by considering the physical measurements of the combatants. Mohammad Ali was a tall six foot three inches, and Bruce Lee was only a short five foot seven inches. The point goes to Mohammad on this one, but just barely when one considers Bruces legs.
Now, weight is always a critical factor, so let us take a look. Bruce Lees weight went up and down, but at his ripping best he was probably about 160 pounds, Mohammad had his ups and downs in weight, also, but we can round it out to about 200 pounds. Mohammad gets the nod in this area, for 200 pounds of flesh is going to have a sizable boffaloonie behind it.
One always has to consider speed in a contest, and here the edge goes to Bruce. Yes, Mohammad had an instant of invisible punch to his credit, but that was only once. Watch Bruce Lee, and even though he wasn’t wearing gloves or in a fight, his speed is a constant blur.
All around martial ability considered, and Bruce takes another point. Yes, Mohammad was an amazing physical specimen, but he was limited to fighting with the arms. Honestly, though we can only award one point here, I would like give more to Bruce if I could, for you would have to tie one of Bruces legs behind his back to get an even fight.
One of the deadliest weapons in any fight is always going to be the mouth. Simply, if you talk the talk with brilliant, rapier like wit, you might not have to walk the walk at all. That said, in spite of script writers feeding Bruce, no one in the world could compete with the Louiseville Lip, why, you would have to tie one of Mohammads lips behind his back, and then they wouldn’t even be in the same arena!
Mohammad has the edge thus far, but the contest is about to even up, for we are going to consider the most important question in the martial arts, pure martial knowledge. Mohammad knew a lot, but his was a natural talent, and, as we have discussed, he was limited to fists. Bruce, on the other hand, not only knew an amazing amount of hits, kicks, trips, throws, and so on, he used to watch movies of Mohammad just to study his techniques!
In conclusion, I am not going to call a knock out, because these men were just too fast to be so caught. I am, however, going to give a decision to Bruce, this because he not only watched movies of Mohammad Ali, he watched them in a mirror so he could do the Mohammad on both sides! Now that is unbelievably creative and innovative, and it is for this reason I give the decision to Bruce Lee!
Al Case has studied martial arts 4O years. He began writing articles for the magazines in’81, and had his own column in Inside Karate. He has written dozens of books and, and he is the originator of Matrixing, which enables a person to analyze any fight or fighter accurately. You can get his free ebook on Matrixing at Monster Martial Arts.
Tags: Bruce Lee, cassius clay, danny inosanto, jeet kune do, JKD, JKD concepts, jun fan, Little Dragon, Louiseville lip, Mohammad Ali, Self Defense, wing chunPosted in
