could bruce lee or jackie chan realistically win a UFC bout? how about van damme or seagal?

Answer 1

Not likely, as they are not mixed martial artists, they are actors, it is possible if they train for it, since they are athletic.

Can Rampage, Anderson Silva, or Matt Hugues be succesful at movies? Not likely as they are not actors, they are MMA fighters, but if they take acting lessons it is possible.

Answer 2

In their prime, I certainly think that Bruce Lee could have been a successful MMA fighter. After all, he was the first fighter to believe that it was not traditional martial arts alone, but the mixture and variation that made a fighter powerful. He would also have been in a very light weight devision as he weighed about 135 pounds.

Jackie Chan could possibly have competed, but I am unsure how well he would have fared against real opponents. He is very athletic and classically trained in martial arts from early youth. As such, if he had trained in multiple art forms, I am sure he could have been decent.

Van Damme is a dancer turned faux martial arts movie star. He is flexible, but would get eaten alive in any martial arts match I think.

Steven Seagal is only slightly more competent than Van Damme, having trained in Japan for a period of time. However, he is more of a movie star than a martial artist and always was, regardless of his bravado. He recently was scared by a small man who claimed to be a mafioso, so much for the real fighter. Had the same thing happend with Bruce Lee, he would have clobbered the guy and wondered about the consequences later.

Answer 3

You should consider the backgrounds of each of the suggested fighters.

Van Damme aka the Muscles from Brussels. Was a legitimate world champion in the European circuit in the late 70's. His base of training was in Shotokan in which he has a blackbelt. His training is kind of 1sided so I don't think he'd fair well in a cage match but I think he'd do well in a kckboxing format. (no pun intended)

Seagal is a legitimate aikido master who, if memory serves me correctly was the first westerner to teach in Japan. But again his training is a bit one sided. I am not very familiar with aikido so I am afraid I can't wager a good guess as to how he would do in the UFC. I suppose he could hold his own when he was in his prime.

Jackie Chan is perhaps the most controversial here for me. Seeing that he's first and acrobat second a martial artist. I would be interested to see how he would do in a real competition. I personally don't think he'd do well which is painful to say given how much I like him.

And last but certainly not least is Bruce Lee. I think out of any of the above mentioned he would do best. As founder of the philisophical art Jeet Kune Do, Lee created a "mixed" martial art that incorporated most prominant fighting styles from the 60's and 70's. It was suggested that Bruce Lee was decades ahead of his time with what he had achieved in line of a "complete" martial art and human physical capability.

So out of the choices up there I would place my bet on Bruce Lee.

Answer 4

BRUCE LEE? Here are the words of the master himself from interviews not some press agents hype"what I do in movies is hype and useless in real fighting I wouldn't do any of those techniques""the 3 inch punch is not a valid fighting technique as it must be set up.In a fight you can't set things up.It was just to demonstrate the power and speed that can be generated over a short distance.To many people took it out of context"I am not going to argue against what he said .
As he never ever put it on the line for anyone to see we cant really judge how he would do but I give him a no.

SEGAL again no.Aikido is a pure self defense system that depends on using momentum created by the opponents attack.No UFC or MMA fighter or anby trained fighter is going to feed him that momentum.
CHAN nice acrobatics fighter no.He also wouldn't use any of that movie crap so we can't really say but I would say no.
TONY JAA trained in krabi kabong I will give a maybe.
VAN DAMME definitely not.He scurried away when DOLPH LUNDGREN challenged him to a street fight at the CANNES film festival.

Answer 5

Bruce Lee could not win because he is dead. If he were not dead he'd win by eating his opponents brains. Zombie Bruce Lee ftw!

Jackie Chan: I love the guy. He is my absolute hero. And for the record he is MMA. He's trained in a whole bunch of styles and fights with more than one at once. That is a Mixed Martial Art. But he is primarily an actor and stuntman. Would he win in a competition with the best? Probably not. Especially not now, as excellent shape as he is in he's old and slowing down.

Van Damme: He might but I don't hear much about him these days. I can't say too much on him.

Seagal: No. Aikido is good but it's out of place in the ring. Not only is it all defencive but doesn't work on the common principle in a match which is "beat them to a pulp"

Answer 6

Bruce Lee could beat down 5, 6, 7 guys at once... trust me, at his weight class... Bruce Lee not only wins, he might be the pound for pound best. Now, Bruce Lee fighting in heavier weight classes obv causes risks and lessens his chances.

Seagal currently is only beating down cheeseburgers... so in today's game it might be scary watching him fend off a take down / submission guy

Chan seems more actor then anything else these days. My guess he'd get submitted quick. Hell, Chuck Norris could take Chan out these days.

Oh and the Mortal Combat guy... now he's the wild card for me because is has tremendous skill and game... but in his weight class... not sure how he'd respond if a guy leaned on him with a little ground and pound. I say he's under average in the UFC.

I guess my summary is this... the Octagon takes away a TON of advantage these guys have vs being on the street. I mean c'mon, Bruce Lee in his prime in an open arena with yards and yards of open space could whip ANY UFC fighter in the history. In the O.... Lee becomes less effective.

Although, that 3 fingers / 3 inches away heart punch that killed people would be LIVE in the O

:)

Answer 7

Of the people mentioned above, Bruce would be the one with the discipline and inclination to train to be able to realistically win a UFC bout(that is if he wanted to). I keep hearing people thumbing him down for having no ground game, which just shows they knew nothing about him. He once stated to Howard Nishioka, one of his early student who was a 2nd degree Blackbelt Judo Champion that he'd rather strike than grapple since most real fights usually involves multiple attackers. But he did study grappling, wrestling is one of the arts mentioned in his book "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" and along with the Judo training with Nishioka, he also studied Jujitsu with the late Prof. Wally Jay, not to mention his acquaintance with the legendary "Judo" Gene LaBell, he more than had his share of exposure to grappling arts. Heck, anyone who has seen the opening scene fight with Samo Hung in "Enter the Dragon" or the climactic fight with Kareem Abdul Jabbar in "The Game of Death" would see his acknowledgement of the grappling art's effectivity, in those scenes, he submitted Samo with an armbar, he killed Jabbar with a choke(though the editing by a non martial artist film editor after Bruce's demise kinda messed the scenes and sequences up a bit) even in "Return of the Dragon", he offed Chuck Norris' character with a guillotine choke, so he definitely was familiar with the grappling arts, he just preferred to showcase the flashier kicks and punches in his movies more to grab the audiences' attention.

As for Jackie Chan, he's stated he's a performer not a fighter. Van damme might have the build, but he doesn't have the aptitude for a MMA match. Seagal's Aikido is not suited for MMA fights, he might be able to throw his opponents around and pin them, but there's no submission techniques in Aikido like the ones in BJJ, as most Aikido locks are merely for controlling an opponent in keeping with the "non violence" philosophy of the art.

Answer 8

Well anyone could win a UFC bout if they trained specificaly for it. All the people you mentioned have the potential to do it if that was their goal, but if you just threw them in the ring against the top fighters they would loose, maby Van Damme would be the only one who has a bit of a chance, but still he proabably would not be ready for it

But yeah, all those guys have the potential to do it, they just choose a different path

Answer 9

Are you seriously suggesting that the only way to beat a submission based fighter is to be a submission based fighter?

How arrogant and naive.

Without sounding too smug, which I know is how you'll all take this - the very question that was asked here shows how little the asker knows about martial arts or battle in general, and the responses aren't speaking much for you all either. Sorry, it's the truth.

Answer 10

Could a UFC champion realistically defend himself in a street attack by multiple assailants with clubs and sticks?