To say that there are many different styles of Martial Arts would be an understatement. As a kid, watching movies, I became fascinated by Karate and Kung Fu. It was that general to me. There were no breakdowns of different schools of practice within these Martial Arts. I saw Martial Artists throwing punches, kicks, and throws that didn’t give me any reason to believe they wouldn’t work in real life.
They were spectacular displays of skill that made it apparent that it would take years to master.
Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Dam, and Steven Seagal were all larger than life to me. It didn’t dawn on me at the time that each of these martial artists had such different styles. They just all looked like a bunch of dudes that nobody would mess with. What kid doesn’t have a fear of being kidnapped, or bullied? That is what made these movies so appealing, it would have been impossible to bully or kidnap someone who had this much skill in hand-to-hand combat.
After the magic and innocence of childhood wears off a little bit, and life has been lived more… we start to realize that movies are glamorized and exaggerated. Along came a big slap in the face to all of the Martial Arts movies and childhood fantasies. The name of that slap was the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Some guys were brave enough to finally ask: “What Martial Arts style is truly the most effective?” and actually throw an event where Martial Artists from all over the world, of varying styles, would fight each other bare knuckled to see who was truly the best. When I found out about this event, being an avid Martial Artist and fan of combat sports, I had to see it. I talked my dad into ordering it, as I’m sure his curiosity was equally aroused.
“text example people who try to protect others from people who mean to do harm.”
I know a lot of people nowadays realize that an undersized Brazilian named Royce Gracie won the first UFC.
It showed that you really don’t have to be a big, strong guy to win fights.
This wasn’t something that was foreign to us though as Bruce Lee was a small man that had already proven that size didn’t matter much when the little guy knew what he was doing. Still, I am proud to see the evolution of Martial Arts, and never has a better platform been created than the UFC. In my opinion, the UFC is what Bruce Lee stated about Martial Arts way before the inception of MMA. Bruce Lee said that you can’t limit yourself to one style. He recognized boxing and wrestling as Martial Arts when most people would have simply called them sports. To see Bruce Lee as an MMA fighter would have been awesome. The UFC game does him justice, but it would have been great to see in real life.