Bruce Lee vs. Jackie Chan

Not 100 percent sure, but I'd give Chan the advantage as he is so much more powerful and agile...

Already been debated here.

Bruce Lee knocked out Jackie Chan multiple times... while pulling his punches for the movies.

Great explanation from someone on that other thread:

"Lee trained at ChaCha... The stories of his street fights are myths; they were playground fights. His quickness is also a myth: Jackie Chan for instance is much faster.

Lee did try to set up his own martial arts school, albeit very unsucessfully: no street fighter or self-respecting professional uses Jeet Kun Do.

Lee was a jack of all trades, granted... He went to college to study philosophy (though he was not particularly gifted). He was a very driven individual and a master of self-promotion... His rippled look in films, for instance, was achieved with diuretics (which made him prone to diarrhea; and his friends report he did smell!).

Lee's sporting credentials are as a dancer, not as a fighter. He quite frequently cowered from challenges and martial arts competitions.

Lee did indeed meet Jackie Chan onset one of his early films, and he was said to have been blown away by Chan's agility and power.

People, stop acting like dumba&&es and talking about things you know nothing of..."

Jet Li vs. Kareem?

Zhang Ziyi would kick Bruce Lee's ass. Bruce is an actor, not an athlete. Also a steroid abuser.

too.

answer me why videos of Asian storeowners getting held up, they never resort to a martial art combat stance/tactic ?

They usually resort to the classic American Louisville Slugger.

The above explanation about Bruce Lee is the biggest steaming pile of crap I've seen on here in a long time. Jackie Chan himself has admitted that Bruce Lee was a much better street-fighter.

neither of these guys would last in the octagon!

Agree. They didn't train for it.

rex kwon do. you think anyone wants a roundhouse kick to the face with that stuff?

It is well known that Bruce Lee was, in fact, a TOUGH SOB who was one hell of a street fighter. He was known on a few occasions to beat down martial arts toughguys on movie sets who challenged him to a fight, which apparently did happen in China a few times. There is no doubt in my mind that Bruce Lee would wipe the floor with Jackie Chan in a street fight.

I can't tell if flamboyant is joking or not... He basically has the two reversed. JACKIE CHAN learned how to "fight" in the opera -- it was highly correographed (sp?) dancing that was made to look like fighting.

BRUCE LEE, on the other hand, was a badass in real life, by all accounts. I've heard an interview from one of the people working on a movie with Bruce Lee about how there was this guy sitting up on a wall who was heckling Bruce Lee, shouted down to him that he wasn't all that tough. So Bruce Lee put the movie on hold for a few minutes, allowed the guy to come down and take a shot at the champ, wiped the floor with the kid and continued filming.

Crap, the same thing was said in the post by the previous person, my mind isn't working today :)

Neither is a martial artist at core... Bruce Lee was a dancer (he was the Hong Kong Cha-cha champion).

However, whoever said Chan is more powerful is quite right (I remember reading a couple of articles about this, one notably where they had analysed film footage & shown that Chan is notably faster than Bruce Lee). Clearly (and I don't think anyone can dispute that) Chan is the most agile of the two.

There is a large part of modesty (very common in chinese actors) in Chan claiming Lee was the better man. In fact, I recall a very old playboy interview where Lee was saying the exact opposite!

Chan is, in my opinion, a better fighter, though it is hard to tell how well he can take blows...

Again though, neither of them are fighters... We are talking about a cha-cha dancer fighting a stage actor (who very early on specialised in the martial arts, to be fair)

Somebody on the other Lee vs. Chan thread has obviously read the same sources as me. Here's what they say:

"Miller is by no means an authority on Bruce Lee. He is a North Carolina journalist and martial artist who simply set to look at a few athletes (other books include 'The Tao of Muhammed Ali') in as objective a light as possible. He went and interviewed the people who knew Bruce (such as his dance teacher Patrick Dupont), and whom very few people have ever bothered to talk to. Miller's aim is by no means to ridicule Bruce Lee and undermine his achievements, but rather to dispell myths of a human being larger than life... As such, in his portrayal, Lee comes through as a sometimes flawed individual, but much more human and believable than the cardboard figurewe are presented with.

For instance Miller uses the example of the Honk Kong Herald cartoon to show how myths concerning Bruce have evolved; the cartoonist's message was about Lee taking over Honk Kong with a camera... this becomes -in popular imagination- a challenge issued by the Honk Kong Champion to Lee because of his revealing fighting secrets... Finally the myth evolves into Shaolin monks putting a death sentence on Lee for his revealing secrets, and him defeating them.

But Miller shows both sides of the coin: Bruce Lee's detractors have often claimed that he was once grounded by a little old lady with an umbrella... Miller similarly reveals the origin of that myth.

I've dug out my copy of Miller now that I have a little time: he is at times highly elogious; he describes Lee as an athlete with a superb physique, capable according to various accounts of the 55mins 10miler he has been attributed, but this physique comes at a cost... Lee was experimenting in later life with abs trainers into which he would plug himself at night, weight training and steroids and diuretics which "made him subject to sudden bouts of diarrhea". Miller writes Lee was an extremely driven individual with a harsh side to his personnality. Multi-talented, he was a Cha CHa champion (Miller talks to some of his former dancing students in California who say of him " it was like being driven with a stick"), a philosophy student, and a gifted actor with a knack for self-promotion who commendited a fee only comparable to that of Steve McQueen. But there are darker stories yet, of friends and actors being offered roles in the Game of Death in exchange for stories about the master's legendary skills which they told the media. Miller also talks to a film expert and competent martial artist who analyses footage of Lee's and Jackie Chan's films in order to compare their speed. The expert concludes that "Lee can by no account be said to have been faster than Jackie (Chan)".

The story of Lee having undescended testicles also appears to be true -or at least one-; according to Lee's mother "he was born with an undescended testicle".

Miller concludes that most of the outrageous skills which have been attributed to Lee, have been perpetuated by people with a vested interest (disciples of his schools; fellow actors/friends). In short Lee was a multi-talented actor, an athlete (but by no means among the best in the world) and an extremely driven individual. His autopsy revealed trces of marijuana and diuretics in his bloodstream."

It does not realy take film footage analysis to tell Jackie is faster than Bruce Lee... Also, any self-respecting martial artist will tell you that in terms of power, and (very clearly!) sheer athleticism, Jackie has a massive edge over Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee was indeed a ChaCha dancer, and this heritage is quite evident in his fancy footwork, and a somewhat efeminate way of covering ground...

Bruce Lee waz the worse SOB there ever waz... HE waz so fats even the cameras coudn't pick up some of his mooves. The man coud go threw a stone wall with one punch and he defeeted a whole army of ninjas who came to steel his secrets. Bruce Lee kicks Chans ass!