Bruce Lee, Just a Hollywood Star? Rickson Gracie Explains

Was Bruce Lee a legit fighter or just a Hollywood star, Rickson Gracie tells us

Location: Titusville, FL.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Photo by: brucelee

No matter who you ask, whether it be a kickboxer, Judoka, or Grappler, who their martial art hero or role model is, you are sure to hear the name Bruce Lee come up. Lee founded his own discipline of Martial Arts called Jeet Kun Do (JKD) with very few traditional fixed positions and as a martial art that was very effective and practical to everyone. He was able to transform his style into an inspiration for millions of practitioners over the world. Encouraging people to push themselves harder and go beyond their original notions of themselves, thus helping to make martial arts mainstream and what it is today.

However, some still question the legitimacy of Bruce Lee and whether he was an actual martial artist and fighter or just someone looking for fame in Hollywood and an actor. This question was posed to Rickson Gracie, who replied: “Even back then, he was already doing things and explaining like in today’s world. He was open to new things. Everything he spoke was the true essence of martial arts. I think what Bruce Lee brought to martial arts was a lot of good components. His philosophy was 100% right.”

Moving on to Lee’s movie, Rickson had the following to say “I think martial arts in movies are a good thing. They showcase the art to the masses.” You can catch his interview below starting at 1:50min:

Rickson was also asked the same question regarding Steven Seagal.

“Definitely. [Seagal] has – based on his training – a deep understanding of the concepts. How good he is in real life, and how he will display his effectiveness, I’m not sure. His philosophy is based on proven realities. He believes in technique and the concepts within Martial Arts.”

What does this really mean though? Rickson believes Seagal deeply understands Aikido’s fundamental practices but insists the only way to see how legit the art can be is by live training and hardening one’s technique from live sparring to see what will actually work in real-world scenarios… Without martial arts being effective in a real-life situation, it’s just false hope.