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No lie, John Little is a mythical person. This is the first time I ever heard him talk. This the first time I ever seen him in person!!!! I've had all his books about Bruce Lee for decades now, and if there is one person I would love to interview and pick knowledge from, its John Little. Thank you man fr fr
@@TheKungFuGenius Thats great news Sifu Richter! :-D Would it be ok for you to post 1-2 questions which you could ask him? Only if the time allows it, your own questions for him have priority of course. :-)
@@TheKungFuGenius Veoma cenim tvoj rad u ovom intervju, jako kvalitetno i sustina... Mene veoma zanima, a naravno da sam fan Bruce Lee, posto su pitali i Mike Tyson sta misli da je moguce,borba sa Bruce Lee, Tyson nije dao precizan odgovor.. Isto pitanje u za Vas, ko bi bio pobednik...u slobodnoj borbi... Hvala, veliki pozdrav iz Serbia (Novak Djokovic country)..
I'm a wanna be Bruce Lee fan since the 60's ,now at 64 still training and teaching Monsters in MMA! Thank you Sifu Lee for planting the passion that continues to grow with Blessing! KFG peace!
@@axelstone3131 it's like what I see all the time, guys reach tournament level fighting skills they think they're badass. But it could be more mental state of mind warrior mentality like no mr. Nice guy, you stay tough so you're fearless against anybody, tactical state of mind. No nice guys.
Its a pity Jim Kelly is no longer here, what an interview that would be, one of the few high profile martial artists from that era who claimed that Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist that he ever came across.
@@rickocconnell9056 Norris is worth $70 million, Dan Inosanto $12 million, Linda Lee $11+ million, Shannon Lee $10 million, and Jim Kelly $3.7 million. - The Karate guys were all looking to break into Action films in the mid 1960s. - Joe Lewis met Bruce Lee in 1966 - Jim Kelly and Chuck Norris in 1967-8 - Lee began test auditioning for movies again in Fall 1965 after a Hollywood hair dresser saw him and Jhoon Rhee at the Ed Parker Karate Open Invitational Tournament August 1964. - Green Hornet Episode 1 aired September 9th, 1966 co-starring Bruce Lee as Asian Martial Arts master Kato. - Bruce already had starred or co-starred in 20 movies as a child and teen actor in Hong Kong. - At least 3 of his friends were action/Kung Fu Stars in Hong Kong. Including Unicorn Chan. - Lee Hoi-chuen, Bruce's father is got him into acting. His father was a famous Chinese Opera singer-actor and film star. His mother a wealthy socialite. His father had connections everywhere. So Bruce starred/co-starred in 20 movies by the time his famous actor father brought him to San Francisco April 1959. Then to Seattle in the fall to enroll him in Edison Technical School to finish his GED. Bruce... was living with Ruby Chow and her husband, working at their Restaurant... and... um... Teaching Cha Cha lessons to many of the 60 girls, 14-18 year old girls, in Ruby Chow's 13 yo neice's drill team. From 1960-62. His father called him back to Hong Kong in 62 but Bruce refused. Started dating Linda fall 1963 and her a few months pregnant July 1964, they moved to Oakland in with James Yimm Lee. And got married. Next week was the Ed Parker Karate tournament followed by the Sun Sing Theater incident. After the Wong Jack-Man challenge match Lee started to pull his shit together. Got back into acting. So, do you see what happened yet?
The fact that there are so many fighters who benefited from their relationships with Bruce and his teachings and then belittle him after his death really really pisses me off.
Yeah Danny Isanto said he is not suprised by that and Shannon his daughter said the same thing they don't want to give him credit for showing them things they showed Bruce this and that SMH. Shannon said the real friends no he was the real deal
Alex really another great vid on Bruce Lee. The man was the greatest martial artist of our time. His knowledge speed power and agility were uncanny. Keep these vids coming! PEACE
This is a great interview. I always knew he was the real deal. Thanks so much for sharing this. When you’re that good, there will always be people hating on you.
A joy listening to John Little. There are very knowledgeable people on Bruce Lee with interesting anecdotes and info but John Little is probably the closest to have “known” Bruce Lee without having met him. To be given the privilege to enter Linda’s room of personal Bruce Lee treasures is beyond a fan and collector’s wildest dream! I’ve had the pleasure of talking with John over the phone a few times and he’s the kind of individual that keeps you so intrigued that you can’t help but lose track of time. You’ve hit a home run with this episode! 👍🌟👍🌟
R.I.P. Jerry Poteet. I was interacting with one his Facebook page not too long ago ( 3 mo. Ago ). He was Bruce Lee's early student. He said Bruce was the real deal. He has more vast knowledge on Bruce than John Little. POTEET was hired to train Jason Scott Lee for the movie, Dragon.
I did see a statue of Chuck Norris in his front yard. John Little was really on the button with everything he said. I think a lot of people think that what Bruce did in his films was his best and they judge him on that. They have no idea of how devastating this man was. Fast powerful and effective.
@@chesleyoverstreet498 i think people under estimate what a 130 pound man can do. Helio Gracie is a classical example. And Helio even said that "I never had the attributes". and Bruce definitely ALSO had the attributes (along with a very creative mind)....even Joe Lewis has said , "he had phenomenal attributes" . those exact words... add to that he even said that he hit like a heavyweight (on youtube) and one of his MMA students said that Joe told him that one of the hardest kicks he ever endured was from Bruce. So Bruce was exceptional , mind and body
@@zibtihaj3213and that's a common theme among people who met & experienced meeting Bruce. For his size he was exceptionally powerful. And with that speed and obsession for combat 24/7. That's a deadly combination in itself.
This was an awesome podcast. I have read John Little's biography on Bruce many years ago. I had the same question that Mr. Little had about his idol who was my idol also: Could Bruce fight? There are so many naysayers and people who spread a lot of misinformation about Bruce. Even more unfortunate was the fact that some of them were the ones Bruce trained to be better martial artists. I also had the same question: If they really believed that Bruce couldn't fight, then why promulgate it after his death. In other words, if that was an issue they should of said it to his face. However, they did not because they already knew Bruce was the real deal after sparring with him. Bruce had the the techniques, the timing, the distance control, and speed to overcome anyone. I am not claiming he was the best but he was definitely an anomaly during his time and from what I have learned, he bested all of those he sparred with including the karate point fighter Chuck Norris. My question is: if someone was your friend and helped you with your fighting techniques, how could you defame them? Thank you for a very entertaining and informative podcast.
The best interview with John, really enjoyed it. I'm a a big Bruce Lee Fan , read a lot on him since the green hornet series. I'm 69 yrs old. I think John Little is one of the best authorities you can find. Thanks Alex. I haven't read any of John's books yet just interviews. Now I got to get some of his books.
Wow, I am absolutely awed by how lucky you were, being able to get your hand on the enormously precious treasure scripts left by Bruce. Thank you very much for transcribing Bruce’s scripts into publication, so that Bruce’s legacy can be passed on for many years to come.
This interview is pure gold and brings forth more facts about Bruce Lee's real fighting skills than most of the YT podcasts on this topic combined. Little factoid about the Little Dragon training some of 60's best point fighters. At his home in Culver City, Bruce did 1 on 1 training sessions with Joe Lewis, Mike Stone, Louis Delgado, and Chuck Norris. Of the "Big 4," only Delgado immediately acknowledged that he and Bruce sparred. Delgado basically said that he couldn't touch Bruce when they sparred and that it was a humbling experience. Lewis went to his grave denying that he sparred with Lee. To this day, Stone denies sparring with Lee. It took Norris 25 years to admit that he sparred with Bruce, and even that admission came with a "I was better than Bruce," slant. In his 2nd autobiography, Chuck claimed that Bruce could not avoid his spinning back kick during their "fun" sparring sessions. This version appears to contradict the versions put forth by Lee students Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo who stated that Norris was frequently frustrated with his inability to cope with Lee's inside game. According to these two highly respected martial artists, Bruce was able to close the distance on Chuck, and drive the Texas Ranger crazy with his trapping skills. According to James DeMile, Inosanto talked to him at length about Lee being able to score at will on Norris with the Pak Da.
Lee had revolutionary ideas at the time. That’s why people trained with him, not because he was a better fighter. John Danaher is the most successful BJJ and Submission Grappling Coach in history. He would never beat his star pupils, but people came to him because he got results and word spread.
If Bruce had won the Wong Jack-man fight in the way they imply and Linda said, then why did Dan Inosanto say just the opposite in print? In the early eighties book by Unique Publications that “It would be charitable (towards Lee) to call that fight a draw.” And that Bruce had told him “I was so tired that I couldn’t even hit him, Danny.”
Lee’s fastest punch was measured by Jesse Glover at .05 of a second at three feet. That was bragged about by both the JKD community and Lee’s fans for decades. Until someone actually did the math correctly for them and they found out that numerous fighters have been scientifically measured at speeds well above 40 mph. As an example, Australian Taekwondo 5th degree black belt Bren Foster’s kick was measured at 136 mph. Nearly four times faster than Lee’s fastest punch…with a kick. Facts vs Myths. In this fanboy echo chamber of an interview, they kept saying that no one could touch Lee. In the video of Lee doing a sparring in a demo that wasn’t choreographed against his own students, even though he dominated them, they were able to land/score on him. They weren’t even real fighters and if scrubs like Taky and Ted could hit him, are people really delusional enough to think that better and more skilled and experienced fighters couldn’t?
Quite literally one of the most informative interviews I have seen, and I have seen just about every one there is. This could have been released on blu-ray and worth every penny. Incredible interview.
True. And you can find here on YT a clip when Benn talked with Bey Logan about it. Type in the searchbox: Chuck Norris admits he is no match for Bruce Lee
You only have to look at videos of chuck training and doing moves to know he’s not really a very good fighter. I dont know why his opinion has that much weight for some people.
Thanks a lot to Alex Richter and John Little. I have tons of email exchange with Jessie, and met an Albuquerque-located martial artist named Steve (Lee) Johnson 1996 in Bochum, Germany. Years after that he also met Bob Bremer and Tackett, as there exist some photos of this. Everything they told confirm John Little's view on Bruce Lee. Steve spent a summer in Bruce's house at Roscomare Road, Culver City. Later he also studied at Taky Kimura's school, I think it was with a guy named Roy Hollingsworth, and with Yip Chun in Hongkong. When I asked him about Bruce, he stated literally Bruce was "unbelievable". By the time he trained with Bruce in his house, he was still training Karate within the Japan Karate association. Since Bruce was already known to american audiences to the "Green Hornet"-TV-show, his Karate fellows asked him after that how Bruce would be in comparison to their teacher who has the headman of the Japan Karate association at this time. Steve mentioned their teacher was fast, powerful and already world famous. Unfortunately he didn't mentioned his name, but since it was during Bruce's Los Angeles period it is not unlikely it was Hidetaka Nishiyama who according to Jessie's first book impressed Bruce at a Karate demo at a local air base in Washington with such a high level of body control, that he left an impact on him of how he wanted to be able to kick. But I cannot confirm for sure it was him who Steve talked about. However, he replied to this Karate fellows question: "Our teacher against Bruce?... is like a turtle with its hands tied up!"....If you can get in contact with him, you probably can ask him about more details... Warm regards from a former German Wing Tsun student...
The awesome part when John underlines how Bruce was absolutely the real deal and could be so lethal in real life when he had to be, and was also just so neurologically unique compared to the rest of us mere human beings ! was again so wonderful to hear !
What a GREAT conversation! There are so many important facts and stories about Bruce Lee that I didn't know about. John did a great job debunking lies about Bruce. Thank you for this interview!
Hey Alex! Great interview with John Little. I loved that show. You're the BOMB. I've been studying JKD for about 35 years. Your show is excellent. Thank you!
Super interesting ! It would have been great if Bruce Lee would have had a friendly sparring session with other legendary martial artists such as Masutatsu Oyama of Kyokushin karate or a great Kung-Fu expert such as Chang Tun Sheng. These legends are now gone but not forgotten.
This was an Incredible episode. The Bruce Lee Haters need to see this Episode. A great job my friend. Keep up the good work, all the best and Stay Safe.
Well said man! It has nothing to do with worshipping or whats however, but all these PROVEN LIARS like Joe Rogan with his podcast etc. told so many lies about Lee over the last 10 years, believing stuff like Norris would so easy beat him because he was a REAL fighter and Lee just an FAKE movie fighter and only had some good ideas etc. In one of his shows Eddie Bravo stated Lee disvovered after meeting the 220 lb James DeMile and the heavy guys Jesse Glover and Ed Hart, that his Kung Fu BS doesnt work and he began to throw all of it away, only mixing Boxing, Wrestling, Fencing and some kicks, bla bla bla. And sorry for saying this right of the bat: I cant stand the actions of Lee´s widow and daughter anymore! Not just this white washing about him being such a Guro like monk, when infact he was more of a hippie, but also producing all these BS documentaries like "I am Bruce Lee", "How Bruce Lee Changed the World" or "Be Water", they dont focus what BL was actually being capable when it was getting serious, only talking about this philosophical stuff and what a humanitarian, fighter against racism and breaker of boundaries he was. There should be again more documentaries who are focusing about his actual skills, like in "Curse of the Dragon", "The Intercepting Fist", "The One and Only", "A Warriors Journey", etc. I have enough from docs like the ones i did mention above when they give some BS talkers like Gene LeBell a plattform, when he says something like: "Lee was a 135 lb little guy and not tough", or "I would bet all my money Chuck Norris would have beaten Bruce Lee in a real fight", etc. Even if Norris is the quietest today, but its obvious that LeBell, Norris and Bob Wall are the real FRIENDS, and they never considered Lee as a real friend because otherwise they would not talk him down so much. Joe Lewis made a turn in his last years, and Jim Kelly was also more truthfull from around 1990 to his death in 2013.
@@bertt1055 Yes i know. Wall said in the same interview some very strange things: - around 16-18 minutes mark, he claims he had defeated Seagal in front of 200 people, including Norris as witness; - around 25-30 minutes mark, he claims he trained taking punches and kicks, and even let Muhammad Ali and Earnie Shavers punch him with their best shots; - minute 34-35 he says he laid a lot of people down with front kicks and spinning leg sweeps, and he sparred Ali when he was still Cassius Clay, and the last time he sparred him was before the Cleveland Williams fight, and he - if i understand correct (maybe not) - he kicked Ali in the head; - minute 36-44 he says he hired John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Peter Archer and even Jackie Chan for ETD; And somewhere in the beginning he praises Gene LeBell again, and when Lee comes into play of course he was more or less only a fighter on screen, teached him and Norris etc. how to react to punches/kicks on the screen etc... At the age of 81, i wish him the best and health! But if you ask me, either he is in a complete state of delusion, or he gets problems to think straight due to his age. Shavers punched him with full power...yeah, sure he did! If Earnie did that, especially with full power to his head, Bob would have been on the floor! Shavers is considered by many boxing historians as the hardest puncher ever, even Ali and Larry Holmes praised him as that.
@@NDoraku and there are such people always complaining that the praise from rogan and all these others just isn't high enough. Rogan said Bruce was legit.
Love it !!! This is mind blowing the numerous contacts you have that can bring a new light to the past of THE legend. Thank you for your dedication to work toward this podcast on top of all your training and classes. 🙏
OMG the best bruce lee chats ever. I am so happy I wondered into this chat. The most I heard about bruce lee my Idol :D. Thanks for the insights. I had to subcribe. Need more of this. This was awesome.
Lee taught me to be AWARE of my surroundings....be alert! And he inspired me to be Balanced, and in Tune with my anatomy. Lightening Quick footwork became a trademark with me. But, the Training I put my body through over the years, has truly spilled over in other Areas of my life. He was quite the individual!
Another great show, it's interesting to observe two people who are far beyond my self in Bruce Lee fandom, and I consider myself a massive fan, but both you John Little are on a whole different level, it's very obvious and there is no jealousy or competition involved, just as I feel should have been the case with most martial artists at the time who observed Bruce's superiority. The reaction required is to say wow, recognize, give it up and feel blessed to come in contact with that manifestation of skill and be inspired. There are plenty of parallels in my own area of expertise, jazz improvisation, both in the art itself of total split second spontaneity, to how lesser practitioners try to belittle superiors to make themselves appear larger. Another Lee disciple has a video on how he spent a year training in a similar intensity and almost died, leading him to the conclusion that he may have become quite aware of his coming early demise, yet continued in order to achieve his artistic ends. This type of selfless dedication through constant search of possibilities and ultimate technique is analogous to John Coltrane's life and Miles Davis in another sense. The only suitable and righteous response to these individuals life and legacy is gratitude, to them for the realization of their gifts and to the Creator for the gift of their beings. Thanks again, it was fun watching you get off on all his knowledge and stories.
This comment is incredible! I think there are many parallels in different fandom‘s, music, and other arts. Perhaps at a certain level people are just comfortable with what they know and just want to learn more. But in the case of John and I, he is the undisputed champion of Bruce Lee knowledge. What I know it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to him. My only quality is in some understanding of Cantonese and an above average attention to detail. But John is the undisputed champ!
Wow! What a great observation in making parallel between Lee and Coltrane. Both passed too soon and arrived at the peak of their arts by hard work, dedication, and research. Trane is known to have practiced till his lips were bleeding and could recite Nicolas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns" backward. Much like Lee, who owned thousands of books on martial arts and physical training, even fencing, they were like polymaths in their own arts by doing tirelessly deep research to prepare themselves in any situation, which is the heart of improvisation and martial arts. To them being innately gifted is not enough. Along with the grunt work they trained their intellect in every facets of their arts. The world was enriched and still is being enriched by such artists.
I watched a video on a forensic scientist who studied all of Bruce's medical records that he was given access to and he thoroughly convinced me that Bruce died of cortisone overuse, from the injections that he got for his back injury, back when they didn't know as much about it's bad side effects. So I doubt that it was from overtraining.
@@mjt11860 Cortisone (hormone Cortisol) is native to the human body and if it's present in (extreme) excess, it will be downregulated by his counterpart...
@@Hellblaze81 ? u didn't complete ur statement, so i don't know what u were trying to say. cortisone is a synthetic version of cortisol & is a corticosteroid with lots of side effects.
@@TheKungFuGenius if I've learned anything about Bruce it's this....too many "think they know" but haven't considered how many times Bruce Lee threw each punch, how many kicks, elbow strikes, shin kicks,groin kicks, knee attacks etc. And Bruce was always aiming to get better and better in everything he did...true self actualization imo. Most also don't realize he studied something called the 10,000 hour method, (hense his *I fear not the man who's practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who's practiced 1 kick 10,000 times* quote which again IMO he was humbly referring to his own time put in mastering the 10,000 hour method). Bruce really left no stone unturned in his way of learning how to use and master his own martial way. Too many have made the mistake (I did too LOL) that movie fights, (motion-picture martial acting) are somehow of use in the street or real life situations. His son Brandon put it rather fittingly...*My father was fast, Lethal Fast* and yet the beauty in it now in 2021 is it's been 47 years since he died....and as it's written on his gravestone, *YOUR INSPIRATION CONTINUES TO GUIDE TOWARD OUR PERSONAL LIBERATION* His legacy inspired these words from my own path of martial art... *Walking Onward in Spontaneous Intuitive Freedom and Understanding*
It's interesting that while some of the top point karate pracitioners of the 1960s and 1970s afterwards dismissed Bruce Lee as an actor, not a fighter, by contrast some of the greatest pro boxers admired Bruce Lee's speed and cunning as a fighter. For both Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao -- two guys who proved themselves in a real combat sport and who know a thing or two about how to hit, how to avoid getting hit, and how to survive a hit -- Bruce Lee was the one they grew up wanting to emulate in the ring. Pacquiao not only wanted to fight like Bruce Lee, he also wanted to look like him. Real fighters recognize talent when they see it.
This was awesome! Thank you for doing this interview. I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan and have been for over 40 years. You've uncovered information that I've never heard of before, and I'm interested in knowing more! Thanks again!
A very informative interview about someone still in the conversation nearby a half century since his shocking passing. Bruce lee could be the Mozart of the unarmed combat world. Excellent job by Alex, and Mr. Little.
Outstanding!! One of the best if not the best interviews I had ever seen. The best I ever saw was the 1971, The lost Interview, Pierre Berton Show. Great job Alex, TOP NOTCH 👍🏽👍🏽✌🏽✌🏽. John Little was Superb 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽. Just so disappointed that I waited this long to watch. Keep up the amazing work Alex with your podcast.. Very impressive and informative.
Another one of my favorite channels! Keep up the dope content bra! I wanna see you do a topic on what movies and ideas Bruce Lee had planned and slated for after Enter the Dragon and for 1974.
@Jason Vorhees Maybe i can answer that, but without guarantee. Ive read not long time ago Bey Logan stated Lee wanted to do a movie with Carlo Ponti in Italy after he had finished Game of Death. Ponti was the husband of Sophia Loren. And the plot of the movie would have been Lee played an ancient chinese warrior, i guess he himself would have chose either to be the fictional Chow Youngking, or the real life chinese general Nian Gengyao. Here you can see a clip where he was already dressed as those people: ua-cam.com/video/hGe7P46jlBc/v-deo.html This is Lee as Chow Youngking: images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/40300000/-Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-axa-man-1972-dragonofjade71-40381165-720-574.jpg ia803002.us.archive.org/27/items/BruceLeeDragonOfJadeBlindSwordsmanMarkAshy74aka/Bruce%20Lee%20dragon%20of%20jade%20blind%20swordsman%20mark%20ashy%207%204aka.jpg This is Lee as Nian Gengyao: www.deviantart.com/bruceleeswordsman72/art/Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-843898723 www.deviantart.com/bruceleeswordsman72/art/Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-831060551 So i guess he would looked like this when doing a movie with Ponti. Ask Logan about it, i think he did mention this in his latest book.
@@NDoraku Wall claimed he was gonna play DEA cop in Rome , working title Drug Terror (then again Wall is like Burt Ward and Hulk Hogan , all three like to embellish , heh)
I have most of John’s books from when they were initially released. and he is most certainly a Bruce Lee scholar. thanks for this podcast Alex- It was one of the fastest hours I ever spent-very fascinating stuff-
@@silverfoxsilverfox6932 Buddy, I'm just kidding, I'll need to repeat what I said before - I have no time for this. To write a full indepth discertation to contextualize the points you brought up is not ideally done in UA-cam comments and would take too much of my time. Also, you may be a bit mistaken - I'm not an evangelical Bruce Lee guy - I'm perfectly fine with you not thinking he's great. I don't find it necessary to convince people of anything so please don't mistake what my interview guest says on my podcast with my opinion nor any perceived need to convince people. Regardless of what your opinion is on Bruce Lee, I will sleep fine. Have a great week!
I think Dominic Izzo should watch this pod cast, he claims Bruce only did 1st form & here we are being told he did forms 1 to 3, as most of us always thought anyway. Another great Job KFG
My first time seeing Bruce Lee was around 1966 watching the Green Hornet Television series. I have been following Bruce Lee since that time around 1966 up to now in 2021.
William Cheung said Bruce wrote him a letter saying he beat Chuck Norris in a sparring match and Chuck became his student. I wonder if John Little did some research on that particular fight. Jim Kelly also said Bruce sparred with a very famous fighter but he refused to name him. I suspect he saw Bruce beat Chuck Norris.
@@TheKungFuGenius He did mention that letter in a youtube video titled "WING CHUN - Grandmaster William Cheung - The Legacy" but never showed it. I really hope he kept the letter somewhere. I'd be great if John Little could ask him or his son Andrew about that letter.
just found out this podcast and for us Bruce lee fans this is amazing and the stories are unbelievable so thank u brother and keep up the brilliant work
Absolutely true nothing more to say. Even if some people really exagerrate when it comes to the subject Bruce Lee, but many young guys in America really lost it. They belelive now he was just some actor who was not a martial artist, street fighter or whats however. Fact is during his time there was nobody who beat him when he was an adult (age 18-32), or had the guts to challeng him to a street fight, be it Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Gene LeBell, Bob Wall or anyone else who claimed so afterwards. They didnt beat him and they werent on the same level as him, which Black Belt Magazine founder Mito Uyehara confirmed to Little. He knew them all and said Lee was a level above them all. They or some of them lost to their egos and i cant stand their lies anymore, even if i say RiP Wall and Lewis! Especially Joe found the real path again when he became older and gave Lee the credit he deserved, but Norris, LeBell and Wall never did to this day. At least not really, LeBell a bit, but Norris and Wall zero.
That was such a great interview with John. I loved hearing all those stories and insights. I’m 52, my uncle introduced me to Bruce back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. I got Bruce Lee’s fighting method books and began reading/training in my early teens. Then I took Kenpo karate until I was a 3rd degree brown belt when I was 18. Then I met someone that was teaching JKD concepts, did that briefly until work interfered. The 20 years ago I took Wing Chun with my Sifu Russ Cichon who was a student of Ip Ching for a year. Since then I practice now and then, both Wing Chun and JKD. I have to admit when I fist stumbled upon your podcast I thought you were a pompous ass for calling yourself the Kung Fu Genius, I’m like who the hell does this guy think he is?! However after watching many of your videos and getting to know you better, I couldn’t have been more wrong about you. You sir are a very humble down to earth person with a great sense of humor and my gods you’re very knowledgeable in great number of things! I’m now a huge fan, love what you’re doing and I die laughing during the outtakes at the end of the videos! Sorry for the long comment. Keep up the great work! Chris
Thanks for the comment. The nickname Kung Fu Genius came from an article about me in the Hong Kong press and I use it with only the strictest of irony.
If I can ask a question to you sir. How would Bruce Lee fare against today's MMA fighter. I debated with this MMA guy and he comes across that MMA is some kind of elite gold tier fighting community that Bruce is not qualified.
Great talk. Ed Parker who was himself a great martial artist said of Bruce Lee... He was one in 2 billion! I think that says it's all. I personally think Bruce has a rare condition found in very, very few individuals who possess more fast twitch muscles than others.
Just read the book, brilliant research. I’ve made a compilation of all the interviews I can find of students and eye witnesses talking about fights they’ve seen of his and stuff purely on his fighting and not acting. It’s great to now have a book with it all recorded in there.
Fantastic interview man love it. I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan and have been lucky to have met John Little many years ago and have an autographed book from him. His knowledge on Bruce is amazing. I'm a wing chun practitioner because of Bruce and love learning more about Bruce's past. Your interviews are awesome lucking forward to more. Best wishes from 🇬🇧
Jim Kelly, too, openly and publicly said that Bruce Lee was ''untouchable''. Also that he knew people Lee sparred with (and they all lost). But, actually, one who has eyes to see and martial arts experience needs no testimony at all. Just watch and compare Lee's speed, agility, artistry, technique, power to every fighter he fought on screen or even to footage of fights back in 1960s and 70s and you will have the answer. John Little implied it: Lee was a warrior not a sportsman. And there is a huge distance between the two. Congrats for the interview.
outstanding interview and I thought I knew about Bruce Lee! John Little should be approached for another movie about Bruce Lee by a serious director. Bruce Lee is my idol and I am originally from the Dominican Republic and when I heard he visited with master J. Rhee I visit the town in the DR to see if there was footage or pictures. Do you know or have done research about this KFG?
There are a bunch of photos from that trip, including when Bruce drank some type of Malta down there. I don’t believe there’s any video footage though.
@@TheKungFuGenius I know, I was hoping you'd know of any footage. I met one of the guys who received an actual brown belt from Bruce Lee, an older gentleman of course. He was a businessman at the time and he was at the promotion test courtesy of grand master Joohn Rhee when he was a young man. Supposedly BL sparred with this guy and kicked Bruce in the face and Lee said I thought we were playing and the guy said no. As soon as the guy said no, he was knocked out on the floor. Amazing!
I attended the 10 year anniversary memorial Bruce Lee at the World of Bruce Lee in Hollywood, Ca. There were a few guest speakers and many personal artifacts of Bruce Lee including the bodysuit? from Enter The Dragon. They There were three things blew that my mind more than usual, lol 1) A steel plate affixed was to a wooden block(stump) with bolts and garage-door springs. It was explained to us that Lee would lift the steel plate, release it, then prevent it from slamming down with a finger strike.. 2) the fabricator of most of Bruce's training equipment was there and he spoke of working on a "mechanical dummy" for Lee at the time of his death. Why? Because Bruce Lee lamented the fact the he could no longer work up a sweat training with human beings nor could he employ his full speed power and technique... 3) They showed behind the scenes of Enter The Dragon, common and seen by millions now but to see that then and unexpectedly! First video of yours, loved it, liked and subscribed. Thank your for wading into, through and dispensing with the Bruce Lee hater BS!👊🏽✊🏽✌🏽
This might help the narrative of Bruce’s rooftop fight. Bruce’s younger brother, Robert Lee, shared his perspective of when the fight took place. Apparently, Bruce came home after that fight with a black eye, and his mother has him hold an egg over the bruising. Bruce saw Robert laughing at his black eye and says, “You think this is funny? You should see the other guy. He has no teeth.” After that day, there was talk of Bruce having to move to the States to defuse things in Hong Kong. Whether he was at risk of any immediate consequences is up for debate, but Robert remembers his last day with his big brother before Bruce moved to Seattle. It was heart-warming brother-to-brother moments, and the gravity of having to say goodbye. Robert had a lot of great memories with Bruce, even on movie sets of projects like Way Of The Dragon and the few scenes of Game Of Death that were filmed. He was a guitarist, so he’d bring his guitar so Bruce could sing along. “Guantanamera” by Celia Cruz was a favorite of Bruce’s.
Thanks for that. Like me, I’m sure John has heard that story many many times. In fact when you’ve been talking Bruce Lee for so long, it’s easy to forget that some people don’t know these well-worn tales told by his brother and his mother. We’re looking for additional corroboration to the stories outside of these well-worn narrative told by his family.
You could mostly trust people with no rivalry or (clan) hiercharchy thinking to Bruce Lee, people who did their own thing and ran successfully their own business on another field / martial art, i.e. Hayward Nishioka, Jhoon Goo Rhee, Joey Orbillo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...
I'm a JKD concepts guy and I've trained with Ted Wongs top student here in Colorado... we absolutely say there's Theatrical Jeet Kune Do and Functional Jeet Kune Do, having done both film stunt work and actual fighting its so evident ... absolutely amazing Podcast brother!!! As a fan of Bruce and a carrier of his art and philosophy this is gold! Always a fan!
This is an incredible, jaw-dropping You Tube experience. Insider information here from leading biographer John Little. I rate this one as my favorite to date. To see Sifu's eyes get that big about the volumes John Little had access to.... I don't think I've ever seen that reaction from him. Wow. Thanks Sifu. When you're taken aback, I know it's the real deal.
I don’t have any significant experience with Chinese Martial Arts but I’ve been practicing Karate off and on for 20 years and would definitely agree with your overall point discussed between 30:00 - 40:00. You brought up that some folks criticize Bruce for not knowing the entire Wing Chun system but you point out that he didn’t NEED to know the whole system, he just knew a subset REALLY well because he practiced it and fought with it a lot. On the Karate side of things, we have probably 2 dozen different forms ranging from 20 - to over 100 movements each and today, a typical 1st degree black belt in Karate will probably know between 8 - 10 of them. But a bit over a hundred years ago there was a master named Motabu (spelling?) who had and won a LOT of fights including with a couple of the top Western boxers of the time as well as some extremely nasty street fights in the Red Light districts of a number of cities he visited. Ignoring the questionable morals he may or may not have had frequenting such locations, he’s typically considered to have been karate’s most formidable fighter ever but he only practiced a SINGLE kata: Naihanchi Shodan (Tekki Shodan in some styles). This kata has about 30 movements (different styles count the moves differently) but they’re all about close in clinch fighting with elbows, knees, foot sweeps and throws, arm locks, hook punches, chokes, to name some examples. A lot of the techniques work well in a “ground and pound” setting too. Also, in that day and age, kata weren’t practiced just in isolation like they are today in most karate dojos. They would have been accompanied by two person drills for all the movements and variations as well as some form of pressure testing/sparring using the techniques. The solo kata were treated almost as “homework” for when you didn’t have a live partner to train with. Anyway, long story short, just because a person doesn’t know ALL the techniques of a system doesn’t necessarily mean anything. A person can learn a very narrow set of extremely effective techniques, practice and pressure test them a LOT, and that person will likely beat anyone else who knows all the techniques of a system but hasn’t focused on pressure testing them. Hopefully that all made sense. Thanks, great video!
Really cool interview and awesome to hear all these tidbits. When it came to the grappling, was a bit surprised that Gene Lebells name didn't come up. On the Wong Jack Man fight, were there any actual formals interviews with him regarding it before his death?
Bruce Lee took meticulous notes in his Daytimers detailing every appointment and time of which he did something every day. Every appointment with Chuck Norris for example, plus what he actually taught and trained with Chuck was detailed. His workouts, what he trained, reps and sets, every doctors appointment etc. were all in his Daytimers. John had access to all of these Daytimers and has copies of them in his possession. So let’s just say all of this so-called grappling training with Gene Lebel is… without record.
@@TheKungFuGenius very interesting, that’s for clarifying. So do the notes give any indication as to where he learnt to apply submission holds? The one example that immediately comes to my mind is the behind the scenes photo of him applying an armbar on Bolo.
I can't believe I haven't saw this before, I was training Wing Chun here where I live in Windsor Ontario Canada with a guy name Bob Fazecash. Bob's Sifu was Jim Clark out of Monroe Michigan who was one of James DeMile's original students. He claimed to be teaching Bruce Lee's original modification of Wing Chun (Jun Fan Wing Chun) which is supposed to be what Bruce was teaching his students and what was the foundation of Jeet Kune do. He said James DeMile ended up modifying Jun Fan Wing Chun into Wing Chun Do eventually. Anyways Bob was and still is an amazing Wing Chun practitioner, the system is amazing, They said Bruce Modified his traditional Wing chun because it wasn't effective against North American sized men, it was to rounded or flowing where as Jun Fan Wing Chun is straight to the point which makes it more practical. They explained instead of doing Tan Sao and following steps A,B,C,D, Bruce modified it using almost scientific principles making it faster skipping steps B & C and going A - D. People says his movie moves didn't do his actual fighting skill any justice but there are clips where you can see the modifications being used. I believe the people that say they had to ask Bruce to slow down so they could catch his movements on camera, because after 3 years of training even I was extremely fast in a lot of sequence for example Tan Sao into Chung Choi. Anyways, I never really understood what they ment and I didn't really care all I knew is I grew up boxing and learned some Karate kicking from a family friend and was undefeated in the street with just that and when I started doing Wing chun I couldn't do a damn thing to my Sifu Bob, he had an answer for everything, and everything I was learning made me way better, I was almost untouchable in the street, wowing anyone who saw me in action, quickly earning me a reputation in downtown Windsor bars back in those day (a reputation I'm no longer proud of... I think stupid kid these days 😂) I didn't really understand the difference or understand why a lot of martial artists talked smack about Wing chun until I did a traditional Wing chun class at the University of Windsor, after about 3 months I quit and knew exactly why Bruce modified it, it was nowhere near the Jun Fan Wing Chun I had done for 3 years, and could understand why traditional Wing chun had a bad rep. Anyways, learning what I learned training with Bob, seeing how good Bob was with 16 years of Jun Fan Wing Chun training, meeting and training with Sifu Clark and seeing how good he was even as an old man and hearing James Demile talk about how good Bruce was, anytime someone bad talks Bruce Lee I can't help but Eye roll the hell out of them, they don't know what I know, haven't seen what I've seen. Wing Chun has saved my ass countless times in the streets in many situations, destroying guys that were way bigger than me, in situations against multiple attackers, I give all the credit to Jun Fan Wing Chun, I could fight before but Jun Fan Wing chun help me end fight in seconds opposed to dicking around kick boxing with guys for undetermined amount of time, wars or attrition and also is probably what kept me from getting arrested. End that fight quick and get the heck out of dodge before the police sirens got anywhere near me. Can't nobody tell me Bruce wasn't the real deal!! 😂😂 Mind the typos if any its to hard to proof read and correct on my phone, this input box is way too small...hopefully you can get the gist of what I'm saying😂😂
FANTASTIC Sifu Richter! :D Sorry i am late. But yes, i saw the first 20 minutes of this interview already last Friday about 5pm German time. But thx so much for uploading it now. You really bring all of them together. Ive never seen any YT channel who had a podcast with Polly and one with Little, + so many other great videos. Go on! Cheers from Germany PS: Like i wrote on an other place, it was funny to hear about your experience with Sifu Emin Boztepe, WT and living in Heidelberg. :D
@@TheKungFuGenius Absolutely! :) I have a question: Do you have an emailadress? Of course you dont have to give it to me if its your private adress, but maybe you have some kind of a working emailadress like i do? If so i would like to send you a "Fight History" about Lee which i brought together since about 2000 or 2001. I saved it on an old hard drive and did an overview in the last 2-3 years, and just did the last edit a couple weeks ago. I was also thinking to name you as one of the sources about the Lao Daichuen fight... Mabye you would like to read it? Cheers
I could never understand how these martial artist who trained with Bruce would bad mouth him after he was dead. Like I tell people....do you think all those combat martial artist at the time would let Bruce just talked about how flawed other marital arts were without getting no backlash for it? Of course not.....but he put them in their place so they didn't say anything. They're luck Bruce wasn't the time of man who went around telling everyone who he just beat up.
Just because they were in limelights too at their level..... And that Man was small light with his strong charisma abilities, in a word a genius that they could not stand it..... They had the courage to talk after his death.... They were are will be in his share for the rest of time....
Of all your videos, this is the BEST! This is EXACTLY what I’m looking for in regards to Bruce Lee. I know Wing Chun doesn’t have belts like Japanese or Korean arts, but what would be the equivalent of where Bruce was at in Wing Chun (Black, Brown etc)?
Regarding the wong jackman fight. A few years ago, one of my students who was renting a house from two sisters in a Chinese community in South Bay, encountered one of Wongs students. The women were selling the house, and an open house had just begun as he was leaving to head to class while wearing one of my shirts. An older gentleman, who my student thought was probably in his late sixties, had recognized the shirt. He said he had been a long time student of Wongs. And then he brought up the fight. He said that wong had told him that he secretly wanted to train with bruce after the fight had occurred. Maybe he came to terms with it at some point, who knows.
I think if you didn’t like what WJM had to say about the fight in Oakland, you needed to wait about ten minutes and he’d have another story. Eventually you’d find one you liked.
I’ve read some of Mr. John Little’s article, and finally got to see him in this great interview. What’s interesting to me is he’s also a fellow Ontarian.
Thanks for another great episode Alex! 👍🏽 I enjoyed the calling out of Chuck Norris and other previous students of Bruce who have put him down since his death to build themselves up. It’s a pet peeve I share. If you get a chance to speak with John (and maybe with David) again I’d love to hear about his experience making the Wong Shun Leung King of Talking Hands documentary. I haven’t had the chance to see that one yet but Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey is fantastic.
I died when he said "i was like a kid in a candy shop!" hahahah I have to give it to him for putting all the hardwork for us on creating great books on Sifu Bruce. I just recently bought the art of expressing the human body
@@TheKungFuGenius Btw you shoudl def interview Teri Tom! The author of the Straight lead. Shes so far the best contributor on udnerstanding's philosophy and biomechanics on JKD and she was instructed by Ted Wong. It would be really great if you can invite her too!
With regards to Chuck Norris when asked if he and Bruce ever really went at it, I’ve heard him say, we never did that because I was a professional fighter. Chuck was a point fighter who never transitioned to kick boxing like Wallace or Lewis did. I am a Norris fan but I always thought that answer was a little misleading.
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No lie, John Little is a mythical person. This is the first time I ever heard him talk. This the first time I ever seen him in person!!!! I've had all his books about Bruce Lee for decades now, and if there is one person I would love to interview and pick knowledge from, its John Little. Thank you man fr fr
I’ll be bringing him back again soon! I loved every minute of this.
@@TheKungFuGenius Thats great news Sifu Richter! :-D
Would it be ok for you to post 1-2 questions which you could ask him?
Only if the time allows it, your own questions for him have priority of course. :-)
@@TheKungFuGenius Veoma cenim tvoj rad u ovom intervju, jako kvalitetno i sustina... Mene veoma zanima, a naravno da sam fan Bruce Lee, posto su pitali i Mike Tyson sta misli da je moguce,borba sa Bruce Lee, Tyson nije dao precizan odgovor.. Isto pitanje u za Vas, ko bi bio pobednik...u slobodnoj borbi... Hvala, veliki pozdrav iz Serbia (Novak Djokovic country)..
I'm a wanna be Bruce Lee fan since the 60's ,now at 64 still training and teaching Monsters in MMA! Thank you Sifu Lee for planting the passion that continues to grow with Blessing! KFG peace!
Thank you!
Funny thing mma fighters that claim to respect Bruce, never defend him in comment sections of BL threads. The mma FANS are mostly racists. Sad
@@bechelerroseme6821 how do u know this?
@@cruiser6260 never saw in the comment sections mma fighter defend BL except Silva and McGregor.
@@axelstone3131 it's like what I see all the time, guys reach tournament level fighting skills they think they're badass. But it could be more mental state of mind warrior mentality like no mr. Nice guy, you stay tough so you're fearless against anybody, tactical state of mind. No nice guys.
Its a pity Jim Kelly is no longer here, what an interview that would be, one of the few high profile martial artists from that era who claimed that Bruce Lee was the greatest martial artist that he ever came across.
How about Jerry Poteet....He had a Facebook. Damn he recently past away.
@Nic777 don't think those karate tournament fighters would have been too happy to have been filmed sparring with Bruce.
Many martial artists of the time admit Bruce was the best they came across so not sure why you mention Jim Kelly?
@
Ha ha hard to prove praise of Bruce was motivated by money
.Doubt praising Bruce is going to make you rich anytime soon.
@@rickocconnell9056 Norris is worth $70 million, Dan Inosanto $12 million, Linda Lee $11+ million, Shannon Lee $10 million, and Jim Kelly $3.7 million.
- The Karate guys were all looking to break into Action films in the mid 1960s.
- Joe Lewis met Bruce Lee in 1966
- Jim Kelly and Chuck Norris in 1967-8
- Lee began test auditioning for movies again in Fall 1965 after a Hollywood hair dresser saw him and Jhoon Rhee at the Ed Parker Karate Open Invitational Tournament August 1964.
- Green Hornet Episode 1 aired September 9th, 1966 co-starring Bruce Lee as Asian Martial Arts master Kato.
- Bruce already had starred or co-starred in 20 movies as a child and teen actor in Hong Kong.
- At least 3 of his friends were action/Kung Fu Stars in Hong Kong. Including Unicorn Chan.
- Lee Hoi-chuen, Bruce's father is got him into acting. His father was a famous Chinese Opera singer-actor and film star. His mother a wealthy socialite. His father had connections everywhere.
So Bruce starred/co-starred in 20 movies by the time his famous actor father brought him to San Francisco April 1959. Then to Seattle in the fall to enroll him in Edison Technical School to finish his GED.
Bruce... was living with Ruby Chow and her husband, working at their Restaurant... and... um... Teaching Cha Cha lessons to many of the 60 girls, 14-18 year old girls, in Ruby Chow's 13 yo neice's drill team. From 1960-62.
His father called him back to Hong Kong in 62 but Bruce refused. Started dating Linda fall 1963 and her a few months pregnant July 1964, they moved to Oakland in with James Yimm Lee. And got married. Next week was the Ed Parker Karate tournament followed by the Sun Sing Theater incident.
After the Wong Jack-Man challenge match Lee started to pull his shit together. Got back into acting.
So, do you see what happened yet?
The fact that there are so many fighters who benefited from their relationships with Bruce and his teachings and then belittle him after his death really really pisses me off.
Agreed.
Same here. Bob Wall and Chuck being primary culprits
Yeah Danny Isanto said he is not suprised by that and Shannon his daughter said the same thing they don't want to give him credit for showing them things they showed Bruce this and that SMH. Shannon said the real friends no he was the real deal
Yup. They are cowards. They couldn't say it when he was alive because Bruce whooped them in sparring.
@@ecw787 Ing Sik and Ji Han Jae prolly jealous too
To me, for Bruce Lee to have said that Mike Stone could be "another Bruce Lee" is very high praise.
Indeed!
Alex really another great vid on Bruce Lee. The man was the greatest martial artist of our time. His knowledge speed power and agility were uncanny. Keep these vids coming! PEACE
Thank you for this!
This is a great interview. I always knew he was the real deal. Thanks so much for sharing this. When you’re that good, there will always be people hating on you.
Absolutely!
Everyone should listen to this interview. Especially all the haters out there
A joy listening to John Little. There are very knowledgeable people on Bruce Lee with interesting anecdotes and info but John Little is probably the closest to have “known” Bruce Lee without having met him. To be given the privilege to enter Linda’s room of personal Bruce Lee treasures is beyond a fan and collector’s wildest dream! I’ve had the pleasure of talking with John over the phone a few times and he’s the kind of individual that keeps you so intrigued that you can’t help but lose track of time. You’ve hit a home run with this episode! 👍🌟👍🌟
Thanks brother!
The Kung Fu Genius Always. 🤜🤛
So true brother Hector. Stay well my friend.
@@MrDravenLee You also my brother!! ✌️
R.I.P. Jerry Poteet. I was interacting with one his Facebook page not too long ago ( 3 mo. Ago ). He was Bruce Lee's early student. He said Bruce was the real deal. He has more vast knowledge on Bruce than John Little. POTEET was hired to train Jason Scott Lee for the movie, Dragon.
I did see a statue of Chuck Norris in his front yard. John Little was really on the button with everything he said. I think a lot of people think that what Bruce did in his films was his best and they judge him on that. They have no idea of how devastating this man was. Fast powerful and effective.
Well said
I think people over estimate what a 130 pound man is capable of.
@@chesleyoverstreet498 i think people under estimate what a 130 pound man can do. Helio Gracie is a classical example. And Helio even said that "I never had the attributes". and Bruce definitely ALSO had the attributes (along with a very creative mind)....even Joe Lewis has said , "he had phenomenal attributes" . those exact words... add to that he even said that he hit like a heavyweight (on youtube) and one of his MMA students said that Joe told him that one of the hardest kicks he ever endured was from Bruce. So Bruce was exceptional , mind and body
@@chesleyoverstreet498 he walked around at 165 lbs
Cut down to 135 for his movies to look extra cut
5 7 165 isn't even small lol
@@zibtihaj3213and that's a common theme among people who met & experienced meeting Bruce. For his size he was exceptionally powerful. And with that speed and obsession for combat 24/7. That's a deadly combination in itself.
This was an awesome podcast. I have read John Little's biography on Bruce many years ago. I had the same question that Mr. Little had about his idol who was my idol also: Could Bruce fight? There are so many naysayers and people who spread a lot of misinformation about Bruce. Even more unfortunate was the fact that some of them were the ones Bruce trained to be better martial artists. I also had the same question: If they really believed that Bruce couldn't fight, then why promulgate it after his death. In other words, if that was an issue they should of said it to his face. However, they did not because they already knew Bruce was the real deal after sparring with him. Bruce had the the techniques, the timing, the distance control, and speed to overcome anyone. I am not claiming he was the best but he was definitely an anomaly during his time and from what I have learned, he bested all of those he sparred with including the karate point fighter Chuck Norris. My question is: if someone was your friend and helped you with your fighting techniques, how could you defame them?
Thank you for a very entertaining and informative podcast.
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I love how Alex was ending the interview and Joe says, okay, and proceeds to tell three more stories. This is not a complaint.
I know when to shut up hahah.
The best interview with John, really enjoyed it. I'm a a big Bruce Lee Fan , read a lot on him since the green hornet series. I'm 69 yrs old. I think John Little is one of the best authorities you can find. Thanks Alex. I haven't read any of John's books yet just interviews. Now I got to get some of his books.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow, I am absolutely awed by how lucky you were, being able to get your hand on the enormously precious treasure scripts left by Bruce. Thank you very much for transcribing Bruce’s scripts into publication, so that Bruce’s legacy can be passed on for many years to come.
This interview is pure gold and brings forth more facts about Bruce Lee's real fighting skills than most of the YT podcasts on this topic combined. Little factoid about the Little Dragon training some of 60's best point fighters. At his home in Culver City, Bruce did 1 on 1 training sessions with Joe Lewis, Mike Stone, Louis Delgado, and Chuck Norris. Of the "Big 4," only Delgado immediately acknowledged that he and Bruce sparred. Delgado basically said that he couldn't touch Bruce when they sparred and that it was a humbling experience. Lewis went to his grave denying that he sparred with Lee. To this day, Stone denies sparring with Lee. It took Norris 25 years to admit that he sparred with Bruce, and even that admission came with a "I was better than Bruce," slant. In his 2nd autobiography, Chuck claimed that Bruce could not avoid his spinning back kick during their "fun" sparring sessions. This version appears to contradict the versions put forth by Lee students Dan Inosanto and Richard Bustillo who stated that Norris was frequently frustrated with his inability to cope with Lee's inside game. According to these two highly respected martial artists, Bruce was able to close the distance on Chuck, and drive the Texas Ranger crazy with his trapping skills. According to James DeMile, Inosanto talked to him at length about Lee being able to score at will on Norris with the Pak Da.
Thanks for this great comment!
@@TheKungFuGenius Jon Benn said he met Norris around '88 & Norris thought Lee would beat him irl , i doubt Benn lied
Lee had revolutionary ideas at the time. That’s why people trained with him, not because he was a better fighter. John Danaher is the most successful BJJ and Submission Grappling Coach in history. He would never beat his star pupils, but people came to him because he got results and word spread.
If Bruce had won the Wong Jack-man fight in the way they imply and Linda said, then why did Dan Inosanto say just the opposite in print? In the early eighties book by Unique Publications that “It would be charitable (towards Lee) to call that fight a draw.” And that Bruce had told him “I was so tired that I couldn’t even hit him, Danny.”
Lee’s fastest punch was measured by Jesse Glover at .05 of a second at three feet. That was bragged about by both the JKD community and Lee’s fans for decades. Until someone actually did the math correctly for them and they found out that numerous fighters have been scientifically measured at speeds well above 40 mph.
As an example, Australian Taekwondo 5th degree black belt Bren Foster’s kick was measured at 136 mph. Nearly four times faster than Lee’s fastest punch…with a kick. Facts vs Myths.
In this fanboy echo chamber of an interview, they kept saying that no one could touch Lee. In the video of Lee doing a sparring in a demo that wasn’t choreographed against his own students, even though he dominated them, they were able to land/score on him. They weren’t even real fighters and if scrubs like Taky and Ted could hit him, are people really delusional enough to think that better and more skilled and experienced fighters couldn’t?
Quite literally one of the most informative interviews I have seen, and I have seen just about every one there is.
This could have been released on blu-ray and worth every penny.
Incredible interview.
Thanks you so much!
Well said mate 👏
Jon Benn himself wrote in his book and stated that Chuck himself said nobody could beat Bruce.
True. And you can find here on YT a clip when Benn talked with Bey Logan about it.
Type in the searchbox:
Chuck Norris admits he is no match for Bruce Lee
Still, talk about Bruce Lee needs to go beyond Chuck Norris at some point.
You only have to look at videos of chuck training and doing moves to know he’s not really a very good fighter. I dont know why his opinion has that much weight for some people.
Love this interview! I’ve been a fan of John Little’s writings on Bruce Lee for a long time and this episode is gold.. you got a new follower Alex.
Thank you!
Thanks a lot to Alex Richter and John Little.
I have tons of email exchange with Jessie, and met an Albuquerque-located martial artist named Steve (Lee) Johnson 1996 in Bochum, Germany. Years after that he also met Bob Bremer and Tackett, as there exist some photos of this. Everything they told confirm John Little's view on Bruce Lee. Steve spent a summer in Bruce's house at Roscomare Road, Culver City. Later he also studied at Taky Kimura's school, I think it was with a guy named Roy Hollingsworth, and with Yip Chun in Hongkong. When I asked him about Bruce, he stated literally Bruce was "unbelievable". By the time he trained with Bruce in his house, he was still training Karate within the Japan Karate association. Since Bruce was already known to american audiences to the "Green Hornet"-TV-show, his Karate fellows asked him after that how Bruce would be in comparison to their teacher who has the headman of the Japan Karate association at this time. Steve mentioned their teacher was fast, powerful and already world famous. Unfortunately he didn't mentioned his name, but since it was during Bruce's Los Angeles period it is not unlikely it was Hidetaka Nishiyama who according to Jessie's first book impressed Bruce at a Karate demo at a local air base in Washington with such a high level of body control, that he left an impact on him of how he wanted to be able to kick. But I cannot confirm for sure it was him who Steve talked about. However, he replied to this Karate fellows question: "Our teacher against Bruce?... is like a turtle with its hands tied up!"....If you can get in contact with him, you probably can ask him about more details...
Warm regards from a former German Wing Tsun student...
The awesome part when John underlines how Bruce was absolutely the real deal and could be so lethal in real life when he had to be, and was also just so neurologically unique compared to the rest of us mere human beings ! was again so wonderful to hear !
What a GREAT conversation! There are so many important facts and stories about Bruce Lee that I didn't know about. John did a great job debunking lies about Bruce. Thank you for this interview!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Alex! Great interview with John Little. I loved that show. You're the BOMB. I've been studying JKD for about 35 years. Your show is excellent. Thank you!
Thank you so much!
Super interesting ! It would have been great if Bruce Lee would have had a friendly sparring session with other legendary martial artists such as Masutatsu Oyama of Kyokushin karate or a great Kung-Fu expert such as Chang Tun Sheng. These legends are now gone but not forgotten.
This was an Incredible episode. The Bruce Lee Haters need to see this Episode. A great job my friend. Keep up the good work, all the best and Stay Safe.
Well said man!
It has nothing to do with worshipping or whats however, but all these PROVEN LIARS like Joe Rogan with his podcast etc. told so many lies about Lee over the last 10 years, believing stuff like Norris would so easy beat him because he was a REAL fighter and Lee just an FAKE movie fighter and only had some good ideas etc.
In one of his shows Eddie Bravo stated Lee disvovered after meeting the 220 lb James DeMile and the heavy guys Jesse Glover and Ed Hart, that his Kung Fu BS doesnt work and he began to throw all of it away, only mixing Boxing, Wrestling, Fencing and some kicks, bla bla bla.
And sorry for saying this right of the bat:
I cant stand the actions of Lee´s widow and daughter anymore!
Not just this white washing about him being such a Guro like monk, when infact he was more of a hippie, but also producing all these BS documentaries like "I am Bruce Lee", "How Bruce Lee Changed the World" or "Be Water", they dont focus what BL was actually being capable when it was getting serious, only talking about this philosophical stuff and what a humanitarian, fighter against racism and breaker of boundaries he was.
There should be again more documentaries who are focusing about his actual skills, like in "Curse of the Dragon", "The Intercepting Fist", "The One and Only", "A Warriors Journey", etc.
I have enough from docs like the ones i did mention above when they give some BS talkers like Gene LeBell a plattform, when he says something like: "Lee was a 135 lb little guy and not tough", or "I would bet all my money Chuck Norris would have beaten Bruce Lee in a real fight", etc.
Even if Norris is the quietest today, but its obvious that LeBell, Norris and Bob Wall are the real FRIENDS, and they never considered Lee as a real friend because otherwise they would not talk him down so much.
Joe Lewis made a turn in his last years, and Jim Kelly was also more truthfull from around 1990 to his death in 2013.
Thank you brother!
@@NDoraku The worst of all is Bob Wall - he claims in a recent interview he called Bruce Lee “you little chinaman, you can’t break anything”
@@bertt1055 Yes i know. Wall said in the same interview some very strange things:
- around 16-18 minutes mark, he claims he had defeated Seagal in front of 200 people, including Norris as witness;
- around 25-30 minutes mark, he claims he trained taking punches and kicks, and even let Muhammad Ali and Earnie Shavers punch him with their best shots;
- minute 34-35 he says he laid a lot of people down with front kicks and spinning leg sweeps, and he sparred Ali when he was still Cassius Clay, and the last time he sparred him was before the Cleveland Williams fight, and he - if i understand correct (maybe not) - he kicked Ali in the head;
- minute 36-44 he says he hired John Saxon, Jim Kelly, Peter Archer and even Jackie Chan for ETD;
And somewhere in the beginning he praises Gene LeBell again, and when Lee comes into play of course he was more or less only a fighter on screen, teached him and Norris etc. how to react to punches/kicks on the screen etc...
At the age of 81, i wish him the best and health!
But if you ask me, either he is in a complete state of delusion, or he gets problems to think straight due to his age.
Shavers punched him with full power...yeah, sure he did!
If Earnie did that, especially with full power to his head, Bob would have been on the floor!
Shavers is considered by many boxing historians as the hardest puncher ever, even Ali and Larry Holmes praised him as that.
@@NDoraku and there are such people always complaining that the praise from rogan and all these others just isn't high enough. Rogan said Bruce was legit.
Love it !!! This is mind blowing the numerous contacts you have that can bring a new light to the past of THE legend. Thank you for your dedication to work toward this podcast on top of all your training and classes.
🙏
You are so welcome
OMG the best bruce lee chats ever. I am so happy I wondered into this chat. The most I heard about bruce lee my Idol :D. Thanks for the insights. I had to subcribe. Need more of this. This was awesome.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it and thankful you subscribed!
Lee taught me to be AWARE of my surroundings....be alert! And he
inspired me to be Balanced, and in Tune with my anatomy.
Lightening Quick footwork became a trademark with me. But, the
Training I put my body through over the years, has truly spilled over in other
Areas of my life. He was quite the individual!
Most sincere and insightful interview. Thank you!
Thank you!
Awesome interview! Very enjoyable indeed!!! :)
Another great show, it's interesting to observe two people who are far beyond my self in Bruce Lee fandom, and I consider myself a massive fan, but both you John Little are on a whole different level, it's very obvious and there is no jealousy or competition involved, just as I feel should have been the case with most martial artists at the time who observed Bruce's superiority. The reaction required is to say wow, recognize, give it up and feel blessed to come in contact with that manifestation of skill and be inspired. There are plenty of parallels in my own area of expertise, jazz improvisation, both in the art itself of total split second spontaneity, to how lesser practitioners try to belittle superiors to make themselves appear larger. Another Lee disciple has a video on how he spent a year training in a similar intensity and almost died, leading him to the conclusion that he may have become quite aware of his coming early demise, yet continued in order to achieve his artistic ends. This type of selfless dedication through constant search of possibilities and ultimate technique is analogous to John Coltrane's life and Miles Davis in another sense. The only suitable and righteous response to these individuals life and legacy is gratitude, to them for the realization of their gifts and to the Creator for the gift of their beings. Thanks again, it was fun watching you get off on all his knowledge and stories.
This comment is incredible! I think there are many parallels in different fandom‘s, music, and other arts. Perhaps at a certain level people are just comfortable with what they know and just want to learn more. But in the case of John and I, he is the undisputed champion of Bruce Lee knowledge. What I know it’s just a drop in the bucket compared to him. My only quality is in some understanding of Cantonese and an above average attention to detail. But John is the undisputed champ!
Wow! What a great observation in making parallel between Lee and Coltrane. Both passed too soon and arrived at the peak of their arts by hard work, dedication, and research. Trane is known to have practiced till his lips were bleeding and could recite Nicolas Slonimsky's "Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns" backward. Much like Lee, who owned thousands of books on martial arts and physical training, even fencing, they were like polymaths in their own arts by doing tirelessly deep research to prepare themselves in any situation, which is the heart of improvisation and martial arts. To them being innately gifted is not enough. Along with the grunt work they trained their intellect in every facets of their arts. The world was enriched and still is being enriched by such artists.
I watched a video on a forensic scientist who studied all of Bruce's medical records that he was given access to and he thoroughly convinced me that Bruce died of cortisone overuse, from the injections that he got for his back injury, back when they didn't know as much about it's bad side effects. So I doubt that it was from overtraining.
@@mjt11860 Cortisone (hormone Cortisol) is native to the human body and if it's present in (extreme) excess, it will be downregulated by his counterpart...
@@Hellblaze81 ? u didn't complete ur statement, so i don't know what u were trying to say. cortisone is a synthetic version of cortisol & is a corticosteroid with lots of side effects.
Fascinating and very informative interview! Loved the humor as well, I could have listened to you guys talk for hours!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This was Bruce Lee that many still don't know. Fantastic interview.
Thank you!
@@TheKungFuGenius loving the bloopers lol. *you'll never one take Jake* about killed me.
AHAHAHAHAHA you 2 need to show Way More of these!
@@TheKungFuGenius if I've learned anything about Bruce it's this....too many "think they know" but haven't considered how many times Bruce Lee threw each punch, how many kicks, elbow strikes, shin kicks,groin kicks, knee attacks etc. And Bruce was always aiming to get better and better in everything he did...true self actualization imo.
Most also don't realize he studied something called the 10,000 hour method, (hense his *I fear not the man who's practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who's practiced 1 kick 10,000 times* quote which again IMO he was humbly referring to his own time put in mastering the 10,000 hour method). Bruce really left no stone unturned in his way of learning how to use and master his own martial way. Too many have made the mistake (I did too LOL) that movie fights, (motion-picture martial acting) are somehow of use in the street or real life situations. His son Brandon put it rather fittingly...*My father was fast, Lethal Fast* and yet the beauty in it now in 2021 is it's been 47 years since he died....and as it's written on his gravestone, *YOUR INSPIRATION CONTINUES TO GUIDE TOWARD OUR PERSONAL LIBERATION*
His legacy inspired these words from my own path of martial art...
*Walking Onward in Spontaneous Intuitive Freedom and Understanding*
It's interesting that while some of the top point karate pracitioners of the 1960s and 1970s afterwards dismissed Bruce Lee as an actor, not a fighter, by contrast some of the greatest pro boxers admired Bruce Lee's speed and cunning as a fighter. For both Sugar Ray Leonard and Manny Pacquiao -- two guys who proved themselves in a real combat sport and who know a thing or two about how to hit, how to avoid getting hit, and how to survive a hit -- Bruce Lee was the one they grew up wanting to emulate in the ring. Pacquiao not only wanted to fight like Bruce Lee, he also wanted to look like him. Real fighters recognize talent when they see it.
This was awesome! Thank you for doing this interview. I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan and have been for over 40 years. You've uncovered information that I've never heard of before, and I'm interested in knowing more! Thanks again!
A very informative interview about someone still in the conversation nearby a half century since his shocking passing.
Bruce lee could be the Mozart of the unarmed combat world.
Excellent job by Alex, and Mr. Little.
Thank you!! That’s very kind. His influence and impact is still felt.
@@TheKungFuGenius He was my childhood hero, and all these years..... I still miss his presence in this reality. I’m 63
GREAT interview! 👊🏽
Outstanding!! One of the best if not the best interviews I had ever seen. The best I ever saw was the 1971, The lost Interview, Pierre Berton Show. Great job Alex, TOP NOTCH 👍🏽👍🏽✌🏽✌🏽. John Little was Superb 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽✌🏽✌🏽✌🏽. Just so disappointed that I waited this long to watch. Keep up the amazing work Alex with your podcast.. Very impressive and informative.
Thank you!
Another one of my favorite channels! Keep up the dope content bra! I wanna see you do a topic on what movies and ideas Bruce Lee had planned and slated for after Enter the Dragon and for 1974.
That’s an interesting topic, I’m not sure I’m the best one to cover this though...
@@TheKungFuGenius maybe John Little, Bey Logan or George Tan might be great candidates for that topic ?
@Jason Vorhees
Maybe i can answer that, but without guarantee. Ive read not long time ago Bey Logan stated Lee wanted to do a movie with Carlo Ponti in Italy after he had finished Game of Death.
Ponti was the husband of Sophia Loren.
And the plot of the movie would have been Lee played an ancient chinese warrior, i guess he himself would have chose either to be the fictional Chow Youngking, or the real life chinese general Nian Gengyao.
Here you can see a clip where he was already dressed as those people:
ua-cam.com/video/hGe7P46jlBc/v-deo.html
This is Lee as Chow Youngking:
images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/40300000/-Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-axa-man-1972-dragonofjade71-40381165-720-574.jpg
ia803002.us.archive.org/27/items/BruceLeeDragonOfJadeBlindSwordsmanMarkAshy74aka/Bruce%20Lee%20dragon%20of%20jade%20blind%20swordsman%20mark%20ashy%207%204aka.jpg
This is Lee as Nian Gengyao:
www.deviantart.com/bruceleeswordsman72/art/Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-843898723
www.deviantart.com/bruceleeswordsman72/art/Bruce-Lee-dragon-of-jade-blind-swordsman-831060551
So i guess he would looked like this when doing a movie with Ponti. Ask Logan about it, i think he did mention this in his latest book.
@@NDoraku Wall claimed he was gonna play DEA cop in Rome , working title Drug Terror (then again Wall is like Burt Ward and Hulk Hogan , all three like to embellish , heh)
I have most of John’s books from when they were initially released. and he is most certainly a Bruce Lee scholar. thanks for this podcast Alex- It was one of the fastest hours I ever spent-very fascinating stuff-
Thank you for your great compliment!
What a great video, could watch this for hours. Cheers for the upload really enjoyed it 👍
Glad you enjoyed it
I just came across your page I thought this interview was well done.
John Little was honest and sincere keep up the great work.
Cheers
Sam
Thank you so much!
Those old Kung Fu & Karate course ads and the Bruce Tegner books bring back lots of memories of the 80's when Kung Fu & Karate was at a fever pitch.
Thank you so much for this awesome interview sifu Alex!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@silverfoxsilverfox6932 exactly
@@silverfoxsilverfox6932 if I only had the time
@@silverfoxsilverfox6932 I'll get right on it.
@@silverfoxsilverfox6932 Buddy, I'm just kidding, I'll need to repeat what I said before - I have no time for this. To write a full indepth discertation to contextualize the points you brought up is not ideally done in UA-cam comments and would take too much of my time. Also, you may be a bit mistaken - I'm not an evangelical Bruce Lee guy - I'm perfectly fine with you not thinking he's great. I don't find it necessary to convince people of anything so please don't mistake what my interview guest says on my podcast with my opinion nor any perceived need to convince people. Regardless of what your opinion is on Bruce Lee, I will sleep fine. Have a great week!
I'm so satisfied with this interview thank you so much for this
Thank you!
“We have the skeleton key to open other systems and styles, but they have no key to open ours."
-James Lee (Oakland Jeet Kune Do Instructor)
Amen, brother. The difference between real fight and choreography.
Thanks
Wow thank you!!!
I think Dominic Izzo should watch this pod cast, he claims Bruce only did 1st form & here we are being told he did forms 1 to 3, as most of us always thought anyway. Another great Job KFG
My first time seeing Bruce Lee was around 1966 watching the Green Hornet Television series. I have been following Bruce Lee since that time around 1966 up to now in 2021.
William Cheung said Bruce wrote him a letter saying he beat Chuck Norris in a sparring match and Chuck became his student. I wonder if John Little did some research on that particular fight. Jim Kelly also said Bruce sparred with a very famous fighter but he refused to name him. I suspect he saw Bruce beat Chuck Norris.
Never saw this letter!
@@TheKungFuGenius He did mention that letter in a youtube video titled "WING CHUN - Grandmaster William Cheung - The Legacy" but never showed it. I really hope he kept the letter somewhere. I'd be great if John Little could ask him or his son Andrew about that letter.
“Sometimes you have to be slower to be faster”. Chuck Norris comforting Bruce Lee for not being able to stop his kicks.
just found out this podcast and for us Bruce lee fans this is amazing and the stories are unbelievable so thank u brother and keep up the brilliant work
Absolutely true nothing more to say. Even if some people really exagerrate when it comes to the subject Bruce Lee, but many young guys in America really lost it. They belelive now he was just some actor who was not a martial artist, street fighter or whats however. Fact is during his time there was nobody who beat him when he was an adult (age 18-32), or had the guts to challeng him to a street fight, be it Chuck Norris, Joe Lewis, Gene LeBell, Bob Wall or anyone else who claimed so afterwards. They didnt beat him and they werent on the same level as him, which Black Belt Magazine founder Mito Uyehara confirmed to Little. He knew them all and said Lee was a level above them all. They or some of them lost to their egos and i cant stand their lies anymore, even if i say RiP Wall and Lewis! Especially Joe found the real path again when he became older and gave Lee the credit he deserved, but Norris, LeBell and Wall never did to this day. At least not really, LeBell a bit, but Norris and Wall zero.
Great documentary of John Little Bruce Lee a Warrior's Journey & In His Own Words
Yes, everything John Little did with the Bruce Lee Estate was of far superior quality compared to what is done nowadays.
Ever thought of interviewing John about the warriors journey doc bout Game Of Death and if there might be any footage that they might know off
Fabulous.. I just listened to all of it.. 👌
That was such a great interview with John. I loved hearing all those stories and insights. I’m 52, my uncle introduced me to Bruce back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. I got Bruce Lee’s fighting method books and began reading/training in my early teens. Then I took Kenpo karate until I was a 3rd degree brown belt when I was 18. Then I met someone that was teaching JKD concepts, did that briefly until work interfered. The 20 years ago I took Wing Chun with my Sifu Russ Cichon who was a student of Ip Ching for a year. Since then I practice now and then, both Wing Chun and JKD. I have to admit when I fist stumbled upon your podcast I thought you were a pompous ass for calling yourself the Kung Fu Genius, I’m like who the hell does this guy think he is?! However after watching many of your videos and getting to know you better, I couldn’t have been more wrong about you. You sir are a very humble down to earth person with a great sense of humor and my gods you’re very knowledgeable in great number of things! I’m now a huge fan, love what you’re doing and I die laughing during the outtakes at the end of the videos! Sorry for the long comment. Keep up the great work!
Chris
Thanks for the comment. The nickname Kung Fu Genius came from an article about me in the Hong Kong press and I use it with only the strictest of irony.
If I can ask a question to you sir. How would Bruce Lee fare against today's MMA fighter. I debated with this MMA guy and he comes across that MMA is some kind of elite gold tier fighting community that Bruce is not qualified.
Great talk. Ed Parker who was himself a great martial artist said of Bruce Lee... He was one in 2 billion! I think that says it's all. I personally think Bruce has a rare condition found in very, very few individuals who possess more fast twitch muscles than others.
Great interview gentlemen, really enjpyed it, John so good to see you!
Glad you enjoyed it
@@TheKungFuGenius Absolutely. Thank you
Man! This was GREAT! I could listen for hours and hours!!!
Thank you so much!
Great interview. John Little, a wealth of information on Bruce. Absolutely facinating
Glad you enjoyed it
Just read the book, brilliant research. I’ve made a compilation of all the interviews I can find of students and eye witnesses talking about fights they’ve seen of his and stuff purely on his fighting and not acting. It’s great to now have a book with it all recorded in there.
Fantastic interview man love it. I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan and have been lucky to have met John Little many years ago and have an autographed book from him. His knowledge on Bruce is amazing. I'm a wing chun practitioner because of Bruce and love learning more about Bruce's past. Your interviews are awesome lucking forward to more. Best wishes from 🇬🇧
Thank you for your great comment!
Jim Kelly, too, openly and publicly said that Bruce Lee was ''untouchable''.
Also that he knew people Lee sparred with (and they all lost).
But, actually, one who has eyes to see and martial arts experience needs no testimony at all.
Just watch and compare Lee's speed, agility, artistry, technique, power to every fighter he
fought on screen or even to footage of fights back in 1960s and 70s and you will have the answer.
John Little implied it: Lee was a warrior not a sportsman.
And there is a huge distance between the two.
Congrats for the interview.
Thank you
@@TheKungFuGenius Congrats for your work and channel
outstanding interview and I thought I knew about Bruce Lee! John Little should be approached for another movie about Bruce Lee by a serious director. Bruce Lee is my idol and I am originally from the Dominican Republic and when I heard he visited with master J. Rhee I visit the town in the DR to see if there was footage or pictures. Do you know or have done research about this KFG?
There are a bunch of photos from that trip, including when Bruce drank some type of Malta down there. I don’t believe there’s any video footage though.
@@TheKungFuGenius I know, I was hoping you'd know of any footage. I met one of the guys who received an actual brown belt from Bruce Lee, an older gentleman of course. He was a businessman at the time and he was at the promotion test courtesy of grand master Joohn Rhee when he was a young man. Supposedly BL sparred with this guy and kicked Bruce in the face and Lee said I thought we were playing and the guy said no. As soon as the guy said no, he was knocked out on the floor. Amazing!
I attended the 10 year anniversary memorial Bruce Lee at the World of Bruce Lee in Hollywood, Ca. There were a few guest speakers and many personal artifacts of Bruce Lee including the bodysuit? from Enter The Dragon. They
There were three things blew that my mind more than usual, lol
1) A steel plate affixed was to a wooden block(stump) with bolts and garage-door springs. It was explained to us that Lee would lift the steel plate, release it, then prevent it from slamming down with a finger strike..
2) the fabricator of most of Bruce's training equipment was there and he spoke of working on a "mechanical dummy" for Lee at the time of his death. Why? Because Bruce Lee lamented the fact the he could no longer work up a sweat training with human beings nor could he employ his full speed power and technique...
3) They showed behind the scenes of Enter The Dragon, common and seen by millions now but to see that then and unexpectedly!
First video of yours, loved it, liked and subscribed. Thank your for wading into, through and dispensing with the Bruce Lee hater BS!👊🏽✊🏽✌🏽
You are more than welcome! Thanks for the great comment.
@@stevo62ful I suggest you take your suggestions elsewhere...
Great interview with John Little. Such in depth and true martial artists appreciate the essence in how Bruce lead the way of life to better humanity
This might help the narrative of Bruce’s rooftop fight. Bruce’s younger brother, Robert Lee, shared his perspective of when the fight took place. Apparently, Bruce came home after that fight with a black eye, and his mother has him hold an egg over the bruising. Bruce saw Robert laughing at his black eye and says, “You think this is funny? You should see the other guy. He has no teeth.”
After that day, there was talk of Bruce having to move to the States to defuse things in Hong Kong. Whether he was at risk of any immediate consequences is up for debate, but Robert remembers his last day with his big brother before Bruce moved to Seattle. It was heart-warming brother-to-brother moments, and the gravity of having to say goodbye.
Robert had a lot of great memories with Bruce, even on movie sets of projects like Way Of The Dragon and the few scenes of Game Of Death that were filmed. He was a guitarist, so he’d bring his guitar so Bruce could sing along. “Guantanamera” by Celia Cruz was a favorite of Bruce’s.
Thanks for that. Like me, I’m sure John has heard that story many many times. In fact when you’ve been talking Bruce Lee for so long, it’s easy to forget that some people don’t know these well-worn tales told by his brother and his mother. We’re looking for additional corroboration to the stories outside of these well-worn narrative told by his family.
You could mostly trust people with no rivalry or (clan) hiercharchy thinking to Bruce Lee, people who did their own thing and ran successfully their own business on another field / martial art, i.e. Hayward Nishioka, Jhoon Goo Rhee, Joey Orbillo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar...
I'm a JKD concepts guy and I've trained with Ted Wongs top student here in Colorado... we absolutely say there's Theatrical Jeet Kune Do and Functional Jeet Kune Do, having done both film stunt work and actual fighting its so evident ... absolutely amazing Podcast brother!!! As a fan of Bruce and a carrier of his art and philosophy this is gold! Always a fan!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Best interview on Bruce I've ever seen. Thank you Alex and thank you John!
Thank you!
Brilliant interview, outstanding, thankyou!!
Thank you so much!
Great interview!! We need a Part 2! Great stuff sifu Alex!
Thank you!
@@TheKungFuGenius How about getting John to talk about A Warriors Journey and his search for the lost footage
This is an incredible, jaw-dropping You Tube experience. Insider information here from leading biographer John Little. I rate this one as my favorite to date. To see Sifu's eyes get that big about the volumes John Little had access to.... I don't think I've ever seen that reaction from him. Wow. Thanks Sifu. When you're taken aback, I know it's the real deal.
Well said!
This is the best interview about Bruce Lee I’ve ever heard. And I’m a big BL fan
Thank you !
I'm really happy you enjoyed it!
Just watched this for the second time great interview guys keeping it real as always
Thank you!
I don’t have any significant experience with Chinese Martial Arts but I’ve been practicing Karate off and on for 20 years and would definitely agree with your overall point discussed between 30:00 - 40:00. You brought up that some folks criticize Bruce for not knowing the entire Wing Chun system but you point out that he didn’t NEED to know the whole system, he just knew a subset REALLY well because he practiced it and fought with it a lot.
On the Karate side of things, we have probably 2 dozen different forms ranging from 20 - to over 100 movements each and today, a typical 1st degree black belt in Karate will probably know between 8 - 10 of them. But a bit over a hundred years ago there was a master named Motabu (spelling?) who had and won a LOT of fights including with a couple of the top Western boxers of the time as well as some extremely nasty street fights in the Red Light districts of a number of cities he visited. Ignoring the questionable morals he may or may not have had frequenting such locations, he’s typically considered to have been karate’s most formidable fighter ever but he only practiced a SINGLE kata: Naihanchi Shodan (Tekki Shodan in some styles).
This kata has about 30 movements (different styles count the moves differently) but they’re all about close in clinch fighting with elbows, knees, foot sweeps and throws, arm locks, hook punches, chokes, to name some examples. A lot of the techniques work well in a “ground and pound” setting too. Also, in that day and age, kata weren’t practiced just in isolation like they are today in most karate dojos. They would have been accompanied by two person drills for all the movements and variations as well as some form of pressure testing/sparring using the techniques. The solo kata were treated almost as “homework” for when you didn’t have a live partner to train with.
Anyway, long story short, just because a person doesn’t know ALL the techniques of a system doesn’t necessarily mean anything. A person can learn a very narrow set of extremely effective techniques, practice and pressure test them a LOT, and that person will likely beat anyone else who knows all the techniques of a system but hasn’t focused on pressure testing them.
Hopefully that all made sense. Thanks, great video!
Outstanding interview I hope there will be a part 2
I think I can be easily swayed to do this again!
Would love to see a second part after his book comes out and you have more to discuss with him
Really cool interview and awesome to hear all these tidbits. When it came to the grappling, was a bit surprised that Gene Lebells name didn't come up.
On the Wong Jack Man fight, were there any actual formals interviews with him regarding it before his death?
Bruce Lee took meticulous notes in his Daytimers detailing every appointment and time of which he did something every day. Every appointment with Chuck Norris for example, plus what he actually taught and trained with Chuck was detailed. His workouts, what he trained, reps and sets, every doctors appointment etc. were all in his Daytimers. John had access to all of these Daytimers and has copies of them in his possession. So let’s just say all of this so-called grappling training with Gene Lebel is… without record.
@@TheKungFuGenius very interesting, that’s for clarifying. So do the notes give any indication as to where he learnt to apply submission holds?
The one example that immediately comes to my mind is the behind the scenes photo of him applying an armbar on Bolo.
Awesome and mindblowing
Thanks for the Interview
Glad you enjoyed it!
I can't believe I haven't saw this before, I was training Wing Chun here where I live in Windsor Ontario Canada with a guy name Bob Fazecash.
Bob's Sifu was Jim Clark out of Monroe Michigan who was one of James DeMile's original students. He claimed to be teaching Bruce Lee's original modification of Wing Chun (Jun Fan Wing Chun) which is supposed to be what Bruce was teaching his students and what was the foundation of Jeet Kune do. He said James DeMile ended up modifying Jun Fan Wing Chun into Wing Chun Do eventually.
Anyways Bob was and still is an amazing Wing Chun practitioner, the system is amazing, They said Bruce Modified his traditional Wing chun because it wasn't effective against North American sized men, it was to rounded or flowing where as Jun Fan Wing Chun is straight to the point which makes it more practical.
They explained instead of doing Tan Sao and following steps A,B,C,D, Bruce modified it using almost scientific principles making it faster skipping steps B & C and going A - D. People says his movie moves didn't do his actual fighting skill any justice but there are clips where you can see the modifications being used. I believe the people that say they had to ask Bruce to slow down so they could catch his movements on camera, because after 3 years of training even I was extremely fast in a lot of sequence for example Tan Sao into Chung Choi.
Anyways, I never really understood what they ment and I didn't really care all I knew is I grew up boxing and learned some Karate kicking from a family friend and was undefeated in the street with just that and when I started doing Wing chun I couldn't do a damn thing to my Sifu Bob, he had an answer for everything, and everything I was learning made me way better, I was almost untouchable in the street, wowing anyone who saw me in action, quickly earning me a reputation in downtown Windsor bars back in those day (a reputation I'm no longer proud of... I think stupid kid these days 😂)
I didn't really understand the difference or understand why a lot of martial artists talked smack about Wing chun until I did a traditional Wing chun class at the University of Windsor, after about 3 months I quit and knew exactly why Bruce modified it, it was nowhere near the Jun Fan Wing Chun I had done for 3 years, and could understand why traditional Wing chun had a bad rep.
Anyways, learning what I learned training with Bob, seeing how good Bob was with 16 years of Jun Fan Wing Chun training, meeting and training with Sifu Clark and seeing how good he was even as an old man and hearing James Demile talk about how good Bruce was, anytime someone bad talks Bruce Lee I can't help but Eye roll the hell out of them, they don't know what I know, haven't seen what I've seen. Wing Chun has saved my ass countless times in the streets in many situations, destroying guys that were way bigger than me, in situations against multiple attackers, I give all the credit to Jun Fan Wing Chun, I could fight before but Jun Fan Wing chun help me end fight in seconds opposed to dicking around kick boxing with guys for undetermined amount of time, wars or attrition and also is probably what kept me from getting arrested. End that fight quick and get the heck out of dodge before the police sirens got anywhere near me.
Can't nobody tell me Bruce wasn't the real deal!! 😂😂
Mind the typos if any its to hard to proof read and correct on my phone, this input box is way too small...hopefully you can get the gist of what I'm saying😂😂
FANTASTIC Sifu Richter! :D
Sorry i am late. But yes, i saw the first 20 minutes of this interview already last Friday about 5pm German time.
But thx so much for uploading it now. You really bring all of them together. Ive never seen any YT channel who had a podcast with Polly and one with Little, + so many other great videos.
Go on!
Cheers from Germany
PS: Like i wrote on an other place, it was funny to hear about your experience with Sifu Emin Boztepe, WT and living in Heidelberg. :D
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TheKungFuGenius Absolutely! :)
I have a question: Do you have an emailadress? Of course you dont have to give it to me if its your private adress, but maybe you have some kind of a working emailadress like i do?
If so i would like to send you a "Fight History" about Lee which i brought together since about 2000 or 2001. I saved it on an old hard drive and did an overview in the last 2-3 years, and just did the last edit a couple weeks ago. I was also thinking to name you as one of the sources about the Lao Daichuen fight...
Mabye you would like to read it?
Cheers
I could never understand how these martial artist who trained with Bruce would bad mouth him after he was dead. Like I tell people....do you think all those combat martial artist at the time would let Bruce just talked about how flawed other marital arts were without getting no backlash for it? Of course not.....but he put them in their place so they didn't say anything. They're luck Bruce wasn't the time of man who went around telling everyone who he just beat up.
Great comment!
Just because they were in limelights too at their level.....
And that Man was small light with his strong charisma abilities, in a word a genius that they could not stand it.....
They had the courage to talk after his death....
They were are will be in his share for the rest of time....
...shade....
Of all your videos, this is the BEST! This is EXACTLY what I’m looking for in regards to Bruce Lee.
I know Wing Chun doesn’t have belts like Japanese or Korean arts, but what would be the equivalent of where Bruce was at in Wing Chun (Black, Brown etc)?
Awesome interview and his books are awesome too
Thank you!
This is a truly historical chat!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Regarding the wong jackman fight. A few years ago, one of my students who was renting a house from two sisters in a Chinese community in South Bay, encountered one of Wongs students. The women were selling the house, and an open house had just begun as he was leaving to head to class while wearing one of my shirts. An older gentleman, who my student thought was probably in his late sixties, had recognized the shirt. He said he had been a long time student of Wongs. And then he brought up the fight. He said that wong had told him that he secretly wanted to train with bruce after the fight had occurred. Maybe he came to terms with it at some point, who knows.
I think if you didn’t like what WJM had to say about the fight in Oakland, you needed to wait about ten minutes and he’d have another story. Eventually you’d find one you liked.
Another great interview, Thank you 🙏
Glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve read some of Mr. John Little’s article, and finally got to see him in this great interview. What’s interesting to me is he’s also a fellow Ontarian.
Ontarians unite
Wow, wow,wow. This is so incredibly well done.
Thank you!
@@TheKungFuGenius I'm still watching it now. Thank you for providing such a quality content!
I don't think they ever slowed down cameras for chuck lol
Certainly not lol
This is INCREDIBLE!!! Thanks!!!!
You're very welcome!
Fascinating interview! I Would love to sit and have a conversation with John! ❤🙏🏼
It wasn't just his physic and training, he had a twitch reaction like nobody else. Can't be developed or taught it's god given.
Yeah - Bruce had cat like reflexes !
Incredible interview.
Thank you
Thanks for another great episode Alex! 👍🏽
I enjoyed the calling out of Chuck Norris and other previous students of Bruce who have put him down since his death to build themselves up. It’s a pet peeve I share.
If you get a chance to speak with John (and maybe with David) again I’d love to hear about his experience making the Wong Shun Leung King of Talking Hands documentary. I haven’t had the chance to see that one yet but Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey is fantastic.
Sounds great!
Please tell us about your training with Leung Ting too! Bet you’ve got some good stories!
I died when he said "i was like a kid in a candy shop!" hahahah I have to give it to him for putting all the hardwork for us on creating great books on Sifu Bruce. I just recently bought the art of expressing the human body
We can only imagine how we would feel in that situation!
@@TheKungFuGenius Btw you shoudl def interview Teri Tom! The author of the Straight lead. Shes so far the best contributor on udnerstanding's philosophy and biomechanics on JKD and she was instructed by Ted Wong. It would be really great if you can invite her too!
Great interview and the stories are priceless. 🙏
Great interview. I want that poster on John's wall !
I want everything in John’s library
Hello sir. Long way from Kung Fu Club of Issaquah, huh? I'm happy you're doing so well. Best of luck.
With regards to Chuck Norris when asked if he and Bruce ever really went at it, I’ve heard him say, we never did that because I was a professional fighter. Chuck was a point fighter who never transitioned to kick boxing like Wallace or Lewis did. I am a Norris fan but I always thought that answer was a little misleading.