The little dragon became a legend

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How Bruce Lee and street fighting

in Hong Kong helped create MMA

Most people credit the US with inventing mixed martial arts (MMA) but combat sports have long been an intrinsic part of Hong Kong’s culture.

As a teenager, Bruce Lee was one of the first to combine different martial arts disciplines in the city’s street fights, decades before the formation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in America

ENTER THE DRAGON

A growing group of enthusiasts are staking out the city’s claim that the true creator of MMA is Bruce Lee. In the opening frames of 1973’s Enter the Dragon, Lee and Sammo Hung Kam-bo slug it out in an organised contest at Hong Kong's Ching Chun Koon Temple. Somehow looking the personification of “cool” despite being decked out in his curious kempo gloves and era-defining shorts, Lee wins the fight with his unique version of an “armbar”.

Billed in the papers at the time as a “death duel”, the fight switched from Hong Kong to Macau to avoid the British colony’s ban on martial arts fights. Many now consider it to be the world’s first MMA fight. It was promoted as raising

funds for the Shek Kip Mei Christmas fire of 1953 which left tens of thousands homeless.

Rooftop fights

Hong Kong's street fighting culture comes from kung fu schools developing their own distinctive styles. Practitioners challenge each other to regular bare-knuckle matches in the streets. The police take a dim view of the street fighters, labelling them members of deviant gangs. Teenage fighters take the contests to the rooftops where they can conduct their bouts away from the watchful eyes of the colonial authorities.

Wing Chun is a traditional southern Chinese kung fu style. It is a form of self-defence specialising in close range combat

and uses striking and grappling

Cool Bruce

Always fashionable on-stage and off, Bruce embraced the style of his time

Jeet kune do

“The Way of the Intercepting Fist”

Translated as “the way of the intercepting fist”, jeet kune do is a hybrid of martial arts and philosophies founded by Lee. It promotes minimalism and fluidity in combat. As Lee suggested, one should “be like water”. It allows practitioners to incorporate their own fighting styles into existing techniques, fulfilling its ethos of “style with no style”