Bruce Lee

[macphersonrants]

Tom Bleecker who knew Bruce, had access to his papers, and was married to Linda Lee-Caldweel for a brief time after Bruce's death makes a convincing case that Bruce had issues with steroids and cortisone abuse later in life (and that this was what likely led to his death). He had access to Bruce's medical records and decisively debunks any debilitating back injury (although Bruce did have concerns with back pain). Bleecker also validated the possibility of Triad enemies, possibly even murdering Lee. Most of Bruce's Hong Kong friends seem to give some creedence to this as well.

Based on Bleecker's book a realistic Bruce would have Addiction, Bad Temper, and Enemies (Hong Kong Triads) (at least towards the end of his life).

Interviews with martial artists who knew Bruce like Joe Lewis, Gene LeBell, or his friends from the Ip Man school tend to rate Bruce as a talented martial artist, but not the best of all time or even his generation. People like these guys, who did have a lot of real world experience do/did tend to rate him as able to handle himself in a real fight.

I'd guess his key martial arts skills probably fell into the 16-18 range. My sense is his real strengths were speed, commitment to training/strong will, fitness, theory, and diversity of skills and technique, and then technical martial arts skills in roughly that order.