US Kickboxing Legend Joe Lewis gives great interview about bruce lee/full contact karate(ko footage)

[Jimmy Jazz]

Evidently Lewis credits Lee with getting him into full contact fighting as opposed to point fighting. Shows one of the first full contact karate matches with Lewis. ends in a ko

edit another ko I found on youtube

 

[spacetime]

Yes, Lewis was a great speaker of the martial arts. I love his insights. I doubt that he was at the level of the very best K1 fighters in the 90s (he claims he could figure them out but I'm very sceptical) but what a great mind he had.

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

Yes, Lewis was a great speaker of the martial arts. I love his insights. I doubt that he was at the level of the very best K1 fighters in the 90s (he claims he could figure them out but I'm very sceptical) but what a great mind he had.

if he had been taught how to check kicks in his prime he couldve done well.

 

[spacetime]

if he had been taught how to check kicks in his prime he couldve done well.

I don't think so but who knows. If you compare his level of technicality to Andy Hug or Ernesto Hoost... It doesn't bode well for mr Lewis

 

[Replay19]

Joe Lewis says in his own words that Bruce Lee is the father of American Kickboxing. This is documented in his very first fight. He was fresh in 1970 using Bruce's JKD and that was what won him his record of a 5 year run undefeated.

A lot of people underestimate Joe Lewis because he destroyed most people during his kickboxing years so he was never fully truly tested to his fullest potential before he retired in 1975. However he was kicking everyone's ass for 5 years straight using what he learned in JKD. I would say Joe Lewis is the last and maybe only few that ever tested Bruce's JKD in the tournament scene and won using his teachings.

Joe Lewis never paid Bruce Lee a dime for his classes. Bruce taught him for free and Joe Lewis enjoyed squeezed moment he could get out of training with Bruce Lee. Joe Lewis actually was never interested in boxing, he even said he disliked Muhammad Ali and quietly would just listen to Bruce raving about Ali. Lewis admitted it was after a while training with Bruce he saw the value in combining karate boxing and jkd together.

How Joe Lewis would do against Thai fighters is beyond me, but Lewis was a really great fighter and I believe he would've figured out how those guys worked. Joe Lewis should not be compared to Benny The Jet, they're not the same era or the same training background. We all know Benny struggled with the MT cats.

 

[spacetime]

And if Benny struggled with middle of the road Thai fighters.. Both would be destroyed in K1

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

And if Benny struggled with middle of the road Thai fighters.. Both would be destroyed in K1

narong noi was actually a famous and well known top thai fighter.

 

[spacetime]

narong noi was actually a famous and well known top thai fighter.

But by the standards of K1 not skilled.

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

But by the standards of K1 not skilled.

he fought in the top thai stadiums where the competition was better than k1.

 

[Replay19]

And if Benny struggled with middle of the road Thai fighters.. Both would be destroyed in K1

not necessarily, Benny was good but Joe Lewis was on a whole different league than Benny. Joe's training and experience in martial arts far surpassed Benny. people often say the myth that anything "newer and evolved" means it's "better" but that's not always true. Benny is an incredible fighter for his time but he is nowhere near Joe Lewis. Benny, the younger fighter, in this case does not happen to be better than Lewis as a fighter. to say they'd both lose to muay thai just because they're both kickboxers is too early of a judgement to tell.

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

not necessarily, Benny was good but Joe Lewis was on a whole different league than Benny. Joe's training and experience in martial arts far surpassed Benny. people often say the myth that anything "newer and evolved" means it's "better" but that's not always true. Benny is an incredible fighter for his time but he is nowhere near Joe Lewis. Benny, the younger fighter, in this case does not happen to be better than Lewis as a fighter. to say they'd both lose to muay thai just because they're both kickboxers is too early of a judgement to tell.

What basis do you have for saying Lewis was better than Benny?

 

[Replay19]

This is just my opinion so perhaps what I'm saying here is completely just opinionated... take it as you will, but I believe Joe Lewis had more technical skill in knocking out fighters (most of his fights within round 1 or 2 people were knocked out consistently) where the Jet had much better scoring hits, but not many knockouts. He does have some fantastic spinning kick KOs or KDs though. Now, not saying knockout is the only thing that defines a fighter. Benny The Jet has nice hands but his strongest tools were his TKD and Karate base kicks. Joe Lewis has experience in Karate, boxing, and JKD in terms of striking. Lewis has better advantage because his main best tools were his hands and Lewis could box better than the Jet.

Lewis trained with Bruce Lee also gives him more of an edge. The Jet admitted recently when he was young his entire youth was spent training to climb up the ranks as a fighter to earn Bruce Lee's training, but the Jet was really young and when he did start to come up Bruce Lee had already been dead too early.

 

[Jimmy Jazz]

This is just my opinion so perhaps what I'm saying here is completely just opinionated... take it as you will, but I believe Joe Lewis had more technical skill in knocking out fighters (most of his fights within round 1 or 2 people were knocked out consistently) where the Jet had much better scoring hits, but not many knockouts. He does have some fantastic spinning kick KOs or KDs though. Now, not saying knockout is the only thing that defines a fighter. Benny The Jet has nice hands but his strongest tools were his TKD and Karate base kicks. Joe Lewis has experience in Karate, boxing, and JKD in terms of striking. Lewis has better advantage because his main best tools were his hands and Lewis could box better than the Jet.

Lewis trained with Bruce Lee also gives him more of an edge. The Jet admitted recently when he was young his entire youth was spent training to climb up the ranks as a fighter to earn Bruce Lee's training, but the Jet was really young and when he did start to come up Bruce Lee had already been dead too early.

Really? I thought Benny's best aspects were his body punches that he used to set up head strikes. That second video shown was well after Lee's death and I don't see much of what I associate with JKD. It looks very karate.

 

[Replay19]

hard to see jkd in anything unless one trains in jkd himself. in this particular video, Lewis is still using those teachings from Bruce. Lots of lead leg attacks, lots of mobility (Bruce used to scold Lewis for being too stationary), some double lead leg sidekick setups (Lewis himself says Bruce taught him this), and also lead hand feint to hook/ridge hand knockout on both rounds. not much trapping techniques because Lewis only learned a kickboxing format of jkd from Bruce Lee.

Now, not saying Bruce Lee invented footwork mobility and feints. All Bruce Lee did was invent a certain way to how he attacked, how he moved and what tools he would use. No one invents everything completely on their on but people come up with their own way of expressing that strategies. Bruce Lee taught Lewis not the what but the how he did it that certain way.

another reason it seems hard to believe it's jkd is because Lewis is fighting in his left stance here. most people think jkd means southpaw, and to some extent jkd is commonly southpaw for most people. if you do a video flip and watch Lewis in southpaw he looks a lot like Bruce Lee.

these are just based on Joe Lewis' own words when he described what and how exactly he trained with Bruce Lee. only after that you can see how much jkd he uses in his fights (much less karate) and the reason why Lewis never named his style jkd in the media is because Bruce Lee said no teaching this to anybody and don't use the jkd name use another name so that's why Lewis came up with Lewis Fighting Systems or something like that

another great fight is the first fight with Joe Lewis and Greg Baines

 

[spacetime]

This is just my opinion so perhaps what I'm saying here is completely just opinionated... take it as you will, but I believe Joe Lewis had more technical skill in knocking out fighters (most of his fights within round 1 or 2 people were knocked out consistently) where the Jet had much better scoring hits, but not many knockouts. He does have some fantastic spinning kick KOs or KDs though. Now, not saying knockout is the only thing that defines a fighter. Benny The Jet has nice hands but his strongest tools were his TKD and Karate base kicks. Joe Lewis has experience in Karate, boxing, and JKD in terms of striking. Lewis has better advantage because his main best tools were his hands and Lewis could box better than the Jet.

Lewis trained with Bruce Lee also gives him more of an edge. The Jet admitted recently when he was young his entire youth was spent training to climb up the ranks as a fighter to earn Bruce Lee's training, but the Jet was really young and when he did start to come up Bruce Lee had already been dead too early.

Benny was undefeated in official bouts, Lewis lost. The one benny loss against the thai was deemed a no contest and was also an exhibition fight

 

[BringBackTRTforFairness]

I don't think so but who knows. If you compare his level of technicality to Andy Hug or Ernesto Hoost... It doesn't bode well for mr Lewis

The athletes are bigger and stronger now as were the boxers back then, you imagine Joe vs someone like Hunto, but someone compared his skill level to Hoost and co, while I agree the techniques has got alot better there is also a loss of technique some of the advanced stuff they were doing is no longer used and thats not because it didnt work. The weak kicks and poor low kick defense doesn't work anymore but the advanced JKD tactics do and theve all but vanished

 

[Replay19]

Benny was undefeated in official bouts, Lewis lost. The one benny loss against the thai was deemed a no contest and was also an exhibition fight

Which is why I still think Benny is amazing. Benny excels in that department of keeping a good record. However, having a good record isn't always consistent as there are asshole judges and "technical rules" that sometimes get in the way. Like back during Joe's days, he lost a couple fights over stupid reasons. Instead of letting kickboxing flow freely, they added in rules such as "You must throw 5-6 kicks every minute in one round" for some odd reason and if you didn't you got docked points and lost. That makes absolutely no sense. A martial artist kicks when he wants and needs to not because of some silly flashy rule for the casuals to be entertained. They also did this because they knew Lewis was superior with boxing and would knock people out in the 1st or 2nd round with his hands rather than kicks.

 

[BringBackTRTforFairness]

Which is why I still think Benny is amazing. Benny excels in that department of keeping a good record. However, having a good record isn't always consistent as there are asshole judges and "technical rules" that sometimes get in the way. Like back during Joe's days, he lost a couple fights over stupid reasons. Instead of letting kickboxing flow freely, they added in rules such as "You must throw 5-6 kicks every minute in one round" for some odd reason and if you didn't you got docked points and lost. That makes absolutely no sense. A martial artist kicks when he wants and needs to not because of some silly flashy rule for the casuals to be entertained. They also did this because they knew Lewis was superior with boxing and would knock people out in the 1st or 2nd round with his hands rather than kicks.

 

[MacGregor]

Lee taught Lewis strong side forward, which Lewis used and won championship with if I remember right. Lewis went back to traditional stance though.

 

[BringBackTRTforFairness]

Lee taught Lewis strong side forward, which Lewis used and won championship with if I remember right. Lewis went back to traditional stance though.

There is no strong side, which ever you use the most becomes the strong side, 1 -3 months of only using the left hand for everything and it would become your stronger more dominant side, there's nothing inherently weak about the muscles or nervous system on the left side of the body

Bench press with a dumbbell for 1 month a progressively heavy one on the left side only and it will be stronger than the right.

Many right handed boxers have their left hook as their strongest punch

Bruce Lee was wrong