Greatest Martial Artists

who is in ur eyes is the best or martial artist ever? either in films of people u know or seen?.

the worlds greatest martial artist. quite a difficult question to answer.

so i shall give 2:
obviously a cliche answer, but lookin at the movies he has done bruce lee is an extremely talented martial artist.

but i have to say that in a ring probably the greatest martial artist i have seen is Royce Gracie. a descendant of the founder of Gracie brazilian jiu jitsu, and 3 time UFC world champ.

in my opinion a true test of a martial artist and the discipline they study (whether that be kung fu, jiu jitsu, ninjutsu, thai boxing etc.) is to put there knowledge and skill up against other forms of martial arts.

invictus

nice choice invictus and some good points made

for me

ed parker
larry tatum
Dan Inosanto
benny " the jet" Urquidez

and of course
Muhammad Ali

cheers
matt

yes i agree with u benny the jet is good but i like jet li for his speed and his achivement. when jet li was small a director saw him fightin at a comp and said he would be great in films but he broke both legs and was told he`d never walk but now he`s amazin.
and of cause jackie chan now he is amazin

did'nt jackie chan get discoverd body doubleing for bruce lee.

ya see i'm contraversial when it comes to bruce , i read his tao and most of his other litriture , and feel he tainted his career a tad by implying that the theorys he used were his , sadly they had been round for centuries , and the practice of cross training was far but new , j.k.d is fenceing , wing chun and western boxing , non of which he invented or perticulary changed or was from what i saw ultra exeptional at any of them(i have seen better), i derived my system k.f.s (kenpo,thai boxing and bjj) i did not invent k.f.s , i just comined principles.and it dont make me a genius.
i cant take away his acievment ,the guy was a marketing machine,and a good martial artist ,and an american icon of his era,but most of his hype (the roof top TO THE DEATH fights that never happened) his best freind and student dan inosanto (who i have trained with ,he is the b.c.a's world instructor) stated they never happend,but he also sometime played up to the stereotypical idealism of the orientals , which is what gained him many of his early roles.
he was disoverd at long island beach , ed parkers championship s.
i have both tapes , 64 and 67 , niether were as he said , the tapes where shot in silent black and white .and yes i do have the FAMOUS ring fight .
but before you attack me lol , do some research ...........
check it out and dont just follow the hoard off on holiday to greece .
there are thousands of monks alive today with more skill in their little finger (and ya cant deny that one biggrin.gif .
but in my opinion if bruce inspires 1 person to train the great he did his job.

cheers
matt
p.s going back to one thing , i put in " AN AMERICAN ICON" think about it !!!!!!!!

im not a big fan of bruce sadly. Yes he did inspire alot of people to start martial arts. but if u watch most of his films he never does a straight punch it was alwat a back fist. The reason bein he trained his bicep for the cameras. Where as ur tricep is ur punchin muscle. But i think what jackie has done is amazin he`s broken every bone in his body and he`s still goin strong. One person i just remembered samo hung. He`s good for his size the speed and agility he has is mind blown

amo is quality , he visually blows the stereotype away , great stuff, some good fight scene's aswell.
the problem with bruce is there is soooooo much myth
like the one inch punch which is a act of physics and anatomy not power as he impplys, i can teach a student the one inch punch in 10 minutes (and i have at several seminars)
or his amazing 1 finger push up , which again i have on tape at the long island beach gig.
it's not it's a 1 finger 1 thumb push up .
yet again i have seen the monks preform the real 1 finger push up , also a 1 finger handstand push up.
i could go on , the water line he used "to be like water " is an ancient elements theory dates back near on 1000 years .

yep it's true i could go on , but i wont lol
this is a forum full of opinions , each to their own , if he inspires you great .

cheers
matt

no one has mentioned chow yaun fat he`s excellent in crouching tiger hidden dragon and i`ve seen him in other films he seems to have really good movement and u can see he`s trained

Chow Yun Fatt is no martial artist!

shitonme

i enjoy the cartoon samurai jack myself

matt.k.f.s

I have never really enjoyed martial arts films. I think we tend to look at them from a practical sense and always with a critical eye.

I was recently moaning about Jason Stratham in Transporter 2.

Then I saw an interveiw with him and he said, 'In reply to my critics...rememebr it;s only a film!'.

and I think he hit the nail on the head there and I try to be less critical LOL.

Back to the topic......

I enjoy a lot of the old Kurasawa flick so I enjoy watching Toshiro Mifune. I think it;s just his screen presence that seems so composed LOL.

I did enjoy some of Steven Segals first films...I think it was Nico or hard to Kill ...when he was in a bar with a billiard ball rolled up in a hanky..one of the best bits.....but he kinda lost the plot towards teh end of his run of films

Merlyn

yes i agree Jason Stratham is good in transporter but he`s not really known for being a martialist. I`m sure i have seen him in 1-2 other films where he does martial arts.