Advertisement
Advertisement

Martial Arts in Hong Kong

Hong Kong has a healthy claim to being the birthplace of modern mixed martial arts. One of the sport’s earliest progenitors was Bruce Lee and his jeet kune do fight style, but there was a time when Hong Kong was the epicentre of global MMA, with one of the earliest professional fight leagues attracting some of the biggest names in martial arts.

Updated: 08 Sep, 2020
Advertisement
[1]

How Bruce Lee and street fighting in Hong Kong helped create MMA

SCMP Sport investigation discovers that modern mixed martial arts has its roots firmly in Hong Kong, and that Bruce Lee was among the earliest adopters of techniques that would become MMA.

21 May, 2019
What we now know as MMA began with organised street fights in Hong Kong. Illustration: Adolfo Arranz
Advertisement
Advertisement
[3]

Bruce Lee and his starring role in the birth of modern mixed martial arts

Hong Kong martial artist Bruce Lee was many MMA fighters’ first exposure to mixing various disciplines, and a one-minute scene in film ‘Enter the Dragon’ is considered a seminal moment in the sport’s development

21 May, 2019
Bruce Lee is widely considered to be the ‘Grandfather of MMA’. Photo: Alamy
[4]

Bruce Lee and the fights that helped shape MMA

Relive the time thousands travelled from Hong Kong to Macau to watch a ‘death duel’, the first martial arts ‘super fight’ which gave rise to Bruce Lee’s interest in free-form combat.

22 May, 2019
Hong Kong hosted the earliest organised mixed martial arts bouts.