Before the UFC, most martial artists practiced a single martial art, which they believed was the best. But a few martial artists, like Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, branched out and cross-trained to make themselves the best martial artist they could be. Both of whom are now considered some of the best martial artists that ever lived, but would they stack up against today’s elite UFC athletes? Justin Faux of MMAKanvas dives into the subject:
The former United States Air Force representative indicated that he weighs around 155 pounds (71kg) today, but in his heyday was sizeably bigger, with a primed Norris likely fitting in as a welterweight at 170 pounds (77kg). In that weight class, Norris would find himself locking horns with the likes of Johny Hendricks or Georges St. Pierre, tall tasks for anyone in the world.
If we take Norris’ well-rounded base, there are really two areas that the taekwondo master would have to work on – wrestling and boxing, and his career at the top of the UFC would hinge on his ability or inability to close those gaps.
Since 1994, wrestlers have ruled the roost inside the UFC. While in today’s day and age you need to have a good understanding of every martial arts discipline, wrestling is the one that can make or break a fighter. Simply put, the wrestler dictates where the fight takes place. If he (or she) wants to smother you on the ground, he can. If he wants to keep the fight standing and trade bombs, he can do that too.
Given Norris’ background as a high-level judoka, and his training with “Judo” Gene LeBell, who had learned wrestling from six time world champion Ed “Strangler” Lewis since the age of seven (he was also one of the first to implement wrestling into other martial art forms) it’s fair to assume that Chuck would have some wrestling training behind him, and could adapt to that facet of the game pretty quickly.
Boxing, on the other hand, might be harder to mix into his game. To this day, there are only a handful of great boxers in MMA, and even fewer taekwondo fighters that have morphed into well-rounded strikers.
While lightweight stars Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis are notable exceptions to the rule, taekwondo fighters have typically struggled with getting hit, and often crash and burn in highlight reel fashion. So Norris would have to learn the fundamentals of boxing before he even stepped into a cage.
Norris, similarly to his pal Bruce Lee, was ahead of his time. In a generation when martial arts sensei’s all believed that their fighting variant ruled the world, Norris learned other disciplines and became a well-rounded machine, who would’ve been a prime candidate for a UFC fighter if he were active in a different era.
