ONE Championship stars pay tribute to Bruce Lee
Eduard ‘Landslide’ Folayang, born into poverty so extreme his family lost five of nine children while he was growing up: “When I was a kid, Bruce Lee put me on the path I am on today.”
Lee Jun-fan was born on 27 November 1940 in San Francisco, and died on 20 July 1973 in Hong Kong, known to the world as Bruce Lee. When Lee started martial arts, it was a collection of countless strictly organized and controlled contradictory sets of beliefs and practices, each of which believed itself to be clearly superior to the others. He left a legacy that truth in unarmed combat lay outside of fixed systems, that it could be discovered via personal experience.
Ahead of ONE: Reign of Kings, streamed free on the Super App, a number of ONE Championship stars spoke respectfully about the man many consider to be the father of mixed martial arts.
Chatri Sityodtong, ONE founder and CEO:
He’s a legend not because of his martial arts skills but because of the impact he has had on the world. He was a philosopher, he was a humanitarian. He changed so much about how martial artists think about life.
Martin ‘The Situ-Asian’ Nguyen, holder of the One Championship world featherweight and lightweight titles who is contesting for a third:
The guy had it all – and seeing him in MMA gloves just once inspired me.”
What you saw him do and heard him say had just rubbed off on generations since. From fighting Chuck Norris one moment to Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] the next really does show that with martial arts anything is possible. His legacy is absolutely astonishing.
Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera, ONE heavyweight champion:
As an Asian kid, that guy influenced more people than Elvis on this side of the world. We watched him, we wanted to be like him and we wanted to understand his message. If he had stayed alive I think MMA would have been even bigger than it is today, and earlier too.
I even loved that he was an a**hole sometimes because that’s the discipline part of things. Not everyone is going to understand you and the sacrifices you have to make for martial arts. But you have to stay on that path if you want to succeed and be the best person you can be.
Eduard ‘Landslide’ Folayang, former ONE lightweight champion, born into poverty so extreme his family lost five of nine children while he was growing up:
When I was a kid, Bruce Lee put me on the path I am on today. To be a martial artist you have to face adversity and you have to learn from it. That was one of his messages for life as well.
Joshua ‘The Passion’ Pacio who fights Thailand’s Pongsiri ‘The Smiling Assassin’ Mitsatit on Friday:
Of course when I was little I watched all his movies and I imitated his style – kicking and punching. These days I watch tapes of him before every fight. I watch tapes of him training and I listen to the words he spoke to motivate me.
Pacio has yet to master Lee’s famous one-inch punch.
I can’t do that yet. I am not sure anyone can. But maybe one day with more training I will. Bruce Lee always said, never give up.
