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Mark Hatmaker
Bruce Lee. The Man. Or maybe it's pronounced Da Man. However you want to say it I am of an age when Bruce Lee was Da Man. I wasn't quite old enough to be able to get into the theater to see Enter the Dragon during its original run, but once I was old enough I was there for numerous midnight showings of Enter the Dragon and The Game of Death (the only two flicks my theater seemed to get a hold of). Me and Mitch Thomas, my best friend at the time (and still is over 30 years later) would sit through these films again and again mouthing along with the dialogue and then repeating snatches of it endlessly in many a training session.
Mr. Lee was, and is, known to many as a kung fu man and I, admittedly, am not a kung fu man. Nothing against it, just never studied it and thusly completely unqualified to remark upon Mr. Lee's abilities or contributions to kung fu in general and Wing Chun in particular. Me, my game has always been wrestling and boxing, what are commonly thought of as Western martial arts/sports, and considering my own biased spectrum I'd like to offer a thought or two regarding Mr. Lee in regard to my area of familiarity.
Bruce Lee was a martial arts renaissance man, that was, is, and never will be in doubt among anyone who has even a passing understanding of the man beyond what they see on the screen. Lee brought an active academic thirst to the pursuit of martial knowledge, one that ranged far and wide within his own original area of Wing Chun and, of course, beyond.
There is ample evidence that Mr. Lee greatly respected the Western combat sports of boxing and wrestling, this is evidenced in his cast-off quote of "A man with one year of training in boxing and wrestling could easily defeat a martial artist of several years experience." In context, Lee was not bashing other arts but recognizing the validity of boxing and wrestling using realistic feedback loops--that is, the emphasis on conditioning and sparring with contact from day one.
Lee's acknowledgement of the primacy of boxing and wrestling can be found in more than a quote, it shows up all over his work. No one can look at the excellently rendered boxing sketches (drawn by Lee himself) included in The Tao of Jeet Kune Do and not recognize an engineer's attention to detail. Every nuance of what it takes to deliver a well executed punch is observed to the nth degree. One familiar with boxing history, as Lee undoubtedly was, can not help but notice the similarity of the drawings to many of the photos found in the classic text Boxing by Edwin Haislet.
I find this cribbing of drawings from such a fine text to be informative of Lee's inquisitive nature. We know that such excellently rendered drawings take time and we also know that Lee had access to this book--his martial library was reportedly quite impressive. Rather than simply keep the book on the shelf and referencing the photos of interest when need be, he took the time to reproduce what was already available via a different mode of understanding, i.e.,drawing, to better inculcate the material. I find this approach astonishingly thorough. We also see evidence of this "draw to understand deeply" approach elsewhere in his work--his drawings of the 4 Gates of defense are mighty similar to those found in Clovis Deladrier's excellent 1948 text Modern Fencing.
One of my favorite stories regarding Lee's knowledge of of Western combat sports doesn't involve a gym, a movie set, or even other martial artists, but rather a civic dinner for California voters. Lee was attending said function when he encountered John Tunney, who was a state politician (Tunney served the state both in the House of Representatives and the Senate I have no idea which office he held at the time of this meeting with Lee). You are probably way ahead of me in that Tunney was related to the great crafty heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney--John was his son.
Lee engaged in conversation with Tunney to let the politician know how much he was an admirer of his father's work, particularly his book A Man Must Fight. Tunney was an intellectual fighter with no easy style to pigeon-hole. He was noted for studying his opponents' styles carefully, learning to emulate their style and then poking holes in his newly assimilated knowledge and then applying that deconstruction to the ring. John Tunney was impressed with Lee's knowledge of his fathers' work which moved beyond mere exposure to true insight. I find this story of one renowned martial arts intellectual speaking admiringly and knowingly of another combat sports intellectual indicative of what Lee was all about. The ongoing quest to improve by absorbing what is useful and as he seems to have thought regarding boxing and wrestling, these were worthy arts to absorb. In other words, absorb what is useful because if it ain't broke don't fix it. | 
