First off, EA UFC looks friggin’ beautiful, I think we can all agree with that statement. The divisions come, however, when we talk about Bruce Lee as the ‘Father of MMA.’ A simple Google search can see live matches, not even sparring between mixed martial arts as far back as the 40’s. Look at Judo Gene, Maeda, the Gracies – all were actually fighting other martial artists, not making movies.
Don’t consider this a slight to Bruce Lee, the man is one of my heroes and is why I’m here today writing these words. He has plenty of incredible stories about battles in the street (or rooftops), but he also simply was not someone who was testing himself against the best. Lee is such an enigma that lives on today due to a wealth of post-mortem tales of grandeur that may or may not even be real. There are few witnesses to his matches, no still photos and certainly little film footage, what we have is a collection of stories that build a legend, but don’t paint a clear picture of a man who founded MMA as we know it. I mean, what else does ‘Father of MMA’ mean?
Harsh realities aside, it’s cool that Bruce Lee is in the game I guess. Bruce has been immortalized either in name (remember the Xbox launch title bearing his image?) or his persona (Mortal Kombat’s Liu Kang) for years. So to get him in a real game fighting martial artists of today will certainly be fun. The only unfortunate reality is seeing Bruce lose to lesser competition that will likely be cut from the UFC by the time the next release is being hinted if they aren’t exciting enough.
