Okay so a little background before I tell you what happened– Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, was killed in the Manson Family murders along with her friend, Jay Sebring, and this was the subject of the movie “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood,” where Quentin Tarantino trashed Bruce Lee’s image. The truth is that Jay Sebring is the man who basically discovered Bruce Lee in Hollywood, and Sharon Tate had been one of Bruce Lee’s students for several years before Bruce Lee choreographed the fights in the movie “The Wrecking Crew” that starred Sharon Tate.
Well, after his wife’s passing, Roman Polanski was obviously very depressed, and when he returned from Europe, Bruce Lee told him that the best thing for him to get over everything is to do a lot of sports, so Roman started to train seriously with Bruce Lee towards the end of 1969. Roman Polanski even flew Bruce Lee to Switzerland to give him personal lessons in Jeet Kune Do while Roman Polanski was in Europe.
This story when Bruce Lee was challenged by a former boxer did not happen in Europe, though. It actually happened in Los Angeles. So like I was saying, Roman Polanski started training with Bruce regularly, and they were working out at the Paramount Gym. The gym was managed by a former boxer named Orlando Perry.
Now Roman Polanski isn’t exactly the symbol of masculinity, and Bruce Lee was not exactly considered a physically imposing dude back then…so this guy Orlando Perry is watching them training together, and he’s kinda skeptical. He’s thinking that all that Kato stuff on the Green Hornet must only work on TV because this guy has been in the ring with real fighters as a boxer.
He wasn’t playing tag in these silly point karate tournaments like Chuck Norris, and he wasn’t pretending to know how to fight on TV like Bruce Lee. So one day, Orlando interrupts Bruce and Roman’s lesson, and he asks Bruce if he can experience his famous sidekick. So Bruce hands the air shield to Orlando and tells him to hold it against his chest. Bruce takes one step and hits him with a sidekick that knocked him back 5 meters! When Orlando got up, he said it felt like a truck hit him.
Roman Polanski said the next time he saw Orlando Perry, Orlando told Roman that he ended up going to the hospital that night because he had three broken ribs! Yeah…so that’s what happened. This former boxer didn’t believe Bruce Lee was the real deal. He wanted to see if Bruce Lee was legit, and he ended up with 3 broken ribs to show for it.
Okay — hey guys, this video I’m kinda mocking that other Bruce Lee channel with all the fake stories about Bruce Lee beating people up, but this actually is a real story that I read in one of Steve Kerridge’s books. I have a lot more to share from stuff I’ve read lately, like how Bruce actually did get challenged by some stuntmen on a movie set in America, the sparring session with Larry Lee, a 3rd degree Goju Ryu black belt that I mentioned in the last video I posted, and even stuff I didn’t even know about that happened when Bruce was in Thailand working on “The Big Boss”
So stay tuned for more of these stories about Bruce Lee’s real fights and challenges if you like hearing this kind of stuff. If you want to hear about more of Bruce Lee’s real fights and challenges, be sure to check out this video about the stuntman who challenged Bruce Lee on camera, or you can check out this other video about the 3 stuntmen who challenged Bruce Lee while filming “Enter the Dragon.
” I have a lot of really cool stories to share with you guys, so I’ve gotta get back to work –but while I’m working on the next story, I hope you guys keep training, remember to breathe, and come back to holler at me on the next video.
Disclaimer : This content may be created by AI for entertainment purposes. Any resemblance to real persons, events, or places is coincidental.
