Post again.
Only because you asked so politely…
Were u in Hong Kong to verify or to denounce his claim? I doubt it.
Well, FWIW, I was in HK in 1982 at a tournament also attended by William Cheung. But I thought this alleged incident happened in NY, so what does being in HK have to do with anything?
My first instructor has been teaching KF since 1969 and was a student of William Cheung in the late 1960’s. The family of a friend and former workmate have a non-KF business relationship with William Cheung and know him well. I gained instructor certification from the WWCKFA in 1995 under William Cheung’s most senior student at the time, prior to our school severing ties in 1996. I think I have a better perspective on this than you do.
Were you in HK to verify his claims? I doubt it.
The point is, to accept everything (anything) William Cheung says as gospel, you have to accept his stories about Traditional and Modified WC, and that only he was taught the “true” version of Wing Chun by Yip Man. I can’t, therefore I take most of what he claims about history, BL etc. with lots of salt.
That said, CMA is rife with tall tales and I don’t think William Cheung is any worse than a lot of others when it comes to exaggeration and over-mystification and dramatisation of events. Just more outspoken.
In his “My life with Wing Chun” (which I assume, as a scholar of these subjects, you have read), and in other writings, William Cheung paints Bruce Lee alternately as a poor little rich kid who Cheung took under his wing, or a hothead with poor judgement who got into a number of dicey situations with gangsters, and only William Cheung’s skill and imtelligence were able to save Bruce from himself. All of these stories may be true, but they do sound a little too conveniently self-serving and cannot be corroborated. If they are true, however, then it should come as no surprise that Bruce would have some trouble with a group of skilled Mantis fighters.
There are other stories of how Bruce used to get under Gene LeBell’s skin, and Gene would occasionally pick him up and carry him around the room until he calmed down. Joe Lewis is on record as saying that Bruce rarely sparred and that he (Joe) had some reservations at his ability to prevail in real combat, though none about his knowledge or skill as a teacher. Bruce Lee wasn’t invincible? Imagine!
I find it ridiculous that anyone gets so worked up about this stuff. But I love a good argument on a ridiculous subject.
does muscle matter much when it comes to martial arts? I mean, isn’t better technique more important than big muscles?
Skill had better be more important, or we are wasting our time and might as well all start pumping iron fulltime. The skill of two combatants being equal, though, I’m betting on the stronger guy.