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Forty-five years after death, Bruce Lee’s influence still being felt in modern MMA

Imagine this, for a moment: We’re in the middle of a major UFC event, say, UFC 200, or a show at Madison Square Garden, or maybe it’s International Fight Week.

As the big card winds toward the main event, the camera pans between fights to some of the celebrities seated down in the VIP sections at ringside. Oh hey, there’s Mike Tyson. There’s Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. There’s whichever UFC champion is defending his or her championship on the next pay-per-view.

Then there’s a roar from the crowd as the camera fixates on a smiling Bruce Lee, with grey hair but otherwise looking like he could still whoop on people half his age if only they’d give him a chance, on hand to witness the latest edition of the billion-dollar enterprise his big-screen popularity helped spawn.