royce started the trend.
he showed how brazilan jiu jiutsu could effectivly beat other fighting styles.i belive a lot of martial artist and mma fighters still don't give royce and the rest of the gracies the credit they deserve.everyone who competes in mma events now has to know the ground and standing to do decent.
fighters today are becoming better due to the ufc
many people would say bruce lee, but it is hard to tell.
I actually think that Jet Li is a better fighter than bruce lee was. Even at peak condition, bruce was never the best martial artist in the world, he was just the most famous and most iconic. Jet Li mastered more forms of fighting than bruce did, and has won more trophies.
The ultimate fighting guys are the best fighters in the world (in unarmed combat). Even the best kung-Fu masters have admitted that many of the amateur wrestler/shoot wrestlers/UFC fighters are better fighters.
A kung fu master might be faster, but as soon as an amateur wrestler grabs hold of them, they can break every limb in the opponants body within a matter of seconds, and knock them unconcious in the same amount of time. UFC is the ultimate test of unarmed combat skill, and the boxers that have entered UFC have always done very poorly. Most of the UFC guys are shoot wrestlers or amateur wrestlers (with some kickboxers and a few kung fu people).
It's hard to say who would have or who is the best fighter. In my opinion there is always an element of luck involved.
Ultimatley who ever seizes the initiative will win.
Having great skill gives confidence to act fast and will no doubt help, but through out time there have always been examples of the lucky inexperienced beginer taking out the champion...
jet li ahahahha is no where near the level of power n fighting skill n smarts as bruce lee no doubt he was the best ever he took the human body to another level no ones seen plus i doubt any of the fighters u have mentioned cud touch him hes so quick there was no limit to his technique he cud beat up a football team inna locker room i bet lol
do yer research u will be amazed about how real bruce was