Discovery Channel warriors study at HK school of hard knocks

Under the sheen of spitting rain, high on a rooftop above the neon city, two righteous warriors took on a black-clad clan of Wing Chun fighters. Sound like a kung fu movie? Actually, it was a television show taping on Wednesday night in Yau Ma Tei for the Discovery CHannel programme Fight Quest. On the show, the two pugilistic hosts, Jimmy Smith (centre front) and Doug Anderson (back), travel the world training in different forms of hand-to-hand combat. For a new episode on the martial art form Wing Chun, they have been in the city for a week to learn the ways of Hong Kong's fighting art. For five days, Smith and Anderson were schooled by master Leung Ting (who was trained by Bruce Lee's sifu, Yip Man) and master Kong Chi-keung (whose martial arts institute is in Tin Hau). The Wednesday night rumble was for the show's finale, with the two hosts taking on several Wing Chun disciples in a little no-holds-barred smackdown. We won't give away the results, but suffice to say the punches weren't pulled.

When asked about his television apprentices, master Kong gave them a grade of 80. There's no time set for the broadcast of the Hong Kong episode, but it should be shown later this year.

The boys finally had one day off yesterday and rumour has it they nursed their bruises over a beer somewhere in Wan Chai.