UFC 261: Rose Namajunas learns from Bruce Lee’s ‘Be Water’ mantra as she prepares for Zhang Weili
- American challenger turns to kung fu star’s concept of ‘mixing and matching and doing it all’ as she gets set for title shot
- ‘I’ve been incorporating these skills just to bring that awareness to my hands so we’ll see how that’s gonna play out,’ says Namajunas
Rose Namajunas has been looking to Hollywood star and kung fu great Bruce Lee for inspiration and guidance as she prepares to face strawweight champion Zhang Weili at UFC 261 in Jacksonville this weekend.
The American challenger’s recent social media feeds are full of clips of her dabbling in Chinese kung fu and the Philippine martial art of kali – all under the guidance of Milwaukee-based coach Greg Nelson.
“He takes the Bruce Lee idea of mixing and matching and doing it all,” explained Namajunas.
Lee famously urged his students and followers to “be water” and to be “adaptable to all of life’s situations” inside and outside the gym. The Hong Kong icon developed a unique style of kung fu called jeet kune do, that also took in aspects of various other martial arts practices. While Lee died in 1973, aged just 32, he has long been heralded as a huge influence on the sport that has in the past 30 years developed into mixed martial arts.
Coaches such as Nelson have adapted Lee’s mantra to the modern day, and to MMA fighters such as the 28-year-old Namajunas (9-4) who has been going through warm-up and cool downs that focus on the hand work used in both kung fu and kali as she prepares to face Zhang (21-1) for the title.
“The open hand stuff I’ve found is really good for in-close fighting,” Namajunas explained. “Sometimes that’s hard to train for as it’s more an intuitive type of skill but I’ve really found these skills helpful and it translates into other areas such as the grappling and the clinch.”