Can Monkey Kungfu Work In The Ring? Li Shun Gen Tests Hou Quan

Probably the most innovative and formidable kungfu/JKD practitioner in China comes back with more tests of the various styles of kungfu that he experiments with. In this three clip analysis, we look at Li Shun Gen trying out Monkey Kungfu (Hou Quan) in a sparring context, a ring context, and a defense-only context. Li Shun Gen continues to inspire us all with his embracing of pressure-testing but also his ability to look at existing kungfu and make it work.

Li Shun Gen's channel is not too easy to find if you don't know Chinese, so I will show you guys how to find it in the pinned comments!

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Timecodes:
0:00 In sparring
0:55 Slower motion analysis
2:25 Monkey Kungfu vs Tai Chi
4:36 Slower motion analysis
7:18 Testing his defense

[FightCommentary]

李顺根老师，有时间我们做个采访。我们在油管上都很欣赏您的传武测试。Everyone, if you want more Li Shun Gen, I will try to get in touch with him.

[official_liberal_chungus]

What i like is this guy calls himself a hobbyist Instead of a master even though he's better than most of the fake masters

[kevinlobos]

This guy is always having fun, wether he is sparring or fighting, I think that's commendable. His usage of monkey kung fu mirrors in some ways what I have been able to learn and apply, and as always, you can get better results when you properly mix it with some more conventional techniques. In my experience, the philly shell-like guard monkey has is the one thing you can keep up most of the time without exposing yourself to a dire counter technique. But you are supposed to turn the monkey on and off, you can't fight the whole time like you are doing the mimic form (no surprise there).

The monkey is supposed to be an unpredictable trickster, an animal that's skilled at making humans let their guard down to then lash out in wild, nasty fashion.
You translate that to fighting by fighting like a human, but letting the monkey out here and there. When you watch monkeys fight in the wild, their fights are carried in short bursts of intense violence, they go from 0 to 100 as fast as they go from 100 to 0. You let your oponent think you are a regular kickboxer, a human, then you let the monkey out, maul him and then call it back in.
All of that theorical, esoteric stuff just means "set a pace, then change it up to throw your oponent off". I think anybody from any style can see how that's usefull for fighting.

Finally I agree with your point that if your kung fu only looks like kick boxing, what's the point of calling it kung fu and not just kickboxing. There's a fine line to walk there, you can't discard what's simple and effective for every martial art in existence, but you also can't discard what makes your style distinct, or else why practice it all.

[RexWu]

i love that China has all these martial arts fights in the middle of a shopping mall in the middle of the day

The Muay Thai Guy was curious. He was like "Im not even mad. What else you got?".

[MrTheil]

More Li Shun Gen please. This guy’s great

[redrenegade]

Fun to watch these guys giving it an honest try. I wonder if Monkey style intends the leg punches to instead be leg grabs or ankle picks. I've definitely seen chimps pull or trip each other's legs out from underneath...

[Nattapong]

Tai chi guy looked like he was straight out of a kung fu movie. That was clean. I want to see more of him lol

[coconuthead]

Li Shun Gen is my favorite Kung Fu hobbyist!

[dojanglesclimb]

Not sure about effectiveness of some of these techniques but it looks dope.

[prastagus]

condition would make a big differences in using Monkey Fist. The leg sweep technique in 1st light sparring video could work if he gets enough leg and waist twist speed and power behind it, as well as the distance.
The 2nd one we can see that Li got really tired at the end due to lack of proper conditioning. His Tai Chi opponent still have some powers left.

[Haboogie]

I would call this, at least the first match, light sparring. Monkey Kung Fu guy would have gotten mauled if the other guy was serious. All the Tai Chi guy had to do was grapple with him if that's part of his skill set.

[STEVENCINEMATICMUSIC]

Can you imagine getting knocked out by someone practicing this fighting style?! Lol 😂

[danielyeh]

now if that monkey kung fu utilized BJJ we got something. We can see there are some natural movements in the beginning where it seems like a precursor to some inversion/imanari roll techniques...

I mean it makes sense, a lot of animal movements are naturally very effective. Jamie queue up Joe Rogan narrating Bear wrestling.

[shadowfighter]

Comment 19 on video catching up
So glad to see my favorite Kung Fu Guy back again, him using Monkey Kung Fu is so fun to watch.
Also who is that Tai Chi Guy, he looks awesome 😄🥊.

[quydatnam]

Oh ! This man is the guy with the monk 'ao ba' ba the other day . He's a entertainer my friend . The shirt with the cut up line to the waist that is .

[ChariotOfFaith]

Most styles of Kung Fu when you put on those boxing gloves you're already at a disadvantage, unless you use the type of gloves that allow you to use your fingers.
There is a lot of power that is gone right there.

The rules also restrict you being able to utilize all the moves such as grounding attacks. How do you finish it off in 10 seconds unless your opponent is already on the way to passing out.

[fengpo]

I remember a team of Five (Chinese) 'Tai Shing Pekwar' (Monkey Kung Fu) beat a (Thai) team of Muay Thai boxers in Hong Kong, way back in the 70's. They fought in a Ring.

[jaytherestless]

Sparing enough will make styles viable, unorthodox is great as long as you spar with resisting opponents, you will find what is useful and useless and adapt what needs adapting to fit an actual fight

[thescholar-general]

As far as I am aware, kicking up into the air to hit a standing opponent from the ground in mma is illegal, but I absolutely think that it should be allowed and it would open up a whole new way to bring open guard back into the sport because it would have strikes, sweeps, and submissions altogether.

Not to mention this type of striking from the ground and a few sweeps are a key part of “dog fist” kung fu.