As Jesse Glover, Bruce's first student, narrated:
When people see Bruce, they think about what he's doing in the movies. That's not Bruce! Bruce was completely different. He could stand six or seven feet away from you, have you put your hand in a defensive posture, and tell you he was going to touch your face. You couldn't stop him or touch his hand, he would just do it, over and over again. From a fight prospective, Bruce was primarily a hands fighter. He would close the distance between him and his opponent, and use his hands. In the fights that he had when I knew him, that's exactly what he did. He never kicked. He closed the distance and punched. When you see him in the movies, he's doing a lot of kicking and wide circular movements. If he just closed on his opponent with a straight blast and the guy dropped, people would say, "What was that?" Nothing spectacular about that. But that's the way Bruce fought. Instead, people wanted to see Bruce kick high and do the impossible. It looks more fancy. ... The day I brought Ed in (Ed was my roommate. He was a real good boxer, judo practitioner, streetfighter, and a real tough guy to read. He was very quick and could not be telegraphed) to meet Bruce, Bruce told Ed to "make a move." He didn't say throw a punch or throw a kick. He just said "make a move." Ed's hands were up and Bruce's were at his side. Ed asked Bruce if he shouldn't put his hands up as well, and Bruce replied, "I'm ready!" Ed threw a left jab, and next thing you know, Ed's arms were trapped. Ed's going, "Damn, what happened." So, he walked around a little, and I was chuckling. Ed came back and said, "Hey, let's try that again," and the same thing happened! That's what happened to everybody who came, and there were some pretty tough and rough guys. All had boxing or other fighting backgrounds. Bruce would say, "Make a move," and he would shut us all down; he could do that. No one I've ever seen could shut you down like Bruce did! Like I said, I've never seen anybody like that!