In the movie “Cliffhangers,” the fight inside the cave.
One of America’s first “martial arts” scenes was in The Manchurian Candidate, where Frank Sinatra gets the drop on a sinister Asian operative.
And I would include Jesus kicking the shit out of the ninja-esque temple guards in Last Temptation of Christ.
James Bond did this in at least three of his movies: Goldfinger, Octopussy and You Only Live Twice. I’m sure there were more.
I don’t think that one counts; the sinister Asian operative fights back with Eastern martial arts after Frank delivers a workmanlike right cross, but Frank promptly responds by dropping into an odd-looking stance to lash out with open-handed karate chops interspersed with various kicks and a judo-style throw for the win.
Jackie Chan sprang to mind immediately…
If “martial artist” can be stretched to include professional killers, one of my favorites is when hooker Alabama prevails over James Gandofini’s hitman in True Romance.
In Ninja Assassin, the titular ninja assassin (played by Korean pop star Rain) takes on a large gangster bulldog-of-a-man who puts up one hell of a fight. Although the ninja does eventually prevail, he gets the shit beaten out of him in the process, and its quite possible that had his opponent not been bleeding out due to a neck wound through the whole fight, that things might’ve ended quite differently.
You can watch the fight (warning for violence and gore) here.
Fair enough.
Rising Sun: Sean Connery as a detective, training Wesley Snipes in the craft as they investigate a murder in a Japanese corporation’s building in Los Angeles. Connery and Snipes are trying to go into a nightclub as part of their investigation and the bouncer at the door says they have to pay. Connery says he’ll have to fight the bouncer over the matter.
Bouncer: Okay, but I gotta warn you, I’ve got a black belt in karatee.
Connery: Of course you do.
Connery then gently presses his thumb between the bouncer’s collar bones. The bouncer chokes a bit and sinks to his knees. Connery and Snipes walk by without looking back.
–G!
Ev’rybody was Kung Fu Fighting…
. --Tom Jones
. Kung Fu Fighting
Another fine example would be Indy vs. the big mechanic fighting around the flying wing. Indy gets his hat handed to him and only wins when a spinning propeller is introduced.
Harrison Ford was always great as the guy getting beat up who nonetheless prevails.
You are describing martial arts versus martial arts, and in fact it seems a martial arts trope for the old master to defeat the young inexperienced opponent with a single “magical” move like a thumb to the throat. The opening post is looking for someone who fights in a more stereotypical western style, “run-of-the-mill brawler”, defeating someone using martial arts. Connery speaks Japanese and clearly knows one or more martial arts in that movie.
(Funnily enough, doesn’t Sean Connery do the same thing in Presidio by defeating someone using only his thumb though not in precisely the same way?)
IIRC there was a scene like that at the beginning of “Donnie Brasco” - Johnny Depp’s character confronts someone in a bar, the guy claims to know karate, Depp promptly knocks the crap out of him.
If you’re going to count Indiana Jones’s use of a pistol to take out a swordsman, you might as well also allow John McClane’s use of an SUV to take out the martial artist in Live Free or Die Hard. Of the two Westerners, I’d give the edge to John McClane as coming closer to earning the title of “brawler”.
Not really “martial artist getting his ass kicked by a thug” but Kick Ass did have kind of the same spirit. Guy decides to be a superhero, and tries to stop a thug, armed with twin billy clubs. There are dozens of Golden Age superheroes that more or less started off like this, and the hero always would prevail.
Not so much in Kick Ass.