I commend the Yi Quan guy for trying. What he has done is provide himself with an amazing platform for growth. I hope he sees the opportunity.
As a wider point, to my eyes in all of these encounters, the traditional arts person seems to be too confident in the superiority of their method and are 'reactive' instead of active. This is something i have seen alot personally too, often born out of the belief that 'What i do is very old and special, masters from the old times were utter badasses!' ... reality, especially in the form of a head kick, can be quite immediate.
you must first have martial arts mastery, and at the least high practical expertise
Everyones focused on the Yi Quan guy but as Ian pointed out, the san da guy is not very good by the looks of things, he certainly would not represent "martial arts Mastery" or "high practical Expertise" When compared to his peers in combat sports. Yet he was able to completely outmatch the Yi Quan practitioner and dominate the encounter.
But it would be really interesting to see how much time the Yi Quan guy has been practicing, vs how much time the San Da guy has. This is the interesting part of the conversation for me.
Nowadays, you are more likely to meet someone with some type of training than ever before. Access to MA is huge and the success of MMA means that alot of people have at least looked at these things. My bouncer friends say that they are now dealing with 'trained' fighters more than when i was working. So getting to profitiancy fast is a real factor and should not be underestimated, if of course, fighting skill is a priority.
Yi Quan has alot to offer outside of purely fighting of course. Maybe the old arts should focus on their other amazing strengths and play down the claims to some martial superiority, simply because they are old. Every time a lowly combat sports practitioner pummels an TMA practitioner things look all the worse for their future, and it they were to die out it would be a shame.
Combatively, the question i always ask myself is, how would Guo Yun Shen fair against a modern UFC champion.... it is an interesting thought.
Chris.