Tin-chi participates in underground fights organized by Ma King-sang, a local triad leader who works for Frank, an American property developer and highly proficient boxer.

Ip seeks help from his close friend Fat Po, a Royal Hong Kong police Chinese Detective Sergeant.

Desperate for money and wanting to open his own martial arts school, Tin-chi accepts the offer and attacks Ngo-san, hospitalizing him.

Tin-chi is allowed to leave with Fong due to being an associate, but after his son tells him that they still have his friends, he returns and fights alongside Ip.

Ip and Tin-chi hold their own until a troop of policemen led by Po arrives to arrest the gang.

Tin-chi opens his martial arts school with the money he obtained from Ma, and claims that his Wing Chun is genuine while Ip's is not.

Wing-sing makes arrangements for another match on her husband's behalf, correctly guessing that Ip would have attended if not for her deteriorating health, and accompanies him to the fight.

After a long battle involving staffs, butterfly knives and unarmed combat, Ip eventually overpowers Tin-chi.

Accepting defeat, Tin-chi destroys the banner proclaiming himself Grandmaster, and Ip tells him that spending time with their loved ones is more important than competing with others.

A closing onscreen text states that Wing-sing died in 1960, and that Ip helped make Wing Chun well known internationally and left a legacy.

[11] In March 2015, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Mike Tyson would also be starring as a street fighter and property developer.

"To state it in no uncertain terms, BLE intends to seek all remedies available to it to stop Pegasus from including the computer-generated version of Bruce Lee in Ip Man 3," he added.

So I decided to play the role one more time to fulfil everyone's wishes",[15] and implied that Ip Man 3 could be his final martial arts film.

[17] In November 2015, it was revealed on the website of music composer Kenji Kawai (who scored the series' first two films) that he had returned to work on the soundtrack of Ip Man 3.

The website's critics consensus reads, "Ip Man 3 isn't the most tightly plotted biopic a kung fu fan could ask for, but the fight scenes are fun to watch — and at times, the drama is even genuinely poignant.

[30] Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter wrote, "Bolstered by Yuen Woo-ping's exhilarating action choreography and some stunt casting in the shape of Mike Tyson and Zhang Jin (the breakout star in Wong Kar-wai's rival Ip Man biopic The Grandmaster), Yen and Yip have managed to wring a serviceable film out of a pedestrian plot riddled with erroneous period details."

"[31] James Marsh of Screen International stated, "Ip Man 3 trades the crowd-pleasing intensity of its predecessors for a more introspective portrait of its central character."

As expected, Mike Tyson fails to convince in his role of Frank, whose origins are never revealed in the film, and whose motivation is simply greed.

"[34] Hans David Tampubolon of The Jakarta Post called the film a "messy patchwork of stitched-together plotlines" that was an "action-packed but ultimately disappointing finale of the Wing Chun trilogy" and concluded, "Well, judging by the atrocious script and character development in Ip Man 3, there is a very large possibility that Donnie is regretting his final decision to portray the legendary grandmaster for the third time.

"[35] According to Box Office Mojo, Ip Man 3 has earned US$7.8 million in Hong Kong[36] and $2,679,437 in the United States.

[48] Max Zhang reprises his role as Cheung Tin Chi from Ip Man 3 in this spin-off film.