Jean Claude Van Damme

[repz]

Van Damme was a former European Karate champion, and he has fought in kickboxing before gaining a 20 and 2 record. Like it or not, Van Damme is the real thing.

Funny, that link says he had zero fights yet put up the years that he fought? There is evidence to JC fighting for the Belgium championships.

 

[Bruno@MT]

There are no records associated with JC Vandamme because that is not his real name. His real name is Jean Claude Van Varenberg IIRC. And indeed he did compete in his youth and kicked ***.

 

[Xue Sheng]

There are no records associated with JC Vandamme because that is not his real name. His real name is Jean Claude Van Varenberg IIRC. And indeed he did compete in his youth and kicked ***.

True, but 20 some odd years later after a bought or two with various addictions.... I am not so sure he will be kicking much ***

 

[ATC]

Van Damme was a former European Karate champion, and he has fought in kickboxing before gaining a 20 and 2 record. Like it or not, Van Damme is the real thing.

Funny, that link says he had zero fights yet put up the years that he fought? There is evidence to JC fighting for the Belgium championships.

His full contact record was 18-1. He never fought outside of Europe. So on the world stage againt the best of the best world wide he has no fights.

It's like me saying that I am the California state champ at something. But if I never fought nationally then what does that really mean?

 

[Skpotamus]

Van Damme was a former European Karate champion, and he has fought in kickboxing before gaining a 20 and 2 record. Like it or not, Van Damme is the real thing.

Funny, that link says he had zero fights yet put up the years that he fought? There is evidence to JC fighting for the Belgium championships.

Van Damme fought in point fighting karate tournies in Belgium. You can actually see some of the matches on youtube. The entire kickboxing record was a publicity stunt by his management to get more $$$ for movie sales. The truth is he (van Damme/Van Varenberg) fought on a single PKA card and it's not known whether that was a KB match or a point fighting karate match, the results aren't even known. Below is an email from Joe Corley, the president of PKA when asked about Van Damme/Van Nuremberg's record.

*
Re: Van Damme dispute
From: Joe Corley (joecorley@joecorley.com)
Sent: Mon 2/16/09 3:48 PM
To:

Hi. I know he fought on the PKA under card in Brussels when Macaruso fought Valera for NBC. I do not know further about his record. Sorry I could not be of more help.
*
Apparently the president of the company he supposedly fought for can't find any info on him really fighting. None of the other kickboxing orgs from that period have any records of him fighting either. The only places online that mention anything about him fighting are wikipedia, youtube and his own website (all of which contain the EXACT same material, down to the mispelled words), aka a copy and paste job with no verifiable sources listed on any of them.

His claims actually pissed off Don Wilson, because Wilson's instructor, Bill Superfoot Wallace was the champion of that weight class when VD claimed to be champ. Wilson Challenged VD to a fight repeatedly, but VD wouldn't step up even though they were in the same weight class.

Now VD wants to fight someone 60lbs lighter than him? I'd have more respect if he just said it was his first fight and I dunno, fought someone in his weight class.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Now VD wants to fight someone 60lbs lighter than him? I'd have more respect if he just said it was his first fight and I dunno, fought someone in his weight class.

That's what I'm saying.. he should fight Cung Le :EG: they are exactly the same weight

 

[Bruno@MT]

His full contact record was 18-1. He never fought outside of Europe. So on the world stage againt the best of the best world wide he has no fights.

It's like me saying that I am the California state champ at something. But if I never fought nationally then what does that really mean?

It means that you are still a pretty good fighter, because you don't get to be European champion if you can't put up a decent fight.

 

[Skpotamus]

Can anyone verify that he actually fought? None of the kickboxing orgs have any record of him fighting for them. The only places that list his fight record are open places where you don't have to verify anything and anybody can write what they want.

His original claim was he was a WORLD champion, not a European one, which is what pissed of Don Wilson since his instructor was the world champ then. Wilson called him out about lying about being the world champ, and wanted to find out if he'd actually fought.

 

[ATC]

It means that you are still a pretty good fighter, because you don't get to be European champion if you can't put up a decent fight.

I am pretty sure if he were the European champ someone would have put together a match with some PKA, IKA, ISKA, and etc... org’s champ to get him a title fight under a reputable org. What I am saying is, it is all "hear say". He is not listed anywhere reputable. Why stop at European champ? They all want a world title once they reach even that level.

Notice I never even said he was a European Champ. I only said he never fought outside of Europe.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Say it ain't so the Muscles from Brussels may be lying about his fight record :uhyeah:

 

[MA-Caver]

Record? Hmm ... you mean THIS type of record?

 

[repz]

Not sure about his kickboxing history, if its professional or not, but I know the kumite used to be pretty hardcore back then, even ending in knockouts, though I am not interested in this topic enough to look at who he might have knocked out or how europe had their kumites back then (though someone on some other site said he knocked out a list of people which can be verified by your own research).

Any why are people quoting me like I'm supporting him in being a good fighter, lol?

I consider JCVD the real thing because he has a black belt, has competed in sport karate to some extent, and does have video of him doing kickboxing (might be promotional though he looks kind of.... fruity, he seems to be showing off while his partner is being serious, and this was before he made movies and was a promo for a world championship full contact fight), where other ma actors dont compete in anything and just jump into acting with minimal ma experience.

Also, its not so uncommon to go from kumite to kickboxing, boxing was being mixed in karate for years, and that resulted in pro-karate, full contact, etc.

 

[sgtmac_46]

I would totally pay decent money to see that go down. I might even be a little scared for him lol.

That's one fight i've got money on JCVD winning.........not a lock, but a strong hunch. For one thing I think he's probably got far better conditioning than Steve.

If they'd do it, i'd pay good money to see it.

 

[Skpotamus]

Not sure about his kickboxing history, if its professional or not, but I know the kumite used to be pretty hardcore back then, even ending in knockouts, though I am not interested in this topic enough to look at who he might have knocked out or how europe had their kumites back then (though someone on some other site said he knocked out a list of people which can be verified by your own research).

Any why are people quoting me like I'm supporting him in being a good fighter, lol?

I consider JCVD the real thing because he has a black belt, has competed in sport karate to some extent, and does have video of him doing kickboxing (might be promotional though he looks kind of.... fruity, he seems to be showing off while his partner is being serious, and this was before he made movies and was a promo for a world championship full contact fight), where other ma actors dont compete in anything and just jump into acting with minimal ma experience.

Also, its not so uncommon to go from kumite to kickboxing, boxing was being mixed in karate for years, and that resulted in pro-karate, full contact, etc.

I always considered him a fraud because he lied about his fighting experience, got called out by a real fighter (Don Wilson), and wouldn't pick up the gauntlet thrown down.

Still liked some of his movies though.

 

[Bruno@MT]

I always considered him a fraud because he lied about his fighting experience, got called out by a real fighter (Don Wilson), and wouldn't pick up the gauntlet thrown down.

Still liked some of his movies though.

I don't know when and where this happened, but at the time, Don Wilson was probably still an active fighter, whereas JCVD probably hadn't had a decent fight for quite a while. In that case, I can perfectly understand not accepting the challenge.

 

[Skpotamus]

I don't know when and where this happened, but at the time, Don Wilson was probably still an active fighter, whereas JCVD probably hadn't had a decent fight for quite a while. In that case, I can perfectly understand not accepting the challenge.

Sigh, the point being that JCVD LIED about his fighting career, got called out about it and wouldn't fight a real fighter for the largest kickboxing purse in history (wilson offered up $100k to VD if he beat wilson which is a bigger payday than VD had ever got up to that point). Wilson is 6 years older than JCVD.

JCVD's bio states he was a European champion in kickboxing, the WAKO website (he listed as having been a wako champion) posts event results back to 1977. The guy that kept beating JCVD back then was a teammate named Theugals according to his bio, Theugal is listed in the Semi-contact categories (JCVD is not listed as placing in any of the events, under his real name or stage name). The rules for WAKO semi-contact include penalties/disqualification for injuring your opponent. Neither fighter is listed as having competed in full contact or kickboxing rules.