The transcript below is from the video “Jean Claude Van Damme vs Michael Jai White Martial Arts | Karate vs Taekwondo Fight Scene” by Ultimate Martial.
Ultimate Martial:
Hey there fight fans, we all just love seeing two legends fight each other, do we not? I mean, we take up the most innocent men and place them inside the ring against one another. If it only would go down in real life. But at least, we can do the next best thing and that’s make a guess. Well, in today’s video, we’ll pin Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michael Jai White against each other. This is going to be purely hypothetical and the verdict may not necessarily be a dictation of the truth, just our best guess. So let the best fighter win.
Ultimate Martial:
First up, let’s look at Jean-Claude Van Damme and see what makes him the legend he is.
Van Damme was born Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg on October 18, 1960 in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Brussels, Belgium to Eliana and Eugène Van Varenberg, an accountant and florist. When he was 10 years old, his father enrolled him in Shotokan Karate school and he began learning martial arts.
Ultimate Martial:
Shotokan Karate and Kickboxing are two of his combat techniques. At the age of 16, he began learning ballet and continued for 5 years. He obtained his black belt in Karate when he was just 18 years old. To enhance his figure, he began lifting weights and eventually earned the title of Mr. Belgium Bodybuilder. Later in life, he took up Taekwondo and Muay Thai. So we can really guess that he was not your average kid playing in the sandbox. He was a fighter from the very start.
Van Damme began his full career in 1977. Van Damme was a member of the Belgian Karate Team that won the European Karate Championship on December 26, 1979. Between 1976 and 1980, he also won 44 and lost 4 semi-contact bouts in tournaments and non-tournament matchups. From 1977 till 1982, Van Damme enjoyed an 18 fight-winning-streak, all by knockout with only one defeat.
Ultimate Martial:
In 1982, Van Damme and his childhood friend, Michel Qissi, moved to the United States to seek acting careers. They labored in a variety of jobs to make ends meet. Their first acting role was as extras in the hip-hop dance film Breakin’. Around that time, he became acquainted with Chuck Norris. It was Van Damme’s first important part when he was cast as the Russian villain in No Retreat, No Surrender in 1986.
Van Damme’s breakout film Bloodsport was released on February 26, 1988 and was a huge success. It was based on the alleged true story of Frank Dux. Van Damme was then offered roles in Delta Force II, American Ninja, and Cyborg, a cyberpunk martial arts picture by Cannon Films. Van Damme chose the picture Cyborg from 1989. Following that, Van Damme starred in Kickboxer, Universal Soldier, a sci-fi action film that was one of the year’s biggest blockbusters starring Van Damme in 1992. In 1994, he appeared in Universal’s Hard Target. In the same year, he also featured in the film Time Cop. He and Hark reunited on Knock Off in 1998. In the same year, Van Damme appeared in the costume action film, Legionnaire. The list of Van Damme’s movies goes on and on. He hasn’t been as committed to his typical position as a tough fighting machine in recent films, at least not in the same way he was in the past. Despite this, the actor has achieved worldwide recognition and has been honored with a monument in Belgium.
Ultimate Martial:
And now, let us move on to our next fighter, Michael Jai White.
Michael Richard Jai White was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 10, 1967. His mother was a school teacher and raised Jai White as a single parent. When he was in his teens, he and his mother relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut where he graduated from Central High School in 1985. After that, he went to the HB Studio in Yale University to study acting. His martial arts interest starts at the very tender age of 7.
Jai White initially began his training in Jiu-Jitsu and went on to expand his learning into other disciplines, including Shotokan, Taekwondo, Kobudo, Jiri, Tang Soo Do, Wushu, and Kyokushin, among others. He holds black belts in 7 of those, which means he’s somewhat of a seasoned expert.
Jai White’s first major leading role in breakout performance was as heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson in the 1995 HBO film Tyson. You can really understand that Jai White is one of the lucky few who got the chance to start off big but he did not go out acting straight from college. Prior to his debut, he had worked as a teacher for children with special learning needs. On from Tyson, Jai White scored another major role instantly putting him in the limelight of Hollywood.
Ultimate Martial:
In the 1997 film Spawn, he played the titular character making him the first African American to play a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture. In 1999, Jai White co-starred with Jean-claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier: The Return. In 2001, he co-starred in Exit Wounds with fellow martial arts expert Steven Seagal. In the 2008 film, The Dark Knight, White portrays the crime leader Gambol. In 2009, he also starred in the films Blood and Bone and Black Dynamite, both of which were blaxploitation homages. Both Black Dynamite and his forthcoming Three Bullets, in which he co-stars with Bokeem Woodbine, were written by White. And this is one of the initial incidents where Jai White began expanding his career from actor to writer and director.
Ultimate Martial:
In 2011, White made his directorial debut with Never Back Down 2: The Beatdown, in which he also featured. Welcome to Sudden Death, White’s newest film premiered on Netflix in October of 2020 and quickly became one of the platform’s most popular titles. Of course, these are not all of Jai White’s acting achievements. He’s worked in a ton of other movies too. Starring in some, directing in others and both in a few. His other works include amazing displays like Skin Trade, S.W.A.T: Under Siege and Rogue Hostage. Now inclining more towards the direction and production side, Jai White announced his vision of his own studio called Jaigantic Studios based in New Haven, Connecticut.
Ultimate Martial:
Now that we’ve had an in-depth look at both our contenders, let’s look at how they would each fare when put up against one another inside the ring. Of course, since the fight is hypothetical we can’t say anything for sure but to get our best guesses and to keep things fair and credible, we’ll measure each man across a series of metrics. These shall include physicality, training, physical strength and adaptability.
Ultimate Martial:
Starting off with physicality. Let us first look at Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme stands tall at about 1.77 m. Convert that and it’s roughly about 5 feet 9 inches. His weight comes in at 80 kg which means he’s a tough and sturdy fellow, especially for his height. When we look at Michael Jai White, we find that he stands even taller at 1.85 m. For perspective, that’s about 6 feet and 1 inch. In all, that’s about 4 inches taller than Van Damme. On the weighing machine, Michael Jai White measures roughly 92 kg. So in terms of physicality, Michael Jai White has a clear advantage and scores 1 point to Van Damme 0.
Ultimate Martial:
Next up, let’s look at training. Admittedly, it’s very hard to tell who comes out on top in this one. Van Damme did a decent job at mastering 4 different disciplines but when we compare that to Jai White, we find that he’s done slightly more with 7 disciplines to his name. When we look purely at numbers, we can see that despite each of them seeming tough, Michael Jai White comes out on top again. So far, he scores 2 to Van Damme’s 0.
Ultimate Martial:
Next up, we have physical strength. Whilst we have no evidence to state who has more striking power, we know that Van Damme has been a prolific bodybuilder and could lift some heavy weights in his prime. So based on what we know, Van Damme takes home this round.
Ultimate Martial:
Lastly, we have adaptability. This one is honestly up to speculation. We saw the two in film together but that doesn’t count. If we’re to keep things fair based on what we know, we should award Jai White this one since knowing more disciplines means he can adjust better to any changes in the environment. And so, our final verdict comes down to Jai White winning 3 points against Van Damme’s 1.
We tried to make this as fair as possible but that doesn’t mean we’re right. Do you agree with our verdict? Share your opinion in the comments section. Don’t forget to like, share and subscribe so you don’t miss an upload and you can enjoy the excellent content we send your way.
