The transcript below is from the video “Jason Statham vs Scott Adkins Fight Scene | Scott Adkins and Jason Statham Martial Arts Fight” by Ultimate Martial.
Ultimate Martial:
Do you ever look at two tough guys and wish you could see them both go at each other? Well, that’s just about the case with every video on our channel. While most other celebrities prefer not testing their skills against another celebrity, we’re thankful for the internet that allows us to guess how it might turn out if they ever did. And in today’s video, we’re going to pin Jason Statham up against Scott Adkins. So let’s begin!
Ultimate Martial:
As always, we’d like to look at what each man brings to the table before we put them both inside the ring. So let’s start with Jason Statham, an English actor, known for action thriller films and portraying tough irredeemable and machiavellian characters. He was born on July 26, 1967 in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England. Statham relocated to Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where he originally turned down his father’s offer to work on local market stalls in favor of martial arts.
Jason went on to play football for the local elementary school where he was enrolled. Multi-talented, he also had a knack for diving and went on to pursue a minor sports career in that too. He participated in the 10-metre, 3-metre and 1-metre events for England at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
Ultimate Martial:
Statham’s career in the media began when he was discovered by Sports Promotions, a sports modeling firm. He began modeling for the apparel company French Connection in 1997. To make ends meet, he still had to follow in his father’s career path as a street vendor. However, luck soon struck for Statham. He met emerging British director Guy Ritchie while working as a model for French Connection. Ritchie cast Statham in the part of “Bacon” in his 1998 criminal comedy movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels after learning about his career as a black market seller and making £5,000 along the way.
Snatch – Statham’s second collaboration with Ritchie was released in 2000. After breaking through, Jason Statham acted in two Hollywood films in 2001 Ghosts of Mars, a science fiction action horror picture, and The One a sci-fi martial arts action film. In both these films, Statham’s keen interest and affluence with stunts, made him somewhat prominent and he began to adopt a rowdy and rugged persona around himself.
Ultimate Martial:
In the 2002 action film, The Transporter, he played the prominent role of driver Frank Martin. I’m pretty sure we all remember Jason Statham from this role more than from anything else. As with earlier works, Statham insisted that he’d do his stunts himself and was not afraid of busting in a few moves ever since he started featuring in action-packed scenes. The film was a huge success and saw two sequels come up afterward. The first sequel was Transporter 2 that came out in 2005, while the second, Transporter 3, came out in 2008. All three movies were well reputed and Statham became a prominent name in cinema. His acting career continued to soar as we saw him in the center of the limelight in movies such as The Bank Job, The Mechanic, Hummingbird, Blitz, and many more.
Anywhere across the industry, Jason Statham is affiliated with toughness and resilience. When we see him starring in a movie, we already know to expect some action-packed scenes since most of his roles embody him in such a character. But for him to get such roles and maintain such a persona is not without reason.
Ultimate Martial:
Jason Statham is not just athletic and capable of doing his own stunts, he’s very accomplished in martial arts too. Jason has always insisted on his stunts not being choreographed. He’s even suggested that stunts be given their own category at the Academy Awards. It’s unknown how long Jason spent training in martial arts but he’s regarded as a professional. Jason has explored training in a range of different activities in addition to mixed martial arts. Wing Chun Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Karate are among his professional skills.
Ultimate Martial:
Next up we have Scott Adkins.
Scott Adkins was born on the 17 June, 1976, in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England. His father and family were generally butchers by occupation. When he was 11 years old, he went to a local Judo club with his father and elder brother and became interested in martial arts. His passion for martial arts rose even more after he was robbed at the age of 13. In the same year, he began training in Taekwondo. Scott has also been practicing Kickboxing from the age of 16 and ultimately became a Kickboxing coach for the Professional Karate Association. Ninjutsu. Krav Maga, Karate, Wushu, Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, Capoeira, Tai Chi and gymnastics are also among the other disciplines that Scott has briefly learned.
Ultimate Martial:
Despite such vast expertise, he had to make due with a meager living before his acting career. His big opportunity came when he was cast in [inaudible], a Hong Kong martial arts film. Whilst in Hong Kong, Adkins had the honor of gradually working with some of Hong Kong’s top names in film, including Jackie Chan. As he rose to prominence, he received attention from some TV series producers back home as he was offered roles in a few episodes. With his portrayals of Talbot in Special Forces in 2003 and Yuri Boyka in Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing in 2006, he quickly rose to prominence in feature films. With his evil depiction of Russian MMA underground fighter Boyka in this film, he came into the mainstream. And so Scott Adkins gradually became a popular name in Hollywood.
Ultimate Martial:
Scott even had the honor of working with another action movie legend Jean-Claude Van Damme when he starred as Van Damme’s main enemy in The Shepherd: Border Patrol, a movie by Sony Pictures released in 2008. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine, he co-starred alongside Ryan Reynolds as Weapon Z. But by now, Scott Adkins has well established himself in the film industry often taking up roles that include some elements of martial arts and violence as well as stunt performances and an overall tough persona. He continues to work in film and some of his other amazing works include playing Hector in The Expendables 2, Lucian in Doctor Strange, and Yuri Boyka in Boyka: Undisputed. From what we know about him at the latest, he’s currently working in the production of John Wick Chapter 4. His works as Yuri Boyka have won him some neat action related awards including breakout action star, best fight and best action movie actor.
Ultimate Martial:
So with details about both our contenders laid out flat, let’s finally get to the juicy bit. Who do you think will win? Well, it’s unlikely that we’ll see the two fight each other in real life but we did see them pinned off against each other in Expendables 2. Whilst Jason Statham won that fight, it was obviously part of the movie’s plot, so we can’t rely on that at all. For our analysis, we’ll measure the fighters across four different metrics. This time they shall be physique, training, physical strength and adaptability. So without further ado, let’s start.
Ultimate Martial:
First off, we have the physique. Jason Statham stands tall at almost 5 feet 9 inches, roughly 1.5 m. On the other hand, Scott Adkins stands even taller at 5 feet and almost 11 inches which is 1.8 m. When we compare weights, Jason comes in at about 77 kg against Scott Adkins 75. Both men seem to be roughly the same in terms of physicality. So that means each of them gets one point.
Ultimate Martial:
Next up, let’s look at training. Jason Statham is admittedly trained in martial arts but has never shared complete details about how much training he received. On top of martial arts, he’s also trained as an Olympic diver, which should be somewhat accounted for. However, given his distributed focus between football, diving and martial arts, it should be safe to assume that his training as a martial artist would not be as extensive as that of Scott Adkins, who specialized in a multitude of disciplines. So for training, Scott Adkins takes the lead by one point.
Ultimate Martial:
Next up, we have physical strength. Again, we can’t judge this aspect since there’s no recorded incident of them having displayed force. So each gets the point.
Ultimate Martial:
Lastly, we have adaptability. Jason Statham spent plenty of time on the streets and probably knew how to adapt well. But on the other hand, Scott Adkins saw tough times as well, including being robbed. Again, a dull tie in this domain gives each man one point.
Ultimate Martial:
The result comes down to Statham holding 3 points against Adkins 4, making Scott Adkins the winner by a meager one point. Again, this is arbitrary and was hard to accurately analyze given the lack of information on Statham’s training history as well as each of them never having extensively displayed physical force. With what we have, let’s allow Adkins to win this one.
Do you agree with the verdict? Let us know in the comments. Also, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell icon for more. See you soon in the next video.
