The transcript below is from the video “Steven Seagal vs Jean Claude Van Damme | Aikido vs Karate” by Trend Loops.
Trend Loops:
Hello guys, welcome to my channel and today, we will be putting another two great superstars into the arena and see who comes out on top. I’m starting a series of versus matches where I will be putting two great superstars of their time and see who has got the big hand on each other. Today’s video superstars are Steven Seagal versus Jean-claude Van Damme. Both of them are legendary fighters but let’s put them on one-on-one.
Trend Loops:
Steven Seagal
First, let’s talk about the cop star Steven Seagal. Seagal is a renowned martial artist, an American actor, musician, screenwriter, and producer.
Trend Loops:
Early Age
Steven Seagal was born on April 10, 1952, in Lansing, Michigan. When he was 5, his parents moved out to California. Back when he was a kid, he had suffered from asthma and recovered after moving out. He was not introduced to martial arts till the age of 12. When he was 12, he got a job as a dishwasher in one of California’s restaurants. There he met a Shotokan Karate expert who happened to be a cook. He inspired Seagal and made him fall in love with martial arts.
Trend Loops:
His Martial Arts Skills
His family then moved out to Japan in 1971 but Seagal returned to California in 1974. It was when he met Miyako Fujitani who was a second-degree black belt of Aikido and also the daughter of an Aikido master instructor of Japan. A year later, they moved out to Japan and married the following year. It was when he learned Aikido from his wife Fujitani and her family. There, he was trained hard and became the 7th dan Aikikai master and black belt holder. Later, he taught in the same dojo owned by his wife’s family. He then moved out to New Mexico with one of his students Craig Dunn who later in the story became a stuntman.
In his life, he has been moving out frequently. He then again went down to Japan but got back to the U.S in 1983. This time, he came with one of his senior students and together opened a dojo in north Hollywood but then transferred it to west Hollywood. Steven Seagal is also known to train Brazilian MMA fighter, Lyoto Machida. During their training, Seagal helped him perfect his front kick which he used in his UFC fights.
Trend Loops:
His Hollywood Fame
For what role do you love Steven Seagal the most? For me, it was when he played cop several times and beat several men at a time. However, he stepped into the world of Hollywood in a different category of movies. At first they were Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Marked to Death, etc. All these movies introduced him as an action star to the fans of Hollywood. Then, when one of his blockbusters was released in Under Siege in 1992, he filled all of his movies with his Aikido and martial arts skills. He later started On Deadly Ground while he was also the director.
He was also known as an environmental actor. He cast and filmed several movies on the surrounding hazardous environments although his On Deadly Ground didn’t hit the box office because of his critics of the environment. Then in 1995, he starred in Under Siege 2: Dark Trilogy which also hit the box office. During his movie Never Say Never Again, he accidentally broke one of the star’s hands accidentally. It was a deadly way of making herself renowned.
During his career, he filled the gap of Aikido martial arts in Hollywood. Today, his net worth is around $16 million.
Trend Loops:
Jean-Claude Van Damme
I hope you like the short massacre story of Steven Seagal. Now, it’s time to put Jean-Claude Van Damme into action. Jean-Claude Van Damme is a man of many actions such as Karate, Kickboxing, Bodybuilding, and former ballet. So, that makes him one of the beasts out there in Hollywood.
Trend Loops:
His Real Martial Arts Skills
Jean-claude Van Damme was born on October 18, 1960, in Brussels, Belgium. He was inspired by Karate from his childhood. So his father put him into Shotokan Karate school. He was just 10 years old when his father enrolled him there. It even made him closer to martial arts. Then, after 2 years of effort, he was able to join his hometown national center of Karate. There, his skills were refurbished by his legendary teacher Claude Goetz.
Goetz then trained him for the next 4 years and made him enter the official Karate Team of Belgium. It is the place where he made several records and also learned full contact Karate and Kickboxing. There, started the main action. He started engaging in tournaments and fights. His amateur record is somewhat 44 wins on a 48, where he lost a handy of 4 matches.
Trend Loops:
Then at the age of 16, he fell in love with ballet dance and got enrolled there too. His regards about the ballet are noticeable. He says ballet is an art but it’s also one of the most difficult sports. If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any sport. He retired from ballet dancing at the age of 20. At the age of 17, he got interested in making a career in professional Kickboxing and made a great record. Then, at the age of 18, he got his black belt in Karate while he carried his professional career onward till the age of 22. His professional Kickboxing record is around 18 wins out of 19. All of the wins were through knockout where he lost a single match.
Oh, did I mention his bodybuilding skills? I’m sorry. During his Karate pathway, he also joined bodybuilding, where in 1976, he secured Mr. Belgium Bodybuilding championships in gold tier.
Trend Loops:
His Hollywood Skills
Just like he’s talented in the arena, he is also gifted on the Hollywood set. When he moved to the U.S, he pushed himself to the world of acting. He was at first cast as a cab driver, waiter and aerobics instructor. After that, he was enrolled in movies like No Retreat, No Surrender, Black Eagle but his blockbuster movie is Bloodsport of 1988. It made him popular as an action star and then his life as a superstar kicked in.
JCVD is the most beloved for his 360 kick and his amazing splits which happened to show off at many of his movies. He was then starred in movies like Kickboxer, Cyborg, Death Warrant, Lionheart, Double Impact, etc. He is also cast as a villain in Expendables 2. Now the list of his movies is unlimited and will take you a lot of time to go through each one.
Trend Loops:
The Duel
I hope to know you know about these legendary megastars. Now it’s time to put them in an arena and see who comes on top. We’ll be scoring them according to their attributes but you should keep in mind that both of them are legends and the real situation can vary from their attributes.
Trend Loops:
Fighting Pedigree
Let’s fight with the fighting attribute. Steven isn’t even a 7th Dan Aikido master but also a mixed martial artist like Ito’s Karate etc. Plus, he has spent his whole life teaching Aikido to juniors in Japan as well as in the USA. And all his action movies demonstrate his professionality at it. Jean-Claude Van Damme on the other hand is also the black belt holder in Shotokan Karate. He may not have taught his martial art but he is aware of every move of it. When Steven taught for most of the year, then JCVD learned from the age of 12 to the age of 22. It’s difficult to score them here. So Steven Seagal goes with 7.6 points while JCVD with 8 because JCVD has fought professionally and at the amateur level since he was a kid.
Trend Loops:
Physique
Now, let’s score both of the physiques. Steven Seagal weighed around 187 lbs and heightened 6’4″ in his prime while JCVD weighed around 176 lbs and heightened 5’10”. This gives Seagal an advantage here since Seagal is heavier than JCVD and also taller. So the score goes with 7 to Steven and 6.4 to JCVD.
Trend Loops:
Skills
When we talk about the skills, they both have somewhat the same experience and are highly skilled in their martial arts. So I’ll score them both 7.5 points here.
Trend Loops:
Improvisation
It’s time to see how they will come up against each other if we put them one one-on-one in the arena. Even though they both are from different martial arts, they will be giving each other a really hard time. But a flaw here is that JCVD has the fighting experience. He has been involved in real fights while Seagal is missing it out. This difference in experience will give JCVD leverage here. So, Steven will go with 7 while JCVD will get 7.8 points.
Trend Loops:
Verdict
Now, it’s time for the final decision. By the score that we have given, JCVD wins out with a total score of 20.7 out of 40, while the total of Steven Seagal is 29.1. You can see that both of them are placed close to each other. So the fight outcome can be devastating.
That’s okay if you don’t agree with me. But why wouldn’t you agree? Don’t forget to tell me in the comments section. If you adored our video, then press up the like button and subscribe to our channel for more sporty videos. See you next time. Bye. And until then, take care of yourself.
