The transcript below is from the video “Steven Seagal vs Jean Claude Van Damme | Aikido vs Karate” by Brutal TV.
Brutal TV:
Steven Seagal vs Jean Claude Van Damme: Who wins in a street fight?
There is nothing like a good old street fight where the boys can slug it out to show who’s boss. So in this video, we’ll be putting up two men who have made a name for themselves by beating men to a pulp in their movies. But how will they fare against each other? It’s Steven Seagal vs Jean Claude Van Damme: Who would win in a street fight?
Before we get into the match up, some promotion is in order. We know you already like this video, so kindly hit that like button, subscribe to the channel and click on the notification icon so you won’t miss any of our future matchups. And with that done, let’s meet our two fighters.
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In his movies, Steven Seagal is a man you don’t want to mess around with. This guy doesn’t break a sweat to beat 50 men at a go and he’ll be done without getting a single scratch. That’s how badass he is.
Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan before moving to Japan around the age of 20. It was after his return from Japan that he met a second-degree black belt holder and daughter of an Osaka aikido master, Miyako Fujitani. Miyako’s father had come to Los Angeles to teach Aikido and Seagal was definitely impressed with what he saw. And so when Miyako and her father returned to Osaka, Japan, Seagal went with them. Just after a year, Seagal and Miyako got married. While in Japan, Seagal taught martial arts in a school owned by his wife’s family. He became the first non-Asian to open an Aikido dojo in Japan.
Brutal TV:
Seagal also opened a dojo in Taos, New Mexico after working in Japan. For the brief time he was in New Mexico, Seagal pursued other ventures and revisited Japan before returning to the United States in 1983. Together with a senior student of his, Seagal opened yet another dojo in North Hollywood, California before moving into the city of West Hollywood. Although Seagal was not fully involved in training students at his dojo, Brazilian mixed martial artist Lyoto Machida credited Seagal for training him and helping him to develop his front kick. At UFC 129 in 2011, Machida knocked out Randy Couture using that same front kick.
Steven Seagal has earned a 7th-dan black belt in Aikido and is very knowledgeable in that martial art. It wasn’t long before he took his martial arts talent to Hollywood, starring in the 1988 film Above the Law. In 1992, he took on the role of counter-terrorism expert Casey Ryback in the movie Under Siege. Seagal has a knack for playing characters with past affiliations with the special forces; Black Ops or the CIA. He went on to star in other successful films including The Glimmer Man, The Foreigner and Black Dawn. In his movies, Steven Seagal’s characters always portray an air of invincibility, never suffering battling harm or even experiencing temporary defeats. One wonders whether he could hold that kind of composure when up against an opponent as formidable as Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Brutal TV:
Van Damme was born on October 18, 1960 in Brussels, Belgium. At a very young ago of 10, he became interested in martial arts and began to take martial art lessons. Impressed by son’s interest in martial arts, Van Damme’s father enrolled him into a Shotokan Karate school, where Van Damme was trained in both Karate and Kickboxing. But he did not stop there. Even after mastering both Karate and Kickboxing, Van Damme later picked up Muay Thai and Taekwondo. Van Damme was a keen learner. By the time he turned 18, he earned his black belt in Karate. But Van Damme was not satisfied with just learning martial arts skills, he also wanted to build his body to perfection. And so he became interested in bodybuilding.
While Van Damme was undergoing intense martial arts training, he also took an interest in ballet dancing and ended up studying it for 5 years. Van Damme would later describe ballet dancing as one of the most difficult sports saying, “If you could survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport”. Aside from his martial arts training, Van Damme began to lift weight to develop his physique. And just as he succeeded in Karate, Van Damme excelled at bodybuilding, winning the Mr. Belgium Bodybuilding Contest.
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Van Damme had an impressive record as a professional kickboxer. In his 19 professional fights, he won 18 of them. All of them were won by knockouts. His amateur record is equally as impressive with 44 wins in 48 games, losing only 4. When Van Damme was done with professional Kickboxing, he launched an acting career that became hugely successful. He was particularly known for playing the bad guy as seen in movies such as No Retreat, No Surrender, Black Eagle, Replicant, The Expendables 2, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning and Enemies Closer. Some of his other notable action movies include Cyborg, Kickboxer, Lion-Heart,Death Warrant, Nowhere to Run, Hard Target, Timecop, Maximum Risk and Jean-Claude Van Johnson.
Now that we know what these two men bring to the table, it’s time to get to the action and determine which of these two stars will come out on top in a street fight. To determine this hypothetical match-up, we will score each fighter in 4 fighting categories. These are fighting pedigree, physique, skill and improvisation. For each category, each fighter will be awarded a maximum of 10 points and the fighter with the higher cumulative points will be considered the winner. Ready? Let’s go!
Brutal TV:
Fighting Pedigree
Steven Seagal was a 7th-dan black belt holder in Aikido and was an Aikido instructor for years. This guy actually knows this martial art. And this was an Aikido combat between these two, then we’d likely to further Seagal. But Van Damme is no slouch either. In fact, he’s got a lot to say for himself in this category. This guy did not just learn Kickboxing and Karate, he actually fought professionally and won 18 on 19 games and all his victories were knockouts. You don’t want to mess with this guy here. At 18, he had a black belt in Karate. He’s the winner here. We’ll give 9 points to Van Damme and 7 to Seagal.
Brutal TV:
Physique
You might have noticed that Van Damme is not a tall man. He stands at just 1.75 m. On the other hand, Seagal is a pretty big dude, standing at 1.93 m. At almost 2m tall, he will really scare Van Damme at Street Fight. That’s for sure. But Van Damme comes into this fight as a former bodybuilder. He may be short, but the latter is a mass of pure muscle. What he lacks in height, he certainly makes up from his body build. It’s close but Seagal’s height advantage cannot be ignored. So, it’s 8 for Seagal and 7 for Van Damme.
Brutal TV:
Skills
Now we haven’t really seen Seagal in a real fight and if the way he fights in his movies is how he intends to beat Van Damme, then you’ll be in for a mauling. On the other hand, Van Damme has shown that he can beat a person to a pulp in a real fight and that says a lot about his Karate and Kickboxing skills. Let’s just say that we are still unconvinced about Seagal’s ability to hold his own in a street fight. 8 to Van Damme, 5 to Seagal.
Brutal TV:
Improvisation
Again, Seagal’s unconvincing fighting skill will come back to bite him here. He’s also a big dude and so stunning his opponent with sneaky moves in a street fight is unlikely. A smaller fighter like Van Damme will not be able to read Seagal’s every move but he’ll have a real time surprising Seagal with some tricks of his own. Once again, Van Damme wins. 8 points to Van Damme and 6 to Seagal.
Brutal TV:
The Verdict
With 34 points for Van Damme against a modest 26 points for Seagal, Van Damme clearly wins this match-up.
Do you agree with our verdict? Let us know in the comments section below. Thanks for watching. We’ll see you in our next video.
