Van Damme Seeks Pro Kickboxing Fight

DixieDestroyer

Hall of Famer
Joined
Jan 19, 2007
Messages
9,464
Location
Dixieland
49 year old action movie star JCVD is seeking a pro kickboxing fight vs. against former Olympian Somluck Kamsing (for a reality TV show).

Aging action star Van Damme, 49, still wants a pro fight

By Steve Cofield

Jean Claude Van Damme could whip anybody. Throw in one caveat -- on the silver screen. Now the 49-year-old Belgian star of dozens of action films wants to show he can do it for real.

Repeating what he said in September, Van Damme is trying to land a professional kickboxing match against former Olympian Somluck Kamsing in Macau as the capper to a proposed reality show. During a press conference in Ukraine (VIDEO), Van Damme explained his motivation.

"[It's] dangerous but life is short," said Van Damme. "I want to prove to young people and even to mature people that a man can go into some very strong physical effort and training, and also be a movie star."

The fight was originally slated for a March K-1 event in Las Vegas. As Cagewriter told you at the time, the fight had zero chance of coming off in Nevada:

Kamsing, 35, was the 1996 Olympic Gold medalist in boxing at 126 pounds. He also fought in the 2000 and 2004 Olympics, losing to Rocky Juarez and Benoit Gaudet, respectively ... we'll rain on the parade with a reality check, the Nevada State Athletic Commission would never approve a fight with the [49-year-old] Jean Claude facing a former Olympian.

We nailed it. Van Damme (pictured with UFC fighter Michael Bisping) got word that the fight could not go down in the U.S. as many states have strict guidelines for fighters over 35.

Randy Couture, 46, will fight 45-year-old Mark Coleman next week in Las Vegas in the main event of UFC 109. Along with 37-year-old Frank Trigg and 35-year-old Matt Serra, Couture and Coleman had to go in front of the NSAC to undergo neurological testing and gain approval to fight. Vam Damme has zero professional fights. The four UFC fighters have a combined 93 pro fights and were still scrutinized before they were given their licenses. The only "real" fight we know of for Van Damme was a rumored scrap against fellow action star Chuck Zito.

For Van Damme, fighting a former Olympian is a brave thing to attempt, but let's hope it's closer to a reality show fight than one where he may get injured badly.


***Reference article...
 

Bear Backer

Mentor
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
Messages
658
Location
Illinois
WOW, this is kind of a "what the hell is he thinking?" moment for me. Of course maybe he would surprise everyone at 49, but I doubt it. Even though Van Damme at one time had some legit Karate tournament experience, It would be like Jackie Chan trying to take on a real life professional fighter, or even the late and mythic Bruce Lee who also actually did some legit fighting, take on a modern Mixed Martial Artist. It is almost kind of like me wanting to wrestle Brock Lesnar because I wrestled a little bit in high school. Edited by: Bear Backer
 

DixieDestroyer

Hall of Famer
Joined
Jan 19, 2007
Messages
9,464
Location
Dixieland
BB, good points. Even with his martial arts training and athletic ability, his age and lack of (recent) experience would likely yield him a major @$$-whoopin. However, 15-20 years ago, it may have been a different story.
 

Liverlips

Hall of Famer
Joined
Jun 3, 2007
Messages
4,197
Van Damme got his ass beat in a bar fight with Chuck Zito about 10 years ago or so. Of course, Zito is a tough s.o.b and could probably beat 99.999% of the guys in the world in a bar fight.

Besides, I think MMAhas poven that karate is not muchhelp in a real fight. Chuck didn't wait for Van Dame to do his katas
smiley1.gif
 
Top