RE: KICKBOXER REMAKE STARING GSP!
chub > 14/05/2014, 19:40
In 1978, at the age of 18, Jean-Claude made his full-contact karate debut under his birth name, Jean Claude Van Varenberg, with an 18 second knockout over Germany's Eric "Basel" Strauss at a tournament in Antwerp, Belgium. A few months later at Iseghem, Belgium, Van Damme knocked out Emile Leibman in the first round. After fighting on the under-card of the main event between France's Dominique Valera and the U.S.A.'s Dan Macaruso in Brussels, Belgium, in which he knocked out a fighter named Verlugels in 2 rounds,
Van Damme started to catch the attention of the Martial Arts World. According to Mike Anders, founder of Professional Karate Magazine, and multiple European Champion Geet Lemmens, Van Damme was definitely an upcoming prospect. In 1979, the nineteen year old Jean-Claude (fighting under his birth name of Van Varenberg) wins the European Full-Contact Championship in the middleweight division. A series of quick knockouts over Andre Robaeys, Jacques Piniarski, and Rolf Risberg, prepare Jean-Claude for the up-coming world championships. Traveling to Florida in the United States, Jean-Claude sets his sights on winning the World Full-Contact Middleweight Title. In his first tournament match, Van Damme scores a knockout over Miami, Florida's Sherman (Big Train) Bergman in the first round of a scheduled 3 rounder in the 160 pound division. However, in his next match, Jean-Claude is defeated by a Belgium fighter named Patrick Teugels. Teugels goes on to become Vice-Champion of the World. In a rematch a few months later, Van Damme revenges his defeat by beating Teugels in less then two minutes.
Following the victory, Jean-Claude retired from active competition. Though some sources list Jean Claude Van Damme's full-contact fight record as 12-1 (12 knockouts), it seems more likely his record was 9-1 (9 knockouts). The sport of Full-Contact Karate later became known as Kickboxing. Controversy arose after Jean-Claude's film career took off because none of his fights were found. The basic fact seems to be that his entire full-contact career was fought under his birth name of Van Varenberg, thus there are no fights listed for a Jean Claude Van Damme."
the reason his record is sketchy is because they didn't really keep records of the fighters in those days because the sport was still in its infancy