Standardized Tournaments And Ratings System

Jean-Claude Van Damme

When future movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme auditioned for his debut theatrical role in No Retreat, No Surrender, I was the casting director who recommended him and who supervised his martial arts audition. It was my first Hollywood gig. The Hong Kong producer of Jackie Chan’s breakout comedy kung-fu hit Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow had sought me out precisely because I ran the STAR ratings, because I had been editor of Inside Kung-Fu magazine, and because I knew all the top fighters and their martial arts masters.

But I am not how we found Van Damme.

We did not spot Van Damme’s talent; Van Damme’s talent spotted us. In response to our Hollywood trade ad for black belt actors, he mailed in a photo of himself performing Chinese splits while suspended in mid-air with an ankle on each of two chairs. When he subsequently walked into our Raleigh Studios office for his preliminary audition, he instantly commanded everyone’s attention. His English at the time was just passable, but his energy was electric: sculpted physique, spectacular jump kicks, classic martial arts form, and an irrepressible determination.

Jean-Claude told me he patterned himself after Bruce Lee for the martial arts, after Arnold Schwarzenegger for the body building, and after John Wayne for the characters he wanted to bring to the screen. He envisioned exactly what he fancied from Hollywood on that very first day and, against incredible odds, succeeded larger-than-life beyond anyone’s expectations for an actor in a low-budget genre picture. Single-mindedly, he built an extraordinary movie career in an undeniably difficult industry.

He deserves full credit for that achievement.

The following analysis of Jean-Claude’s days as an amateur martial arts competitor is not intended as a slam against Van Damme but, rather, a denunciation of the Hollywood hype machine. For years, publicists have portrayed him as a living embodiment of his characters from Bloodsport and Kickboxer because they thought it would reinforce the marketing for his movies. Regretfully, following the theatrical release of No Retreat, No Surrender in May 1986, nothing written about Van Damme as a kickboxer can be accepted on its face without credible firsthand source substantiation. To paraphrase Bruce Lee, when it comes to Hollywood hype, believe half of what you see and none of what you read.

In 1984, STAR discussed Jean-Claude Van Varenberg with Mike Anderson (misreferenced in the above Wikipedia excerpt as “Mike Anders”). Anderson founded both the Professional Karate Association (PKA) and Professional Karate magazine, and he promoted the 1979 WAKO world championships at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Florida. He remembered Jean-Claude as a flashy member of the Belgian semi-contact kickboxing team. For those not familiar with WAKO, “semi-contact kickboxing” is the same as point karate, called semi-contact karate in America. In Europe, for reasons of legal branding, WAKO lumped point karate together with full-contact kickboxing. WAKO wanted to become the Olympic governing body for amateur martial arts. Then as now, branding was part of their process.

Of course, WAKO’s conflated terminology can mislead novice researchers, worshiping fans and Hollywood publicists who desperately want to reconstruct this celebrity martial artist’s difficult-to-substantiate amateur record. And their confusing information remains ever muddled with the Wikipedia approach.

In 1984, STAR further asked prospective WKA Middleweight World Champion Fred “The Gladiator” Royers in Holland to check Van Varenberg’s history with the Nederlandse Kick Boxing Bond (cited in Wikipedia’s record for Van Damme as the “Netherlands Kickboxing Federation”). Royers reported back that Van Varenberg had no full-contact fights with the NKBB; they did not keep records for amateurs. Royers provided a few of the press clippings contained in our Van Damme competitive history. We also checked with Jeronimo Canabate, founder and president of the European Professional Karate Association (EPKA), in Geneva and with PKA President Don Quine in Beverly Hills. Neither remembered Van Varenberg.

                Van Varenberg v Teugels

Wikipedia’s Karate and Kickboxing Record

WIKIPEDIA chart - Retrieved 18 May 2011