Chuck Norris Vs. Jean Claude Van Damme: Who Would Win?
This is a fight every kid who grew up in the '80s or '90s wanted to see at some point. Two martial artists, two action stars: Jean Claude Van Damme vs. Chuck Norris. The highlight of the night. The main event. Of course, this fight is purely hypothetical since Van Damme isn't in his prime anymore and Chuck Norris has never left his.
In this corner, we have a 5'10" action hero from Brussels, Belgium, weighing in at just around 75 acting credits listed on IMDB and one awkward acting style. He's won the Kumite in Bloodsport, outwitted his hunters in Hard Target, traveled through time in Time Cop, and is a veteran of the underground fight scene in the movie Lionheart. Welcome to the ring, ladies and gentlemen, Jean Claude Van Damme!
Aaaaand, in this corner, we have his opponent. This fighter from the United States who once battled Bruce Lee in The Way of the Dragon. The long-time champion of jokes that got old a long time ago, thought to have died in several hoaxes, the hero of Texas, with a string of film and TV appearances on his IMDB page, Chuck "The Texas Ranger" Norris!
Van Damme would win, right?
Neither Norris nor Van Damme is a mere action star. Both have real-life fight experience under their belts.
Sure, Van Damme can do the splits like it's nobody's business. But how likely is he to win a fight against Norris? Well, the Belgian is a blackbelt in karate. That might not sound too impressive, but before he moved to the United States, he competed in full-contact competitions from the age 12 until he left Belgium at 18 years old. His former karate coach, Claude Goetz, a seasoned and world-renowned karate instructor, says in an interview posted on YouTube that Van Damme could've been a champion.
Van Damme is known to take his training seriously, which is required in order to become a human rubber band like him. When he started training in martial arts, his father built him a gym in the attic where Van Damme would train for four hours every day, according to Fighting Arts. As reported by Karate City, he still takes his training very seriously. Van Damme's IMDB profile lists his fighting record as 18-1, with 18 knockouts in kickboxing, and 41-4 for semi-contact karate, which is nothing to scoff at.
How could Chuck Norris possibly win, then?
Chuck Norris has his own impressive fight record. Liveabout puts Norris's overall karate record at 183-10-2, with 30 tournament wins. Norris was a middle-weight karate champ for six years straight. He holds a black belt in Tan Soo Do and, being the first person in the western hemisphere to ever do so, holds an 8th-degree black belt in Tae Kwon do. After losing a fight to Rickson Gracie, Norris went on to train in Brazilian Jujitsu, eventually earning a 3rd-degree black belt in the art. He's created his own martial arts style, Chuk Kuk Do, and as Entertainment Weekly reported in 2008, started his own full-contact fighting league, the World Combat League.
Unlike Van Damme, Norris didn't stop competing at a young age, which give him yet another edge. When we view the two competitors' records side-by-side and take into account the different martial arts tools in each of our fighter's belts, Chuck Norris takes the win.