For those unaware, Hollywood Hearthrob Jean Claude Van Damme has decided to come back to professional fighting. Now, Van Damme may be an actor, but the majority of his movies show of his fighting flexibility and prowess e.g. splits on the ropes and jump spinning kicks! They include: Kickboxer,AWOL (aka Lionheart), Street Fighter, No Retreat; No Surrender (aka Karate Tiger) and,the best (ioo) Bloodsport!
Van Damme may have been a ballerino (the masculine pronounciation?) and specialised in katas and forms,but he knows the following martial arts: Shotokan karate (an all-round style with straight techniques), muay thai (powerful leg kicks and knees and elbows),tae kwon do (spinning kicks anyone?) and of course, what he's best known for, western kickboxing (imagine combinining boxing's punches and blocking with karate kicks and blocks).
Van Damme has been doing pointfightng karate since has was 12 and was on the Belgian team.At the age of 16, he won his first karate fight by KO! By 1977, he transitioned into full-contact kickboxing and won his first title with three KOs in one evening!
As of 1981, Van Damme's record is 20-2-0.
His opponent is Somluck Kamsing, a Muay Thai practitioners who was a gold medallist boxer in 1996.
Time is on neither man's side; Van Damme is 51 this year and Kamsing is 38. Not to mention, Van Damme was alleged to have suffered a heart attack before Christmas AND (certainly not on his side), Van Damme has expertise in only Western Kickboxing:- Japanese;Dutch and Thai rules allow the use of low kicks and knee strikes-both are disallowed in kickboxing competitions regulated by WAKO,WKA and ISKA (unless stated) and K-1 (which allows them) will be hosting organisation!!!
If Van Damme loses, people will laugh at his almost unachievable goal of becoming a K-1 champion at 50. If Kamsing loses, he will be thought of as a has-been.
The fight is scheduled (according to Van Damme's facebook page) on April 1st in Las Vegas. Stay tuned!
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