there is no standard , and no league of professional artirts
so ure answer is susceptible to interpretation
Depends on what you call real. When he first became famous I asked my instructor at the time about him. My instructor knows a lot of heavy hitters in the martial arts community. no one had ever heard of Van Damme before. After looking into him I was told that he was claiming that he held several championship titles with different organizations.But, when that was investigated one organization did not seem to exist. One that was contacted said they did not know who Van Damme was. Van Damme obviously lied about his past accomplishments. He was a dancer. That much is true. For several years he had a feud with Steven Seagall. Steven Seagall may be someone that is not well liked due to some things he has done, But he is the real deal. Roy Suenaka / Soke, is well known in Japan as a very good Aikido master. He now lives in Charleston, South Carolina. In the 1980's my instructor asked Suenaka about Seagall, Suenaka knew Seagal when Seagal was training in Japan. Suenaka Soke said that even when Seagal was not a black belt he was very good. Now that said I'll correct another myth surrounding Seagal. Often I ghear that Seagal was the first westerner to open his own Dojo in Japan. That is not true. Seagal was the first westerner to open an Aikido dojo there. But an American named Albert C. Church opened a dojo in Japan in the 1960's. I know this to be true since i have a picture of the class. Church was a friend and student of Shogo Kuniba. They both were seen in Churches dojo at times.
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Van damme was as far as I found out a second degree in Shotokan. Interesting part is he claimed to be some champion in various circuits but I have yet to find a video of any fight other then the movies.
So were are the videos if he was this supposed champion.
Van Damme was a French Savat fighter, or so it has been said. That would make sense based on the kick based style he seems to use and the kicks he prefers. He was picked to be an actor because they considered him to be "camera friendly", but he had to be taught how to use his hands for striking because Savat is pure kicks, arms are only used for blocking.
He is a ballerina. He is a martial artist. He is a action actor.
yes, he is
