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NOT WORTH A DAMME?; MAN CLAIMS JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME LIED ABOUT FIGHTING PEDIGREE.


Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

Jean-Claude Van Damme got his big break as a famed martial arts This is a list of martial arts, broken down by region and style. African martial arts
Eritrea
  • Testa
Nigeria
  • Dambe (Hausa Boxing)
South Africa
  • Nguni stick fighting
  • Rough and Tumble
Senegal
 expert playing Frank Dux Frank Dux is the founder of the amalgamated martial art Dux Ryu Ninjutsu, claiming to be the first American-born form of Ninjutsu. He is perhaps best known as the protagonist portrayed by Jean-Claude Van Damme in the biopic Bloodsport. , a real-life American ninja who won an ultimate fighting championship This article covers the organization itself. For the inaugural event which went by the same name, see UFC 1.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based mixed martial arts (MMA) organization, currently recognized as the largest MMA promotion in the world.
 in the days before pay-per-view battles.

Now 10 years later, Dux n. 1. (Mus.) The scholastic name for the theme or subject of a fugue, the answer being called the comes, or companion.  has gone for his former student's jugular jugular /jug·u·lar/ (jug´u-lar)
1. cervical.

2. pertaining to a jugular vein.

3. a jugular vein.


jug·u·lar
adj.
 by claiming the actor was a carpet installer when they met and is more a ballet dancer than a karate champion.

``Van Damme had lied to the public that he was a martial arts champion,'' according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 Dux's lawsuit.

It's statements like those that are expected to bring Van Damme's lawyers to court today, asking a judge to strike Dux's accusations that the actor invented his European karate titles, and throw out the entire complaint.

Attorney Martin Singer said any attack on Van Damme's credentials is untrue and was included in the lawsuit only to embarrass the actor.

``Those statements are absolutely false,'' said Singer. ``Of course, he hasn't lied to the public. There are records to document his martial arts acclaim.''

Van Damme's lawyer said the actor's ability is obvious in his movies.

``He's the one who does those splits on chairs,'' Singer said. ``He doesn't have a stuntman stunt·man  
n.
A man who substitutes for a performer in scenes requiring physical daring or involving physical risk.

stuntman nespecialista m

stuntman 
 to do that.''

Dux (pronounced ``duke'') claims he met Van Damme in 1986, when the actor was laying carpet in Los Angeles.

Dux contends that he trained Van Damme for ``Bloodsport,'' a video game-like film based on Dux's experience at the Kumite Kumite (組手) means sparring, and is one of the three main sections of karate training, along with kata and kihon. Kumite is the part of karate in which you train against an opponent, using the techniques learnt from the kihon and kata.  (rhymes with ``Zuma Bay''), an underground fighting championship in the Bahamas.

The names weren't changed for ``Bloodsport'' - Van Damme's character is called Frank Dux - but behind the scenes, the real Dux said the actor's abilities were as a ballet dancer, not a karate champion.

``I asked Jean-Claude to do a simple forward roll, and he landed on his head,'' Dux said. ``He knows that he had no business doing those kind of fight scenes.''

Dux isn't the first man to question Van Damme's karate pedigree.

Two years after ``Bloodsport'' came out, World Karate Association President Howard Hanson said he only knew of one Van Damme fight - an amateur bout in Europe. Jim Baker, a writer for Black Belt magazine, once called the actor ``a complete fraud.''

Van Damme was born in Belgium, moved to Los Angeles when he was 21 and later made Chatsworth his home. Dux had a dojo do·jo  
n. pl. do·jos
A school for training in Japanese arts of self-defense, such as judo and karate.



[Japanese d
 in Sherman Oaks that recently closed.

``Bloodsport'' was a cult hit in 1987, and Van Damme went on to act for action film director John Woo (``Hard Target''), play two roles in one film (``Double Impact'') and co-star in basketball player Dennis Rodman's debut (``Double Team'').

Dux claims he only got $15,000 for the rights to his life story, and last year's film ``The Quest'' was supposed to be the big payback.

In his Santa Monica Superior Court lawsuit, Dux claims Van Damme promised him $100,000 plus a percentage of the profits to co-author ``The Quest,'' which was released last year. Dux says he only received $50,000.

Dux's lawyer, Steven Kramer, asserts that Van Damme should pay punitive damages Monetary compensation awarded to an injured party that goes beyond that which is necessary to compensate the individual for losses and that is intended to punish the wrongdoer.  because he misrepresented his abilities as a fighter.

``Dux's role as a consultant was critical because Van Damme did not have the martial arts skills he boasted about,'' the lawsuit asserts. ``Van Damme had lied to the public that he was a martial arts champion.''

Van Damme's lawyers called the statements ``irrelevant and inflammatory.'' They filed a motion asking Superior Court Judge Robert Letteau to order Dux and his attorney to stop including the comments in court records.

Van Damme's manager referred comment to the actor's lawyers.

Press packets in Van Damme's early films list him as a European karate champion. The production information from ``The Quest'' says he's a master in ballet, martial arts and bodybuilding bodybuilding

Developing of the physique through exercise and diet, often for competitive exhibition. Bodybuilding aims at displaying pronounced muscle tone and exaggerated muscle mass and definition for overall aesthetic effect.
.

Dux says he knows better.

The 41-year-old ex-ninja claims he got a few thousand bucks when he won his Kumite title in 1975 - a primitive off-the-books version of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Dux said the actor never had what it takes to compete in top-level hand-to-hand combat.

``I really loved Jean-Claude,'' he said. ``I was there at the beginning when the guy was basically sleeping on a wood floor and trying to make his dreams a reality.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) Lyon, played by Belgian action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, takes a shot at Attila, actor Abdel Qissi, in the 1990 film ``Lionheart Lionheart can refer to:

People
  • "Richard the Lionheart", a name for Richard I of England..
  • "The Lionheart" was a nickname of former professional wrestler Chris Jericho
Music
  • Lionheart (band)
  • Lionheart (album)
.''

(2 -- color) Jean-Claude Van Damme
COPYRIGHT 1997 Daily News
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 1997, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Publication:Daily News (Los Angeles, CA)
Date:Sep 25, 1997
Words:743
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