Garbrandt vs Van Damme?

Cody “No Love” Garbrandt is the recently deposed UFC Bantamweight king. After his loss to TJ Dillashaw at UFC 217 in November, Cody left with his pregnant wife for her parents’ home country of Thailand. There he has been training, touring, and enjoying life with members of AKA Thailand. The gym’s founder and head coach, former UFC fighter Mike Swick, recently started a podcast, and he brought Cody on the 14th episode to discuss MMA, life, and an encounter with Jean Claude Van Damme.

The Belgian actor and martial artist went to Cody’s home gym Team Alpha Male in Sacramento and was excited to show the then-champ some of his world famous kicks. But as Cody tells it, he might have been a little too excited.

“He started throwing kicks on Chris [Holdsworth] and threw this f—king fast kick, like he came up and… I was like ‘Damn, he threw that at Chris’ head. Fast, without any warning.’ He saw that then he started messing with him, toe-stabbing him. He toe-stabbed Chris like two or three times where Chris was like, in pain and I’m shaking my head.”

Footage of this taken from Holdsworth’s social media has been posted around. But next, JCVD asked to work toe-to-toe with Cody.

“Finally he was like ‘I want to show you this kick.’ It was kind of a variation on the teep and you twist it at the end. So I do it like three or four times on him. I put it down and then got in this fight stance and I saw in his eyes like ‘You wanna go?’ And I was back against the cage. So he started playing with me, acting like he was going to throw some kicks, and he started throwing hands like slapping at me.

“I was like ‘What the hell?’ Then he fucking kicked me with that hook kick right in the teeth and I was like ‘motherfucker.’ I was pissed, I was so mad…I was like ‘I’m going to rip his head off, but it’s Jean-Claude what are you supposed to do?’ All of a sudden he looks at me, drops to his knees and starts crying and is like “My champion!” and starts crying like that, so I felt hella awkward. Hands on my hips, I’m mad, my lip is all busted open and I got that hot sweat…It was fucked up.”

Curiously, this seems to be a bit of an idiosyncrasy. Cody also mentioned how in a movie with Mike Tyson, JCVD ‘accidentally’ hit the former heavyweight champion with a kick, and Mike threatened to beat him up.

Mike Swick also mentioned that he had heard of some stuntmen complaining about JCVD taking it to them a little bit harder than necessary. Cody bought it without a doubt:

“He’s fucking people up on set, guaranteed.”

JCVD may have some quirks, but at least he has real skills, unlike many action stars.

“I’m not going to lie, he has some fast ass kicks,” said Cody.

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