Jean-Claude Van Damme definitely has some nice kicks as Cody Garbrandt learned in sparring.
Last month, an altercation between former UFC Bantamweight champion and movie star and martial arts icon Jean-Claude Van Damme ran rampant over the internet. The short story is: Van Damme was at Cody’s gym at Team Alpha Male. He began demonstrating kicks, and used Cody as a target. While throwing kicks on Cody fighter one actually landed to the face. Jury’s still out on whether or not it was intentional.
This week, a video of the event surfaced, and TMZ got ahold of Team Alpha Male captain and founder Uriah Faber, to recall exactly what happened between Cody and JCVD. Apparently the real issue was not Cody’s reaction, but Van Damme’s.
“The guy that took it the hardest was Jean-Claude,” Faber said. “He was pretty upset that he kicked a guy that he loved so much because he’s good buddies with Cody. Cody was just coming off of this hard loss (to T.J. Dillashaw) as well.”
“(Jean-Claude) was so pissed at himself, that he dropped down and got really emotional,” Faber added. “We had to console him. Cody left the Octagon, and I was trying to tell Jean-Claude ‘Hey, it’s OK, this kind of stuff happens all the time’. And he was like ‘Oh, what have I done?’ and this and that.”
Faber addressed the event with his signature levity, saying that between trying to calm down Cody and console the contrite Jean-Claude Van Damme, his next few minutes in the gym were nothing but comical. Meanwhile the MMA fanbase has been busy making memes and forum posts about the incident, pretty much guaranteeing that we will see the two together in public again.
“Oh he was big-time upset,” Faber said. “Because he could tell that Cody was pissed, and he’s a big supporter of our team. He came out there to specifically show us some stuff.”
The TMZ reporter asked who would win in a fight between the two, and Faber replied that he would put money on his teammate the former champion. While Jean-Claude Van Damme does have some sharp kicking, it is difficult to imagine him having a chance against an elite competitive fighter with such a specific skill set. You can check out the video below for the full visuals.
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