Sylvester Stallone recounted in an interview a tense moment between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal at a party at the house of the protagonist of Rocky.
The actors nearly bumped into each other during a celebration at the interpreter's mansion in Miami in 1997. According to Stallone, Bruce Willis, Madonna, and Arnold Schwarzenegger were present at the party, among other celebrities.
Stallone recounted that it was Van Damme who invited Seagal to fight in the garden: "He went completely crazy," he said. "Van Damme got tired of Seagal going around saying that he could kick his ass, so he went straight for him and encouraged him to go outside and beat him up," Stallone said.
Ultimately they did not come to blows, as Seagal left the party to avoid facing the Belgian. “Van Damme was too strong and Seagal had nothing to do with him. That's my opinion," Stallone replied, on who would have won the match.
However, the situation did not end there. According to what Stallone recounted, Van Damme was so angry that he followed him to the nightclub to fight. Fortunately, Steven managed to avoid it again and that was the end of the whole thing.
Van Damme practices various martial arts, including karate (2nd dan black belt), full contact, and kickboxing. Due to his place of origin and his musculature, he is nicknamed “The Muscles from Brussels” by the media and the audience.
For his part, Seagal obtained the degree of master black belt, seventh dan in the traditional Japanese martial art of aikido, and he was also the first Westerner to direct his own school of said specialty in Japan itself; the Tenshin Dojo, which is now run by his ex-wife, also an Aikido teacher, Miyako Fujitani.
