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 Thanks for that link.  I think it's great to be a Van Damme fan.  He's done a lot for the martial arts through his films, and that's a worthy accomplishment.

 This is the only competitive footage I've ever seen for Vanvarenberg.  I hope you noticed that it was point-fighting competition.  

  The reason Van Damme has many detractors is because he likes to claim that he won a world kickboxing title.  It began as part the PR campaign for ""Bloodsport"" and ""Kickboxer"", and he's just never dropped it.  So the genuine world kickboxing champions have good reason to call him on it.  I can tell you the Joe Lewis, whon we regard as the father of modern kickboxing, along with Bill Wallace and Don Wilson all condemn Van Damme for this bogus claim.  If Van Damme just told the truth, they'd show him due respect for his film accomplishments as well as for his amateur point-fighting achievements.  As for his sport record, Jean-Claude was a very legitimate point-fighter.  He fought on the WAKO semi-contact Belgian team that won the team championship that year.  I'm guessing this video comes from one of his 1979 team championship bouts in Florida.  The referee looks very much like promoter Mike Anderson.  So Van Damme was no slouch as a point-fighter.  But it was point-fighting, not kickboxing.

 The Teugels match was conducted inside a kickboxing ring, but the rules were clearly semi-contact.  In that era, putting semi-contact bouts inside a kickboxing ring for the preliminary undercard was not that unusual.  Promoters would fill out a pro card with a few amateur kickboxing and/or semi-contact matches either because they could not afford a total pro card or because there weren't enough qualified competitors available in the area.  I remember when PKA world champion Jean-Yves Theriault's promoter Real Masse was finally able to offer an all pro fight card:  It became a featured story in the martial arts magazines because he was the first promoter to do it on a regular basis.  In the Teugels bout, Teugels injured himself and quit.  Officially, that's a forfeit due to injury.  My understanding is that Vanvarenberg and Teugels fought each other on several occasions.  But Teugels was the WAKO semi-contact vice-champion at the time of this match and, on the European tournament circuit, that meant something.

  I doubt the Lenny Leickman match was full-contact kickboxing.  Those same gloves were also sometimes used in Europe for semi-contact competition.  I suspect the authentic outcome of this match was not a knockout (clearly they are not fighting inside a padded ring) but, rather, either a forfeit due to injury or a foul disqualification.

  Sherman Bergman was not a pro, and was not ranked as a STAR designated contender until many years after his 1979 encounter with Vanvarenberg.

  I cannot comment further on Michael J. Heming.  STAR did not follow his career.  However, I have emailed Gary Daniels about him.  I'll post his response here if he gets back to me.  Also, I'll send your video link of Vanvarenberg's tournament footage to Mike Anderson for his verification that it came from the 1979 WAKO team championships.

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