re: Bloodsport ReDux (2022) with Van Damme, Bolo Yeung & Forest Whitaker

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I mean when you're a kid you might be swayed...ehhh...maybe, after watching all those Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris movies where everyone acted like Bruce Lee was a real fighter in life and tournaments (Chuck Norris was in tournaments) but Karate tournaments were sort of faux fighting...you couldn't do real UFC damage, against the rules.

So what does Frank Dux claim? What's the story?

UFC was named after him.
“The first thing is, it was called the Ultimate Fight Challenge." “I was known by Victor Moore as the Ultimate Fighter or the Ultimate Fight Champion. Nobody could beat me – I retired undefeated. I mean truly undefeated.” "They’re going to call it, to honor me the Ultimate Fight Challenge."

He went 329-0 in his "fighting" career (don't know if this includes bar fights)

Frank Dux's story was a fable printed in Black Belt Magazine in 1980 (a magazine which printed anything to sell copies, it made Penthouse Letters seem legit.)

Black Belt magazine in 1980 said that the Kumite (secret fighting tournament) was held once every five years...then the movie says...“From 1975 to 1980 Frank W. Dux fought 329 matches. He retired undefeated as the World Heavy Weight Full Contact Kumite Champion.” So in TWO Kumites he fought 329 matches? Man, the movie only gave us 4 or 5.

The entire movie is based on one article in Black Belt Magazine...which themselves said "we can't verify the veracity of these claims due to the secrecy of the tournament."
“Military records show that Dux never ventured closer to Southeast Asia than San Diego. His only known war injury occurred when he fell off a truck he was painting in the motor pool.” John Johnson in the LA Times, May 01, 1988.

The organization that staged the Kumite apparently had the same address of Frank Dux.

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I still loved the movie, but yeah.

Bloodsport almost came out too late.

But it was made capitalizing on the Martial Arts fad in the 1980's.

And I'm not just talking about Karate Kid, it was Kung-Fu this, Kung-Fu that...secrets of Shaolin Monks and then...Ninja fever. And it was in all those magazines, Black Belt, Inside Kung-Fu and it was about as real as Saturday afternoon dubbed Chinese Kung-Fu movies. And as the real UFC proved, none of that shite works. Once your arse is taken to the ground by a wrestler, sayonara.

Dux capitalized and Hollywood didn't give a shite who he was...they wrote a script...and just make it like any Bruce Lee/Chuck Norris flick.

No one would've cared or investigated Dux if he hadn't insisted on the end credits with those stupid world records. I mean we all know Seagal is full of shite but at least he has some martial arts credentials. (And according to Rob Schneider, the Dali Lama "in his wisdom" made Seagal a Diety.)

Dux is a fraud but Hollywood either didn't care or believed him. Either way we got a great fighting movie out of it. But it's faker than fake.

Jackson