Tough choice. Who’s cooler: Chuck Norris or Jean-Claude Van Damme?

“Universal Soldier” or “Cool Walker”, “Double Impact” or “Delta Squad”. These guys were the heroes of the 80s and 90s, even in Russia any child knew them and tried to imitate them. Every yard had its own “Van Damme” and its own “Chuck Norris”. They are legends who are still popular today. But it’s time to find out who is cooler: the American Ranger or the Belgian bodybuilder?

The reality of names

Cool guys are bound to have names to match. You might be surprised, but Van Damme and Chuck aren’t real. Norris is actually named Carlos Ray, and Jean-Claude Van Damme is Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg. The score is 1:1.

Sports successes

Chuck Norris as a child dreamed of becoming a policeman, so immediately after school he joined the U.S. Air Force and was sent to South Korea. However, the service quickly bored him, and he fell into sports. Yes, so that he later became world champion in karate in the heavyweight and the owner of a black belt in judo.

Van Damme already at the age of 16 entered the Belgian national karate team, in which he became European champion and black belt. After that he added the European middleweight kickboxing title among professionals. Here again the draw is 2:2.

Correlation

After winning the European championships, Van Damme had money, and he opened a club in Brussels, which he called “California”. There taught different types of martial arts, and the head coach was Jean-Claude himself. But he wanted more – popularity, in search of which he went to Hollywood.

The first job in Hollywood Van Damme gave … Chuck Norris! Jean-Claude showed him impressive skills and techniques, and he offered him a bouncer in his club. So the institution Norris became essentially home to Van Damme, and so began his great career in the movie. It turns out that Jean-Claude would not have become a star if not for Chuck. Clearly the score is 3:2 in Norris’ favor.

A career in movies

It is often the case that the student surpasses the teacher. Van Damme moved much faster on the career ladder of Hollywood and got cool roles in successful action movies: “Double Impact”, “Universal Soldier”, “Bloodsport”. He starred in an episode of the cult TV series Friends and stayed on the radar even as the action movie genre was losing popularity.

Of course, in no way can it be said that Norris’ movie career turned out to be a failure. If it was, I would not be writing this text now. The series “Cool Walker: Texas Ranger” really became legendary. After it, many children and teenagers dreamed of being like the daring guy in cowboy boots. But in general, other works turned out to be less successful than Jean-Claude’s. Score to the Belgian, 3:3.

Controversy

In 2009, Chuck Norris suddenly declared on a radio program that Texas should become an independent state within a state. He was convinced that the U.S. government had failed after the 2008 mortgage crisis, and Texas could have avoided that by claiming self-determination. And Chuck considered himself the ideal presidential candidate for the new state.

Norris was also one of the first prominent people to come out strongly against allowing same-sex marriages to be registered, which of course caused a very mixed reaction in the US. Jean-Claude has no such controversial facts in his biography. Not to consider his friendship with Vladimir Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov as such. Here Van Damme is clearly on the plus side – 3:4.

Brutality

But on the level of brutality c Chuck no one can not stand even close. Cool ranger with a beard and a fancy hat – this is for the ages. And the image has not changed throughout the career of the American. On the screen heroes Norris – real examples of courage, so 4:4.

Love of women

But the attention of the beautiful half of humanity more attracted Jean-Claude. Belgian broke many women’s hearts. Three years in a row MTV Movie Awards recognized him as “The most desirable man in the world”. Agree, there are no options here – 4:5.

Legacy

The last category that will decide everything in our confrontation. Van Damme is certainly loved and adored to this day, but Chuck Norris went further and became one of the most popular memes in the history of the internet. People were so inspired by Norris’ awesomeness that they started a crazy flash mob. Here are a few examples of what web users think Chuck is capable of.

• If you see Chuck Norris, he sees you. If you don’t see Chuck Norris, you may only have a few seconds to live.
• Chuck Norris doesn’t go hunting because the word “hunt” implies the possibility of failure. Chuck Norris goes out to kill.
• Chuck Norris is the only man who has ever beaten a wall at tennis.

And at the very end, Chuck Norris is tied 5-5. We have a fighting draw. Who do you guys think is the cooler of the two?