Jean-Claude Van Damme spills tea over his feud with Steven Seagal while promoting his Old Oak whiskey brand

It is a beef within the action world that apparently shows no signs of being squashed; at least from the side of one action star. Jean-Claude Van Damme has been promoting the global launch of his co-owned whiskey brand, Old Oak, today including a trip to Belfast, but that didn’t stop some intrepid journalists asking about his relationship with other big ‘80s action heroes - including one Steven Seagal.

Seagal has on a number of occasions when asked about JCVD been less than complimentary towards the ‘Universal Soldier’ and ‘Kickboxer’ star, going as far as to at one point suggest if he could laugh when asked who would win in a fight between the two. In a particularly damning interview, Seagal questioned the legitimacy of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s championships he held with the Belgium Karate team in 1977 and 1979. When asked by Arsenio Hall about Van Damme’s achievements in the martial arts world, Seagal responded “I think that is a matter of opinion. That he was a champion. Anywhere.”

Van Damme, for his part, has been somewhat complimentary about his ‘nemesis,’ suggesting he would like to see Seagal lose weight in order to regain some of the mobility he had during the ‘Under Siege’ actor’s heyday. An honest response and one that throws some shade but has an underlying truth behind it.

Speaking to the MailOnline, Van Damme recalled at one point when he had enough of Seagal’s belittling, revealing that at one point during a party at Sylvester Stallone’s home in Miami in 1991 he actually challenged Seagal to step outside. This request was ultimately not taken up by Seagal. 

“If Steven doesn't like me, that's OK. If someone like Beethoven or Einstein didn’t like me, maybe that would concern me. But Seagal, I don’t mind him not liking me. I really don’t mind. I don’t think there’s any sort of problem,” he told the MailOnline.