Description

French karate and kickboxing pioneer, a dominant figure in European karate from the late 1960s, known as the French karate king and Europe's counterpart to Joe Lewis. He trained under Henry Plée and was a professional kickboxing champion. Jean-Claude Van Damme briefly studied kickboxing with him in Paris in the late 1970s.

Teachers (1)

• person
  Henry Plée

  sports_martial_artsShotokan Probable

  Probable

  French Wikipedia and Wikidata record Valera as a student of Henry Plée

  The evidence favours the claim and nothing credible contradicts it, but it falls short of establishing it.

  fact_checkassessed by FSMverified

  Frederico Muñoz

  Researcher, Martialis

  2 sources expand_more

  fact_check

  French Wikipedia and Wikidata record Valera as a student of Henry Plée

  “Maître Henry Plée”

  — Dominique Valera - Wikipédia (français). Wikipedia (French)link history info

  “student of Henry Plée”

  — Wikidata entry for Dominique Valera, student of (P1066) Henry Plée (Q1335481)link

Students (1)

• 
  Jean-Claude Van Damme

  (1977–1980)

  fact_checkassessed by FSMverified

  Frederico Muñoz

  Researcher, Martialis

  2 sources expand_more

  fact_check

  Van Damme confirms training with Valera in the 1988 Fighter interview, and later sources corroborate brief full-contact work with Valera in the late 1970s

  “Fighter: Didn't you also train with France's Dominique Valera, Europe's counterpart to America's Joe Lewis? Van Damme: Yes, I trained with him for a few weeks.”

  — Corcoran, John. (1988). Jean-Claude Van Damme Interview (Fighter International, November 1988) link history info

  “At the age of 12, Van Damme joined the Centre National de Karaté (National Center of Karate) under the guidance of Claude Goetz in Belgium. Van Damme trained for four years and he earned a spot on the Belgian Karate Team; he later trained in full-contact karate and kickboxing with Dominique Valera.”

  — Jean-Claude Van Damme - Wikipedia (English). Wikipedia (English)link history info

Sources

Identifiers