by Bill Wallace – May 6th, 2011
Bill “Superfoot” Wallace on Chuck Norris, Dolph Lundgren, Bob Wall and Jean-Claude Van Damme
It was 1 o’clock, and I was sitting at Jun Chong’s taekwondo school in Los Angeles getting ready to work out. In walked Dolph Lundgren, 6 feet 5 inches tall and built like a brick [outhouse].
He said, “You’re Bill Wallace, right?”
I said, “Yeah, and you’re Dolph Lundgren.”
I stood up and shook his hand. He asked if I trained there a lot, and when I said yeah, he said, “Wow, I’d love to work out with you sometime.” I said, “See you here tomorrow.”
The next day, Dolph Lundgren walked in at 1 o’clock. We stretched before working out a bit, then he told me he was the Swedish kyokushinkai champion and asked if I wanted to spar. I said, “Well, you’re 6 feet 5 inches, and I’m 5 feet 10 inches … yeah, I don’t care, let’s spar.”
So we were moving around, and I nailed him with a side kick to the ribs, and down he went. I said, “Jeez, are you OK?”
He said, “Yeah, this is not quite like the movies, is it?”
I really respected him for that.
Dolph Lundgren got up, and I kicked him a couple of times in the head. He hit me a few times, too, but his hand work needed some help. We’d get in close, and I’d nail him with left hooks to the head. You’d figure he’d be better trained with his fists after making a few boxing movies, but that’s all they are: movies. It’s all set up. Dolph Lundgren was a good kickboxer, though, and he made hard contact. We trained like that for a couple of weeks. I always took him to Fatburger afterward.
Then, as you might expect, Dolph Lundgren had to go work on a film, so we stopped training together. I saw him in 1988 when I was in Sweden doing a series of seminars and he was getting married. We gave each other a big hug, and he invited me to his wedding. That’s the last time I saw him.
Dolph Lundgren is a good guy and a good fighter. I can honestly say he’s the most athletic of the famous people that I’ve trained. He was able to do everything.
