Jason David Frank has given people one more reason not to challenge him to a fight, though he could challenge Chuck Norris if he wanted to.
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That’s because Frank was promoted to 8th-degree Black Belt on Saturday, a level that took him 40 years to achieve. While Black Belt is the highest belt you can achieve in martial arts, there are higher degrees of Black Belt for those who want something else to shoot for. This group includes people like Chuck Norris, who holds an 8th degree Black Belt in Taekwondo, and now Frank is right alongside him.
The ceremony took place at Rising Sun Karate Academy, where Frank was awarded a new belt as well as a new martial artist title. The title is Hanshi Frank, which translates to example or model (Han) and samurai or warrior (Shi).
Frank shared a video of the ceremony and made sure to thank all the masters who signed his certificate.
“Thank you to all the masters for signing my 8th degree Dan certificate: Prof. Hanshi Jeung H Kim (10th Dan), Hanshi Carroll E. Pegeron (9th Dan), Grand Master Art W. Beins (10th Dan), Shi Han Al Smith (10th Dan), Shi Han Alick Smith (9th Dan), Shi Han Fred Henry (10th Dan), and Shi Han Rick Herbster (10th Dan), the RSKA Texas staff, all the black belt students and all in attendance,” Frank said.
Other high degree Black Belts include Willie Nelson (5th degree Gong Kwon Yu Sul), Donnie Yen (6th degree in Taekwondo), James Caan (6th-degree Gosoku Ryu Karate), and Vladimir Putin (9th degree in Taekwondo).
As for Frank, he recently made the news thanks to an altercation with Jean Claude Van Damme at a recent convention. Frank describes being pulled in for a picture with Van Damme’s crew only to be challenged by Van Damme over old issues.
“I clinched him up and pushed him back, not in a violent way, in a respectful way that if you want to do this, let’s do this,” Frank said. “The whole time everybody is filming me and no security people are coming but everybody in his entourage is filming. So I clinched up with him and put him against the wall and he’s talking and he froze up and I raised my knee and said ‘do you want to this?’ and he doesn’t do anything so I let go.”
Frank says it seemed that Van Damme wanted to catch it all on camera, but it didn’t exactly go Van Damme’s way.
“Security came and broke it up and that’s when he starts saying ‘f*** you’ and I told him come on. Why don’t you come in the cage or the ring? Why are you doing this at Comic Con?” Frank said. “And then his security is trying to get my phone to take away the footage.”
It doesn’t seem like Van Damme will be challenging him again anytime soon.
(H/T The Blast)
