Trivia / Bloodsport

• Cast the Expert: Paulo Tocha, who plays the Muay Thai fighter Paco, is actually a real life Muay Thai champion.
• California Doubling: The entire film was shot in Hong Kong, even the scenes set in Southern California.
• Completely Different Title: The film was called Contacto sangriento ("Bloody Contact") in both Latin America and Spain. In Brazil, it is named O Grande Dragão Branco ("The Great White Dragon"); ironically, the title's literal translation to Portuguese, "Esporte Sangrento", was used years later for Only the Strong, of which the literal translation would be "Somente os Fortes".
• Dyeing for Your Art: The real Frank Dux was the fighting coordinator for this film. When Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast, Dux announced that Van Damme wasn't nearly in good enough shape, and put him through a three-month training program. Van Damme called those three months "the hardest training of his life" - this despite being a world-championship martial artist in his own right.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Senzo Tanaka and his wife are both played by Chinese actors.
  • Chong Li (South Korean) is played by Bolo Yeung (Hong Konger).
  • Saudi fighter Sadiq is played by the very clearly not-Arab Hong Kong (of Filipino extraction) actor Bernard Mariano.
• What Could Have Been: Mortal Kombat was originally going to be a game based on this movie. Johnny Cage's look from MK1 was a clear homage to Van Damme's fight attire from this movie. Johnny's signature Groin Attack is also based on the same attack by Van Damme in this movie. Van Damme was even going to play Johnny Cage, but chose another video game movie instead...

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