Steven Seagal vs. Michael Jai White – Explaining the beef

Back in 2001, Aikido black belt Steven Seagal starred alongside Michael Jai White in the hit movie Exit Wounds which also featured DMX. As you’d expect, this was a gritty crime-based movie that showed off various martial arts techniques and moves in the process. However, years later – it seemed pretty evident that a rift had occurred. This is because Steven Seagal spoke badly about Jai White in an interview and literally laughed at his martial arts skills.

In the video below, Seagal was asked about which actors he’d want to fight alongside in a street fight and could not find a fighter to answer the question with. He replied by saying “When you say tough guy do you mean martial artist or just tough guy?” He was then asked if Michael Jai White would be someone he’d view in that category. To this, Seagal smiled with a confused look on his face. His final response to the subject was “Can I laugh in your face?” Clearly, Seagal didn’t rate Michael Jai White’s fighting skills.

Around the same time, Jai White was also interviewed by the same interviewer and said this about Seagal – “I worked with Steven years earlier and he did soup commercials in Japan. I was a big fan of the first movies he’d done. He’s an entertainer, I can understand – he’s selling a product. You can’t call him a deep martial artist. There are too many martial artists who I really honor and respect who really live that life of budo. I couldn’t put him in that category.” He would then go on to question the legitimacy of Seagal’s claims about teaching Anderson Silva the front kick.

Interestingly, since then it seems that their feud has ended. In 2016, years later – the pair teamed up yet again. This time, they acted together in the movie Asian Connection. Over the years, Seagal has feuded with multiple celebrity martial artists including Gene LeBell and Jean Claude Van Damme.

Speaking objectively, it seems as though Jai White is a genuinely, serious martial artist who has a lot of high level guys vouch for his technique and skills. Having said this, the same cannot be said for Seagal who has reached meme status in recent years and is often viewed as a laughing stock by many people.