Recently promoted BJJ purple belt Ashton Kutcher has recently been in a lot of BJJ media. A student of coral belt Rigan Machado, Kutcher has been talking about his passion for BJJ in various mass media. Not much is know as to how Kutcher actually discovered Jiu-Jitsu. He wrestled all throughout his childhood but he only started officially training under coral belt Rigan Machado in California about two years ago. While on trips abroad he has trained namely at Ricardo De La Riva’s in Rio de Janeiro and Roger Gracie academy in London. After daily private lessons for a year, he was promoted to BJJ blue belt (2 stripes) under Rigan Machado in February 2014 and recently to purple belt.
The speed of the promotion was vastly criticized by the BJJ community.
Rigan Machado recently answered the critics in a statement for TMZ Sports. He says that Ashton Kutcher is a legit BJJ player and learns fast thanks to his wrestling background. He also invited him to compete at the first competition of the Jiu-Jitsu world league on January 15th.
In an interesting article in Men’s Fitness, Kutcher reveals how he discovered Jiu-Jitsu and he talks about what attracts him to the sport:
“Kutcher, 36, first discovered jiu-jitsu while shooting an ad campaign for the fashion brand Colcci in São Paulo, Brazil, a few years ago, when one of his local security guys suggested it as an alternative to the actor’s morning run. Kutcher was a pretty good high school wrestler growing up in Homestead, IA, and he figured his grappling skills were decent enough that he could hold his own. “So I said, ‘What the hell—I’ll do it.’ And I just got my ass handed to me, over and over,” he says. From that moment, he was hooked. “If I go and spar with a guy and I fail, I’ll come back and double down on how I train. I might lose to that guy again, but I won’t lose that way again,” he says. “The weird thing is that I don’t get that much joy out of winning, I just hate losing.”
Ashton Kutcher wearing his purple belt with Rigan Machado
“Wrestlers are always fighting to stay on all fours, but in jiu-jitsu that’s actually one of the worst positions you could be in,” says Kutcher. “You’ve got to learn to relax and give up your back to the mat.” The idea is to use the ground as an equalizing force, nullifying the natural advantages of a bigger, stronger opponent.”
“The first thing I’m going to do in virtually any fight is run,” he says, “but it’s nice to know that if someone comes to take you on, you’ll probably be OK.” Jiu-jitsu is a fighting style built for the underdog, and that’s a role Kutcher likes to play.”
