Actor Ashton Kutcher is now a Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) black belt.
The Hollywood star earned his rank at 47-years-old, and was promoted this past week by renowned BJJ coach and 8th degree coral belt Rigan Machado.
“Congratulations my brother,” Machado wrote on social media. “15 years jiu-jitsu.”
Kutcher, known for roles in That 70’s Show, Punk’d, and The Butterfly Effect, was also pictured wearing a customized black belt with his name and Japanese Kanji embroidery.
Is Ashton Kutcher a legitimate BJJ black belt?
Rigan Machado was so confident in his student, he previously claimed in 2016 that Ashton Kutcher, then a BJJ purple belt, could beat Conor McGregor in a grappling match. He noted Kutcher’s size and wrestling background.
“I put all my money (on) Ashton Kutcher. I think he could do really, really good. He’s 200 pounds, 6’2, 6’3, he’s the best,” Machado said. “Ashton Kutcher, for me, is my No. 1 student. He’s a purple belt but he has a really good background in wrestling. I think he has a chance to be one of the top guys in jiu-jitsu.”
While Machado sang praises and made pretty outrageous claims about his student, there was a time that people really questioned Kutcher’s jiu-jitsu ability.
A video went viral back in 2020, showing Kutcher as a newly promoted brown belt, rolling with BJJ star Craig Jones. He didn’t exactly look very good, which led to people questioning the validity of his brown belt. Years later, Jones revealed that Kutcher was dealing with a “serious medical condition” at the time.
“Half his body stopped working, so he couldn’t move too well. So then Rigan’s like ‘roll with him, I’ll film it.’ He films it, sends it to me, and he’s like ‘post it.’ Obviously, Ashton was like — we couldn’t say anything about it,” Jones said.
“So we posted it online, and thousands of comments (questioning his belt), and then Ashton comments on that ‘oh, thanks for the roll.’”
Kutcher eventually revealed two years later that he was dealing with a rare case of “vasculitis” in 2020, and had his hearing, vision and mobility compromised for a year.
Kutcher has been training in jiu-jitsu for well over a decade. He was already a purple belt in 2014, and was promoted to brown belt five years later, at the end of 2019. He spent around six years as a brown belt, before being promoted to black belt.
Regardless of what you think of his skill from that viral video from five years ago, Kutcher has seemingly put in the time in the sport without really trying to get much attention and recognition from it. That seems completely opposite from some of the newer figures using the jiu-jitsu scene to launder their image, and “earn” black belts in record time.
Due to Machado’s gym location in Beverly Hills, he also gets to coach several other celebrities apart from Kutcher. One of his notable higher belt students is Brazilian actor and Narcos star Wagner Moura, who currently holds a brown belt in jiu-jitsu.
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