BJJ has been flourishing in popularity in the post pandemic world. Besides advocates like Joe Rogan, a growing number of professional athletes, comedians and actors is out there training jiu-jitsu.
Djokovic is spending his milestone (and record-extending) 375th career week at No. 1 on the ATP rankings this week – and apparently he celebrated by starting on his bjj journey.
Djokovic has been aware of the existence of BJJ for years – and has called himself a fan despite never having tried it before.
It’s unknown what prompted Djokovic to start on his BJJ journey. Life Academy Bordeaux hosted Djokovic yesterday.
Djokovic is a divisive personality in the world of tennis due to his reluctance o get vaccinated for Covid 19. His adamant attitude ended up costing him participation in Australian Open last year and an increasing amount of scrutiny.
Life Academy Bordeaux welcomed Djokovic with open arms and captioned the post:
“Can you guess who put on the Life rashguard and tried bjj?
Yes the great tennis champion Novak Djokovic!!
What are you waiting for to get into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?”
Many of celebrities doing BJJ train in Hollywood under Rigan Machado. While Machado’s students get graded similarly – they never really roll with the public.
Machado is contractually obligated not to discuss many of his famous students. But he has revealed a nugget or two over the years. In a podcast appearance, Rigan revealed:
“I have a group of maybe six guys that have a lot of respect. One’s Joel Kinnaman. Joel Kinnaman, he don’t care, That guy’s like ‘I want to compete, I want to spar any one,’. You know, it’s crazy.”
“The other guy I like a lot, he loves jiu-jitsu more than life. Is that Charlie Hunnam.”
“He loves to spar. Another day, One day he arrive here with bruises. I go ‘Charlie Hunnam, take it easy,’ . You get scratched too much”
