Popular Canadian comedian Russell Peters has just been promoted to purple belt in BJJ by his long-time coach and friend, the legendary Jean Jacques Machado. It’s been a long road to get to this point for Peters, as he first started training in the sport a decade ago. Like many celebrity BJJ practitioners, Peters spends much of his life travelling around the world to perform and this presumably makes maintaining a consistent fixed training schedule pretty difficult. After starting his Jiu-Jitsu journey in 2015, he actually received his blue belt 3 years later and has remained at that rank until this promotion.
Peters has been incredibly busy during that time though, as he’s one of highest-paid comedians in the world with a philosophy of getting on stage as much as he possibly can. After first performing in his hometown of Toronto, Canada in the late 80s, Peters exploded in popularity after his 2004 special on the ‘Comedy Now!’ TV show. He has since won several awards for his work as both a comedian and a producer, and he’s repeatedly broke new ground as a performer. From smashing sales records around the world to becoming the first to create a Netflix special, Peters is always at the forefront of comedy.
The fact that he’s received a purple belt from Machado is also a testament to his skills on the ground too. Machado was an elite competitor in his prime, with an ADCC title and a pair of silver medals on his resume. Alongside his career on the mats, he has also been hard at work refining his coaching skills over the years as well. Machado has taught several other martial arts legends both when he was competing and since he retired from it. Eddie Bravo and Dan Inosanto are among his students; alongside other famous comedians like Chris D’Elia and of course, Joe Rogan.
Russell Peters announced the news that he had received his BJJ purple belt from Jean Jacques Machado in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
