Dave Camarillo has just been awarded the 5th degree on his BJJ black belt as he has now spent over 15 years at the highest belt level in the art. The degree was awarded to him at a promotion ceremony that he headed up at Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu, with several of his students being awarded new belts as well. Perhaps the most notable of them was Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who was promoted to blue belt. He’s been training under Camarillo for his entire BJJ journey so far, as have many of the students who were in attendance at the promotion ceremony.
Camarillo is a veteran grappler who owns black belts in both BJJ and Judo, with the former being awarded to him by Ralph Gracie. He started training in Judo originally from a very young age, initially learning from his father when he was just 5 years old. He continued training at a high pace under his father all throughout his childhood and teenage years, before eventually branching out further into Japan and around the US. When a knee injury made Judo more difficult, he found BJJ instead.
Thanks to both his extensive grappling background and his dedication to training, Camarillo was awarded his blue belt in just 10 days. He progressed through the ranks rapidly and won several competitions, eventually being awarded his brown belt after just 2 years. After another 4 years of training he was awarded his black belt and was eventually invited to become the grappling coach at American Kickboxing Academy. Since then he’s developed his team, Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu, and has worked on stunts for several films, perhaps most notably with Keanu Reeves in the John Wick series.
Dave Camarillo announced the news that he had been promoted to 5th degree BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
