Famous director, producer, and screenwriter Guy Ritchie has just been promoted to third degree BJJ black belt by Roger Gracie, on behalf of his cousin Renzo Gracie. Every new degree after receiving a black belt is awarded based on time served at the rank, but each one is a special milestone for any practitioner. They each signify hours upon hours of hard work on the mat spent honing the craft and developing the skills needed to succeed in the sport. For the third degree in particular, it’s awarded after someone has spent a total of 9 years as a black belt according to the IBJJF belt ranking system.
Obviously that’s on top of however long it has taken to receive a black belt in the first place, which for most practitioners is around a decade or more. Ritchie has been practicing Jiu-Jitsu since the early 2000s but he is a lifelong martial artist and actually already held a black belt in Shotokan Karate when he started. Ritchie was inspired by the famous Rickson Gracie documentary ‘Choke’; which was the catalyst for hundreds of people to start training in that era. He started training under Roger Gracie and his father Mauricio Gomes in London, England, but has since received all of his belts from Renzo Gracie.
Not only did two of his instructors play a role in awarding him with the third degree on his black belt, but there was another celebrity BJJ practitioner in attendance too. Roger came to the filming of the second season of ‘Mobland’, the popular British crime drama that Ritchie is one of the directors for. One of the stars of the series is Tom Hardy, one of the most successful English actors of the last decade or so who also happens to train in the sport. Hardy has been a purple belt for a few years now, and he was actually there when Roger awarded Ritchie with his latest degree.
Roger Gracie announced the news that he had awarded Guy Ritchie with the third stripe on his BJJ black belt on behalf of Renzo Gracie in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
