Mario Lopez is known first and foremost for his work as AC Slater on ‘Saved by the Bell’ but the famous actor has also become a pretty prominent figure in the BJJ world as well and has now been promoted to purple belt in the sport. Lopez has been involved with martial arts for practically his entire life, putting in plenty of hours on both the Karate and wrestling mats in his youth. He decided to take up BJJ at the age of 48 after initially getting his son involved in the sport and has actually managed to get quite talented in that time, no doubt owing in some small part to his prior wrestling experience.
Lopez has fallen in love with BJJ since starting in 2017 and has even gone on shows like ‘The View’ to try and explain the benefits of the sport to a wider audience. He’s even gone as far as to put himself out there and enter a competition at the blue belt level, something that not all grapplers in general ever have the guts to do and incredibly few celebrities who train. He entered a Gracie Barra Compnet tournament at the beginning of 2022 and put on a fantastic display in a master division and come away with a gold medal at blue belt.
It wasn’t just a one-off however, as he also competed at the IBJJF Phoenix Open in the Master 4 Lightweight blue belt just a few months ago. Lopez ended up winning a gold medal yet again, although he mentioned an interview afterward that this would be his last time competing in BJJ. While that tournament definitely marked the end of his career competing at blue belt, it remains to be seen whether Mario Lopez will feel the pull back to BJJ competition now that he’s been promoted to purple belt.
Mario Lopez announced the news that he was promoted to purple belt in BJJ by his coach at Gracie Barra Glendale, Robert Hill, in a post to his official Instagram account:
