Mario Lopez has continued his one-man quest to spread BJJ to the world in a recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where he taught the host how to do a rear-naked choke on live TV. Lopez is an avid practitioner of BJJ himself, and he’s actually one of the most prominent figures in the celebrity BJJ world. This is far from the first time that Lopez has used his position as a high-profile celebrity to preach about the benefits of BJJ, and he even went on The View to share his love for the sport as a blue belt in 2020.
He took up the sport all the way back in 2017 after a wealth of experience as a competitive wrestler in his youth. Lopez eventually found the itch to compete again and even found himself on the mats in blue belt masters divisions. As a Gracie Barra competitor, Lopez was able to enter Compnet tournaments and managed to emerge with a gold medal in one in 2022. Later that year he decided to kick it up a notch by entering the IBJJF Phoenix Open and managed to repeat his prior success, coming away with a gold medal at that tournament as well.
Thanks in part to his performance on the competitive mats and his dedication to practice in the gym, Lopez was eventually promoted to purple belt in BJJ at the end of 2022. In his recent appearance on The Kelly Clarkson show, Mario Lopez demonstrated a rear-naked choke on the host first before encouraging her to attempt the technique on him as well. It’s these kinds of experiences that help propel BJJ into the mainstream, and over the years people will gradually become more aware of the sport. This can only ever be a good thing for gyms around the world, as their membership continues to grow.
The footage of Mario Lopez teaching Kelly Clarkson how to perform a rear-naked choke was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Kelly Clarkson Show:
