Thrash metal legend Dave Mustaine has just been promoted to black belt in BJJ by Reginaldo Almeida. Mustaine is best known as the co-founder, frontman, and sole consistent member of Megadeth but he also had a hand in the development of another iconic American metal band. Prior to forming Megadeth in 1983, Mustaine also spent two years as the lead guitarist of Metallica and is credited as a writer on several of their early songs. Through his work in both of these bands, Mustaine was an instrumental figure in the emergence of American Thrash metal during the 80s and its subsequent rise in popularity.
Mustaine has also been a practitioner of various martial arts for several decades at this point, originally starting with Taekwondo in 1999. He went on to earn a black belt in the art and in Ukidokan Karate; while also training in Sanshou and Kickboxing at the same time. Although Mustaine spent the majority of his time in striking martial arts, he eventually discovered a love of grappling too. He began training in Jiu-Jitsu and started over as a white belt once again, tirelessly working his way through the belt ranks of yet another martial art throughout his 50s and 60s.
Now after countless hours spent honing his skills on the mat, Mustaine has been promoted to black belt in BJJ. He has spent over 3 years as a brown belt, and this latest promotion has come just a few months after his 64th birthday. Not only is Mustaine’s journey a great testament to what can be achieved when starting the sport later in life, but it’s also a reminder of how the learning process works. Mustaine has started from scratch in a new martial art several times over and every single time he’s worked diligently for decades to achieve a high level of proficiency.
Reginaldo Almeida announced the news that he had promoted Dave Mustaine to BJJ black belt in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
