Jo Koy is an incredibly popular standup comedian, and he’s also recently joined the legions of celebrities who have become involved in BJJ as he’s been training under BJJ black belt Ivan ‘The Highlander’ Jennings. Koy is well known in the comedy world and he’s brought out specials on Netflix and Comedy Central over the years, among others. While Koy is a big name in the standup comedy world, it appears as though he’s attending Jiu-Jitsu classes just like everyone else does. This is definitely something worth respecting, because a large number of celebrities actually avoid regular classes and instead stick to privates with their instructors.
Koy is far from the only comedian who trains Jiu-Jitsu of course, with the most commonly-cited example obviously being Joe Rogan. While Koy is relatively early on in his Jiu-Jitsu journey, Rogan is a BJJ black belt under Jean-Jacques Machado and a 10th Planet black belt under Eddie Bravo. BJJ is actually a lot more popular among comedians around the world than people realise and over in England one of their most popular comedians Russell Brand trains on a regular basis, even reaching the rank of purple belt in the sport.
The increasing number of standup comedians and other celebrities who take part in Jiu-Jitsu is a fantastic benefit to the growth of the sport. One of the biggest booms in popularity that BJJ ever enjoyed came when The Joe Rogan Experience started to dominate the world of podcasting. As more famous faces like Jo Koy start practicing BJJ, it slowly creeps further into the mainstream consciousness and becomes something that more people are likely to try.
The images of popular standup comedian Jo Koy training BJJ under Ivan ‘The Highlander’ Jennings were uploaded to his official Instagram account. Jennings confirmed in the comments of his post that Jo Koy trains BJJ in his gym on a regular basis and is a member there:
