Veteran WWE superstar MVP, real name Hassin Hamin Assad, has just been promoted to black belt in BJJ after dedicating years of his life to the sport. His professional wrestling career began over two decades ago and it wasn’t long before he made it to the biggest show in the world, as he made his WWE debut all the way back in 2005. He competed for the promotion for several years, gaining huge popularity and even became a United States champion and a Tag Team champion during his tenure. MVP eventually left the WWE in 2011 and went on to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling, TNA, and various other regional shows over the next few years.
He returned to WWE after several years away and continues to work for them as both a back-stage producer as well as an on-screen performer. Despite the fact that he was incredibly busy performing at the highest level of professional wrestling, MVP has still found enough time to take up BJJ and train diligently in the sport alongside other WWE superstars. Not only has MVP been training in the sport for a long time now, he’s also been an active competitor in the masters divisions. In fact, he actually received his brown belt back in 2020 after winning gold at the IBJJF Master World Championship in a purple belt division.
MVP received his promotion to black belt from the head coach of Gracie Barra Boca Raton, Andre Santos, who coincidentally received the 5th degree on his black belt on the same day. Naturally it was a huge achievement for him and he shared his message of thanks to all the coaches at Gracie Barra that have helped him along the way, including the legendary Flavio Almeida. Having turned 50 late last year, MVP is now eligible to compete in the master 5 division and it’ll be interesting to see if he decides to return to competition now that he’s been promoted to black belt.
MVP shared the news that he had been promoted to black belt in BJJ in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
