The latest big time celebrity to train Jiu-Jitsu is Wiz Khalifa!
He is training with the most Hollywood of all BJJ instructors: Rigan Machado in the system that Rigan specially made for celebrities which he calls “Flow Jiu-Jitsu”. It took him 9 years to put it together, and it has more than 700 techniques, which can be drilled and trained without risking injury.
In the April 2015 issue of Jiu Jitsu magazine , Coral belt and BJJ legend Rigan Machado talks about the special program that he has designed by his celebrity students.
“I created a new jiu jitsu system for people who can’t get hurt. It’s technical training. They learn jiu-jitsu and technically train, but it’s all safe. I created a type of jiu-jitsu for the Beverly Hills clientele. Competition, sparring… these guys can’t do that. I can’t even take a 1% chance of them getting hurt. I have 18 celebrities doing this program. Some guys have to sign disclosure agreements; others like Ashton Kutcher and Mickey Rourke come in regularly, while Usher comes in once and a while and Vin Diesel when he’s in town.”
Other students of Rigan that train in Flow Jitsu: Ashton Kutcher, Scarlett Johansen, Usher etc…
Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, Show and Prove, in 2006, and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 2007. His Eurodance-influenced single, “Say Yeah”, received urban radio airplay, charting on the Rhythmic Top 40 and Hot Rap Tracks charts in 2008.
Khalifa parted with Warner Bros. and released his second album, Deal or No Deal, in November 2009. He released the mixtape Kush and Orange Juice as a free download in April 2010; he then signed with Atlantic Records. He is also well known for his debut single for Atlantic, “Black and Yellow”, which peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. His debut album for the label, Rolling Papers, was released on March 29, 2011. He followed that album with O.N.I.F.C. on December 4, 2012, which was backed by the singles “Work Hard, Play Hard” and “Remember You”. Wiz released his fourth album Blacc Hollywood on August 18, 2014, backed by the lead single “We Dem Boyz”. In March 2015, he released “See You Again” for the soundtrack of the film Furious 7 and the song peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 12 non-consecutive weeks
The cops, doctors, stuntmen, soldiers, engineers, teachers, etc. who train in actual BJJ CAN be injured -- no problem-- but NOT the all-important celebrity!
--That's just a risk which we as a society are simply not willing to take; we must keep our precious celebrities safe, at all costs. Rigan is doing the lord's work, IMO.
If it's a different system and he isn't belting people in BJJ I don't get the big deal. I have heard of some questionable belts, but Rigan isn't alone in that.
I imagine he has a bunch of legit killer black belts, and I wonder what their thoughts are.
If I was a celebrity that's the last place Id wanna go to learn bjj. Way to make your students feel like the biggest bitches ever lmao. Literally makes it seem like they are too fragile and scared to do regular bjj which I guess is the case. Every gym has one or a few girls that are about 110 lbs and roll just as hard as everyone else with all the men there no matter the size or rank, those girls are 100x tougher then wiz Khalifa apparently.
Rigan lost my respect when he gave a black belt to that rapist in Texas.
I couldn't care less about Cheese Whiz learning fake jiu-jitsu.
I don't mean to derail the original conversation, but what is the truth behind this? I'd never heard the story, so I did a google search, but the narrative is somewhat confusing.
One site shows a signed letter from Rigan stating he never promoted the guy and has no ties with him.
What is the bottom line? Did Rigan promote the guy to black with knowledge of the guy's shady history? I've always had a lot of respect for Rigan, so I'm hoping this is not true.
