Dave Bautista earns BJJ brown belt
Dave Bautista, famed actor and professional wrestler, has earned his brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. The 54-yar-old former WWE champion announced his accomplishment earlier in the week.
“Very proud to be posting this,” Bautista’s social media message stated. “I started training BJJ with @cesargraciebjj @graciefighterph in 2010 and even though I got my ass handed to me by everyone at the academy, I immediately fell in love. It’s a puzzle I’ll never solve and if you know me, you know I get obsessed with things I can’t figure out. It’s been a challenging process with my work schedule, in fact I barely trained from 2014 when I got my purple belt to 2021. Last fall I dedicated myself to progressing and this week it finally happened. I was presented my brown belt by my brothers and teammates Black Belt @matheusandre1 and Black Belt @joshraff_ with the blessing of Cesar and teammate Black Belt @jasonmanly . Jason you’re a warrior and a gentleman and I’m grateful AF to know you and call you a friend. Thank you for traveling across the globe and giving up time with your babies to train my old ass. ❤️🙏🏼.. Josh and Matheus you guys have been there for me since DAY ONE , you’ve seen me at my highest and my lowest and never left my side. You can’t put a price on that type of loyalty and I’m proud to call you family. I love the shit out of you guys! ❤️ I gotta thank my homies Brown belt and World Champ @the305mvp and Brown Belt @andrew.wags for traveling in to keep me honest and help me get those reps in. Love and appreciate you both. Last but definitely not least I want to thank Black Belt and owner of Gracie Tampa South @mattarroyomma for going out of his way to get me on the mat and always making time for me. Love and respect you brother, you’re the real deal. Good days and bad days, there’s only truth on the mat. You’re exposed one way or another. If you know what I mean then you know what I fucking mean. Respect to everyone willing to put it all out there. Let’s finish what we started. Ossss.. 👊🏽”
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Bautista had several stints in WWE between 2002 and 2019. In his acting career, he is most widely known for his portrayal of Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) up until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
He gained fame under the ring name Batista and became a six-time world champion by winning the World Heavyweight Championship four times and the WWE Championship twice. His first reign with the World Heavyweight Championship is the longest reign for that title at 282 days. He has also held the World Tag Team Championship three times (twice with Ric Flair and once with John Cena) and the WWE Tag Team Championship once (with Rey Mysterio). He was the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble match and went on to headline WrestleMania 21, one of the top five highest-grossing pay-per-view events in professional wrestling history.
Bautista also has one professional mixed martial arts fight, a victory over Vince Lucero at CES 13 in 2012.
