The late Paul Walker was best known as a Hollywood superstar who starred in the hugely successful ‘Fast & Furious’ movie franchise, but away from the big-screen he also had a genuine passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
I’ve been rolling for a while now, Walker said in a 2010 interview to promote one of the Fast And Furious movies. It started with, of course, the UFC’s and the Gracie family, especially Royce, you know, coming into the UFC 1, 2 and 3. That’s when there was no weight classes and [he was] dominating.
I just thought, ‘Wow, this is a really cool sport, this is something I’d like to do. So, I’ve been training – there’s a school in Santa Barbara called Paragon – Ricardo Ribeiro teaches there, ‘Franjinha,’ and he’s a really, really talented guy, one of the better schools here in the States.
I’ve been rolling with him … I spent a lot of time in Hawaii, Oahu, and I train at Relson’s place out there, with Relson Gracie and with one of his black belts, Ron Shiraki, and I just love this sport.
Walker had fighting in his blood as his grandfather, ‘Irish’ Billy Walker was a professional boxer, and his father a two-time ‘Golden Gloves’ champion, but the actor was instead drawn to Jiu-Jitsu.
It’s a good outlet. It keeps you flexible. It’s, you know, it keeps you competitive. Which is good – competitive with yourself too. You know, the guy that’s been tapping you over and over and over again – to finally tap him once or twice – that sense of accomplishment, and knowing that next time he’s coming at you a lot harder and you got to be on your best. I like it. More than anything I think just physically it keeps you in good shape, and it compliments so many of the sports that I like to do.
Walker had an ambition to become a BJJ black belt, with his long-time coach ‘Franjinho’ recalling in a 2013 interview with fightland.vice.com that when he told the Hollywood star that it might take eight years to get there he said, he didn’t care how long it took and that he was going to go for it.
Tragically, Walker’s life came to an end in a car crash on November 30th of 2013 at the age of 40 before he had a chance to fulfill that ambition.
Walker was a brown belt at the time of his passing, but ‘Franjinha’ awarded him his black belt posthumously, passing it on to his father at a memorial for the star.
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I asked [his father] if he wanted to put it in the tree at the crash site because I had seen someone put up a brown belt there, ‘Franjinha’ told fightland. Or, if he wanted, he could put it in the coffin. But he said, No way I’m going to take his home, I want to keep this because I know how much this means to him.
