Let’s be completely honest, Steve Irwin is a legend who sadly passed way before his time. His life was well documented for the most part and he loved taming wild animals in his native Australia. However, there is also a lesser-known part of his life that people don’t know too much about. Specifically, we’re speaking about his love of martial arts, grappling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
So, why does this make sense? If you think about it, Steve Irwin spent most of his days grappling with wild animals, such as crocodiles. This meant that he would have to know how to position his body weight and maintain balance. One wrong move and he could literally be killed by an alligator. With this said, training BJJ sounds completely reasonable, seeing as it would teach him how to control, pin, and restrain wild, heavy, and dangerous creatures.
As seen in the image, Steve Irwin is practicing side control whilst still wearing his classic zoo keeper outfit. This technique would undoubtedly come in handy in the wild. It turns out that Irwin had trained BJJ for a number of years and was actually awarded a blue belt from Australian MMA coach Dan Higgins. Remember, Irwin died back in 2006. With this said, it’s plausible that he was one of the earlier BJJ enthusiasts in Australia, and similarly – he could have gone on to be one of the country’s first black belts if not for unfortunate events.
As if that wasn’t enough, he also trained MMA with Higgins as well. Here, he would put his BJJ together with wrestling, boxing, and Muay Thai skills. To this day, Steve Irwin is still dearly missed – and his love of BJJ is yet another example of just how colorful and interesting his life really was.
