A LOVE LETTER TO BRAZILIAN JIU-JITSU

When actor Sean Patrick Flanery (The Boondock Saints, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) was a kid, a prophetic event occurred, one that contradicts the oft-heard phrase that says what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Why do I say “prophetic”? Because if what happened had stayed in Vegas, Flanery still might be digging ditches instead of using that moment in time to forge a future that led to Born a Champion.

- DR. CRAIG D. REID

The new film is a martial-arts-imitates-life narrative that could have been titled Ode to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. In it, Flanery plays Mickey Kelley, a character that all martial artists will find themselves rooting for.

“When I was 9, my dad, a Golden Gloves boxer, took me to Vegas,” Flanery said. “I saw Elvis Presley singing Suspicious Minds onstage, and he did what looked like a kata with kicks. His big jumpsuit looked like a gi. When I asked Dad if that was karate, he said, ‘He studied with the old man: Ed Parker, kenpo karate.’ I said, ‘Man, I want to do that!’”

Flanery signed up for taekwondo lessons. It wasn’t kenpo, but it included plenty of kicks and punches. “I didn’t know I wasn’t doing karate, but I didn’t care,” he said. “I was addicted.”

As he rose through the ranks of the Korean art, Flanery crosstrained in shotokan, goju-ryu, judo and muay Thai. Then in 1999, he met Rickson Gracie, who was setting up mats for a class. The Brazilian legend asked Flanery if he’d like to don a gi and train. The actor accepted.