Looking at the story behind Michael Jackson’s Karate black belt

Over the years, various celebrities have been awarded belts in numerous martial arts. For instance, Willie Nelson, Donald Trump, and various others have black belts. Sometimes these belts aren’t exactly earned in a traditional way.

Back in 1999, Michael Jackson was awarded a black belt in Karate. However, was this legitimate by most people’s standards, or was it given to him as a publicity stunt?

Michael Jackson and his relationship with Karate

Firstly, Michael Jackson was awarded this belt in Japan when he made a visit to the country in the late 90s. It’s said that for several months previously, he was taught Karate at his Neverland home by a Japanese Karate instructor. What’s more, this black belt strangely had five tabs on it, meaning that technically, Michael Jackson jumped straight to the rank of a 5th degree black belt.

So far, it looks like this was definitely an ‘honorary’ black belt, which is when a person is gifted a belt based on their status, rather than the conventional route of putting in years of practice. However, is there more to the story?

Back in 2013, MJ’s ex bodyguard Matt Fiddes said “He was one of the best martial artists I’ve ever seen. People might laugh at that because of the image he projected, but he was very sharp. Martial arts is very similar to dance. He was one of the best dancers in the world, and he could bring that across to his martial arts.”

It’s actually true that Michael Jackson’s dance routines did often mimic martial arts moves. For instance, in certain music videos such as Billie Jean, he often performs kicks that aren’t too dissimilar to those performed in Karate. Still, whether or not MJ was a legit Karateka remains unseen.

The Jackson family and their history with martial arts

What is also known is that during his lifetime, his kids used to train Karate too. In the picture below, you can see Paris and Prince Jackson attending a Karate class with yellow belts on. These days, Prince seems to have ditched Karate, but is a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Furthermore, MJ’s brothers also trained Kung Fu during their peak years which is stylistically similar to Karate and also has an emphasis on athletic kicks and punches. As you can imagine, if you had the flexibility to perform a high kick during a dance routine, there’s no reason why you couldn’t pull off a head kick during a fight.

The Verdict

The likelihood is that Michael Jackson wasn’t a ‘real’ Karate black belt and that he was given the belt as a promotional effort. As mentioned, whether you agree or disagree with these acts, they do go on and happen even to this day.

What adds more evidence to this theory is that the belt was supposedly given for his Kata performances, meaning that kumite or hard training was unlikely to happen. Then again, MJ would have to be mad to enter a real Karate gym and risk getting knocked out during the prime of his career.

Anyway, it does seem that Jackson genuinely had an interest in martial arts, even if it was from a casual perspective. What’s also ironic is that even though he probably didn’t put in the hours to master Karate technique, he was probably in better shape than many questionable Karate black belts who got their belts from strip mall dojos.

In other words, it’s fair to assume that Michael Jackson’s black belt didn’t exactly require much effort – but then again honorary black belts never do.