Strabane man achieves goal of becoming BJJ black belt

A Strabane man has achieved a lifetime ambition by gaining his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) before the age of 50.

Jason McCabe from Ballycolman in the town is a lifelong martial artist and has already gained two black belts in other martial arts one in Judo and the other in Kung Fu along with having a substantial background in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and amateur wrestling.

He operates his own gym, Evolve MMA in Derry, where he coaches and he is a well-known promoter in Irish MMA circles running the Chaos Fighting Championship which has seen some of Ireland’s most famous fighters grace its cage including UFC Alum Conor McGregor and Norman Parke.

Jason’s own journey to the BJJ black belt has been longer than usual due to a number of stops and starts and the unavailability of good training.

When he first began training in the art there were no black belts in Ireland and only a hand full of people training in the art spread throughout the island.

After seeing the first few UFC’s and how BJJ competitors dominated the early days of the sport of MMA Jason was determined to begin his journey training in the art.

He would have to travel away from Ireland to do the sport and in 1997 he would travel to the famed Gracie academy in California and start training with the family that invented the martial art.

And eventually, receive his blue belt from the legendary Royce Gracie who won the first three UFC tournaments and was the first legend of MMA in America.

Over the coming years, Jason would return to Ireland and gain massive martial arts experience and become a well-known martial arts coach in the North producing fighters who would go on to fight all over Europe.

Jason eventually teamed up with Team Ryano a famed Dublin based MMA club meeting BJJ black belt former European Champion and UFC coach Andy Ryan.

This meant that Jason could continue with his BJJ training and finally get his black belt from Ryan who would become his coach.

Jason told the Strabane Chronicle in gaining the rank of black belt he had fulfilled a huge ambition and would use the prestige of his new rank in the art to continue training the next generation of fighters and grapplers.

“It was a great achievement getting my black belt. This is my third black belt previously I got a black belt in Chinese Kung Fu and another in Judo but this one was certainly the hardest to get. It has been an amazing journey and I would like to thank all the guys I’ve trained with and all the coaches who have helped to improve my BJJ game.

“Now that I have achieved the rank of the black belt before I turned 50 which was a huge goal of mine I want to keep coaching the next generation of belt holders and hopefully I can ensure that Strabane can have a few more black belts in the future.”