The kid from Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little is now a totally ripped MMA fighter
Topics: Film and TV, MMA, Celebrity
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Instagram/@jonathanlipnicki
Topics: Film and TV, MMA, Celebrity
The kid from Jerry Maguire has remarkably transformed into a totally ripped MMA fighter - and we definitely didn't see that coming.
Back in the day, a 6-year-old Jonathan Lipnicki, looked like the most sweet and innocent kid around.
He starred in the likes of Stuart Little, The Little Vampire and not to mention a personal favourite - Like Mike.
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As well as continuing on the acting path, the now 31-year-old, has revealed a huge passion for mixed martial arts.
When he was younger Jonathan began training jiu-jitsu and 14 years on, in 2020, he finally got his black belt.
In 2012 he revealed his family 'actually owns an MMA promotion company', which would have been big inspiration for him growing up.
He said: “Because of that, I’ve given my mom a lot of the fighters to fight in a show. I’m actually training one of my friends right now — he’s fighting a jiu-jitsu guy. So I’m his sparring guy. If it’s someone way better, I won’t be a good sparring partner."
Lipnicki, who comes from a Jewish family, has explained why calling out racial injustice was a big thing for him.
He told TMZ: “There have been a lot of anti-Semitic hate crimes and violence towards Jews.
“He (Remy) started this group where we decided to make sure people got home and to the synagogue safely.
"A lot of us are martial artists or own martial arts gyms and not all of us are Jewish. It’s just people wanting to help other people.
“Everyone should have the right to worship without being discriminated against.”
He added: “Bullies of any sort or people who promote hatred don’t like when there’s a presence there and I think having a presence is a huge deterrent.”
Well, it's safe to say that the film that made him famous was indeed Jerry Maguire and director Cameron Crowe has recently revealed that Tom Cruise stayed in touch with the mother of the child originally cast for the film who was replaced by Jonathan Lipnicki.
“Tom stayed in touch with the mother of the kid who had asked to be replaced,” Crowe said to Deadline.“Tom wrote him and called and sent him stuff. I only knew this because his mother called to say, ‘Thank you for everything Tom Cruise has done to make my son feel good about even being in the movie and working with him as much as he did’.
“I went to Tom on the set and said I couldn’t believe what he’d done, spending the last few weeks making sure his spirits were high.
"Tom just said, ‘Well, I just don’t want that guy growing up, looking at movies and feeling disappointed about what happened. I want him to love movies.’ Wow.”
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