Ray got ripped!
The adorable kid from Jerry Maguire has had a rather unexpected transformation and is now a totally ripped MMA fighter.
Aged just six, Jonathan Lipnicki, stole the spotlight from Tom Cruise in the 1996 movie, as Renée Zellweger’s son, Ray. He also went on to appear in Stuart Little, The Little Vampire and Like Mike.
Lipnicki, now 31, has continued to pursue acting, but he’s also huge passionate about mixed martial arts.
When he was younger, Lipnicki began training jiu-jitsu and 14 years on, in 2020, he got his black belt.
During an interview in 2012, Lipnicki revealed his family owns an MMA promotion company.
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.”
In an interview with TMZ, Lipnicki, who comes from a Jewish family, explained why calling out racial injustice was a big thing for him, saying: “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.
"The human head weighs eight pounds – LET'S GET THAT DOWN TO SIX YOU FATASSES!" -ripped Jonathan Lipnicki pic.twitter.com/kpWevkIR
— Eric Ledgin (@iamledgin) November 11, 2011
“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.”
In May, Jerry Maguire director, Cameron Crowe revealed that Cruise stayed in touch the mother of the child originally cast to play the role that was made Lipnicki famous.
“Tom wrote him and called and sent him stuff,” Crowe said to Deadline.
“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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