Andrew Wiltse broke the news of a sponsorship deal with Panda Express, claiming the position of jiu-jitsu’s first athlete to be sponsored by a major restaurant chain.
Wiltse has been hinting toward the sponsorship deal with cryptic social media posts for months, and at times, it seemed as if he might just be making a joke. However, on Tuesday, March 15, he made the official announcement,
“Today… is one of those days that just shouts ‘Victory Panda’
It’s all coming together.
After a decade of living in the gym, sleeping on the mats, foraging for scraps to make it to tournaments… it’s finally happened.
Panda Express is Officially Sponsoring Me!
We did it!
I am now the first Jiujitsu Athlete in History to be sponsored by a Major Restaurant Chain! By far the best one! Huzzah!
Turns out Dreams really can become Reality
Success and Panda Express! 🧙♂️🐼🐦💪
None of it would have happened without Pedigo Submission Fighting and Heath Pedigo pushing me to be the best I can be athletically.
And of course, FloGrappling and all of the fans constantly tagging Panda Express at every opportunity. You all rock.
Huge, special shout out to Jonathan Ortega for genuinely making it happen. He’s been working hard behind the scenes pushing this forward for a while. He’s been on every call and email, going massively out of his way, to get us to this point.”
Wiltse is a black belt under Heath Pedigo and competes for Pedigo Fighting Submission. He is a 5x IBJJF world champion at brown belt and under, and won Pans his first year as a black belt.
The details of his sponsorship are yet to be revealed to the public, but in a previous statement, Wiltse acknowledged the deal as a full sponsorship, “I was starting to think it wasn’t going to happen because the guy said I swear a lot.”
While Wiltse might swear a lot, his grappling is nothing but professional and he might be one of the toughest competitors in the sport. Now, he’ll be doing it all while rocking a Panda Express deal.
Maybe we’ll start seeing a Panda Express stand next to the Açai at tournaments.
