Los Angeles: Actor-model Kate Upton, who is married to Houston Astros MLB star Justin Verlander, has scored her first stripe on her Jiu-Jitsu white belt. In a social media post recently, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue model, 27, who has daughter Genevieve with the baseball pitcher, shared this photograph of the moment she received the first stripe on her white belt at Houston, Texas's Elite MMA, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"I get a lot of belts for free but this one I earned!" the proud mother of one captioned the post. It accompanied an image of Kate's instructor applying tape to her belt—an indication she had moved up her first rank in the discipline. Jiu-Jitsu is a Japanese martial art which involves manipulating your opponent's force against themselves in close combat.