Gordon Ryan wins by arm bar pic.twitter.com/DGMPgGtvN3
— D (@D_The_Husband)
October 2, 2023
Despite receiving some lucrative offers to do so, grappling ace
Gordon
Ryan has no designs on transitioning to mixed martial arts in
the near future.
In a recent interview with
Combate.com, Ryan shared how injuries derailed his plans on
competing in MMA some four years ago and how his focus has shifted
since then.
“I was actually planning to fight MMA in 2019, but I tore my knee
ligament, and when I was coming back from this surgery, I had to go
straight into camp for the ADCC because I competed seven months
exactly after my surgery,” Ryan said. “So the second I got out of
surgery, I had to enter camp. I was going to start fighting at the
beginning of 2019, then I had to enter the camp, then I won two
golds [at ADCC], and I started to get pulled back into jiu-jitsu. I
won the absolute, then I had the biggest superfight in history with
Andre
Galvao , and now I have to defend the superfight title, and my
teammates haven’t won the absolute yet, and now I’m 28.”
Gordon also revealed that his coach John Danahar’s opinion also
weighs heavily on his decision to not fight MMA.
“John is never wrong about anything, and he told me “You’re already
the best no-gi competitor of all time, you make a lot of money,
there’s no reason for you to fight MMA,” Ryan said. “You already
make more than most fighters in the UFC, have an established legacy
in this sport and are not even close to its peak yet. You should
keep doing this and be the absolute best of all time indisputably,
to the point that even when you’ve been dead for 50 years, no one
has a close record.
“But yes, I’ve received seven-figure offers to fight MMA, for sure.
I have the desire to test myself, but I don’t make huge life
decisions like that based on emotion,” he continued. “I base it on
realism and logic. And logically, it doesn’t make sense for me to
go into MMA. I think, No.1, jiu-jitsu is right on the cusp of
becoming a mainstream sport. I think that one or two more ADCCs and
the athletes will start to receive [more recognition]. And I feel
that if I leave the no-gi to go to MMA, it will degenerate back to
what it was, unless a giant star emerges who kills everyone. But I
feel like I’m taking this sport to the next level of
professionalism now. I love jiu-jitsu so much, and I want to see
the next generation of athletes succeed financially.”
Ryan recently returned to the mats to reaffirm his reign. The
five-time ADCC champion dominated opponent Patrick Gaudio en route
to an armbar submission victory at the Who’s No. 1 grappling card
this past Sunday. After the victory, Ryan opened a mystery box,
which contained a bottle of Proper No. Twelve (his new sponsor)
along with a note declaring that he would submit Gaudio with an
armbar.