Singapore-based ONE Fighting Championship fancies itself as more than just a mixed martial arts organization – it wants to function as the world’s biggest one-stop shop for combat sports, sanctioning competitions in kickboxing and Muay Thai as well as MMA.
ONE is also attempting to make inroads in the field of submission grappling as well. In recent years, ONE has signed some of Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s biggest stars – names like Marcus “Buchecha” Almeida, Garry Tonon, Tom DeBlass, Yuri Simoes and others – while helping to facilitate their transitions to mixed martial arts. But this week, ONE president Chatri Sityodtong announced a signing that trumps all others.
At just 25 years old, Gordon Ryan is the No. 1 submission grappler in the world, full stop. The New Jersey native is the crown jewel of the famed Danaher Death Squad that has taken over the BJJ landscape with its unique and seemingly unstoppable system of leg locks. And over the last three years, Ryan has run roughshod: he hasn’t been defeated on the mat since May 2018 (by UFC vet Vinny Magalhaes) and hasn’t been submitted since 2016, during which time he’s won three ADCC gold medals and first place in about every no-gi grappling competition you can name.
Since Sityodtong made his announcement on Monday, Ryan further clarified its meaning on his Instagram page: he will continue to compete primarily in submission grappling with ONE, with his current focus on the 2022 ADCCs, but “if he chooses to fight MMA eventually” it will be with ONE. If and when it happens, Ryan will be one of the most decorated submission grapplers ever to make the transition to MMA, and he’s publicly flirted with the idea for years. Since he’s reached such a high level of accomplishment so early in his life, he’ll be making the transition in his athletic prime. What’s additionally interesting is the fact that ONE hasn’t previously been known for submission grappling, but quietly developed one hell of a roster to promote once they do fully dive into that world.
Ryan has been BJJ’s American wunderkind for years, winning his first world title as a brown belt at the age of 20. He’s been Danaher’s star pupil since he was a teenager, and he’s been at the forefront of Danaher’s revolutionizing of the BJJ world. If and when he finally steps into an MMA ring, he’ll have an unparalleled pedigree.
Ryan’s a pretty big, jacked guy – 6-foot-2, about 220 pounds of muscle – and while ONE’s restrictions on weight cutting would likely slot him as one of the smaller fighters in its heavyweight division, that’s a pretty weak group of fighters, and one could see him surging to the top based solely off his grappling. However, how his exact style and skillset will translate to MMA will be a fascinating subplot.
Ryan doesn’t display the same kind of explosive athleticism that peers like “Buchecha” Almeida employ, and the current MMA meta isn’t always as favorable to fighters like Ryan, who are exceptional off their backs – Ryan does a lot of his best work out of the “butt scoot” position, which most likely won’t fly in the cage. Ryan has often let his opponents take the lead, using his exceptional technical skill and scrambling ability to win the day. He won’t find many willing to engage with him in that arena once he moves to MMA. The biggest challenge of a BJJ competitor fighting in mixed martial arts is always to get a fight to the ground when their opponent doesn’t want to be there. You don’t win absolute gold at the ADCCs without being able to wrestle, and Ryan has flashed takedown ability in the past, but it hasn’t always been a main feature. It’ll have to be in the cage.
Tonon’s example may be illuminating for Ryan. Tonon, a fellow Danaher Death Squad standout, started fighting in ONE’s 155-pound division and has run out a 6-0 record, emerging as one of the promotion’s top young talents. Although Ryan and Tonon don’t have the exact same style and Tonon lacks Ryan’s strength and size, they come from the same background, being New Jersey boys who developed into world-class BJJ competitors under Danaher. Tonon’s submission skills have been a major differentiator so far in his MMA career, but crucial to his development has been the emergence of a tricky striking game: facing KO artist Koyomi Matsushima in his last fight in December, Tonon fared surprisingly well on the feet, utilizing unorthodox movement and timing to throw Matsushima off.
Ryan isn’t going to be expected to turn into an elite, or even average, striker any time soon – he just needs to learn enough so that he can’t be exploited so much that it interferes with him implementing the grappling advantage he’ll have over everyone he faces. His teammate Tonon has shown that doing that is achievable in a relatively short amount of time, with the proper commitment. Hopefully, soon, we’ll see what Ryan’s got.
The Big Fight 