Islam Makhachev has responded to Gordon Ryan‘s claim that jiu-jitsu is the best tool for self-defense, and the UFC welterweight champion remains unconvinced.
Ryan offered a nuanced take on overdogs podcast, going beyond the typical marketing claims.
“I think that if you do it correctly, jiu-jitsu is the best martial art for dealing with a single unarmed human being,” he explained.
However, his approach shifts when facing multiple attackers.
“I think it’s more about just putting guys down and then when they’re on the ground, soccer kicking or stomp kicking them,” he said. “You don’t want to take a guy down and mount them and then his friend just comes up and soccer kicks you across the face.”
Ryan likened this to defending against a snake.
“If an anaconda is trying to strangle you, it can do it pretty easy. But if there’s one person there to unwrap the tail as it tries to wrap you up, it’s basically impossible for a big snake to strangle something if there’s another person there.”
He applied the same logic to grappling, noting that even a black belt would struggle to finish two blue belts if they worked together.
“Everyone thinks that size is like the number one determining factor. It’s actually whoever is more aggressive. ”
“two guys, two untrained guys is pretty hard. Anything more than two for sure is going to be hard.”
Makhachev, when asked about Ryan’s assertion in a recent interview, was direct.
“I don’t agree with this 100%. How do you just lie down on the street and say, ‘Let’s go one on one’? You wouldn’t just lie down and say, ‘Let’s start from here.’ You have to fig ht first, start in your stances.”
He offered an alternative perspective from his own experience, suggesting that sambo holds advantages in real life situations.
“If you compare sambo and jiu-jitsu, I think sambo is much stronger. We’ve used it on the street many times.”
Ryan explained that many Dagestani wrestlers currently possess two-thirds of the skill set needed to dominate in submission grappling.
“Right now you have those guys who are very good at wrestling and they’re also very good at avoiding submissions,” he observed. “They can put most jiu-jitsu guys down. They can stay out of submissions, but they’re not really pressure forward submission guys.”
The missing piece, according to Ryan, is offensive submission grappling. However, he believes this gap won’t remain for long.
Makhachev dismissed the idea entirely.
“Jiu-jitsu on its own, sambo on its own—none of it works like that. Everything has to be adjusted for MMA.”
He emphasized his team’s focus on adapting traditional martial arts for mixed martial arts competition.
“In our gym, among the kids, we’ve been able to adapt our basic sports the most. We’ve made adjustments to sambo, but the base is still sambo. We can modify techniques, add or remove elements, and adapt everything for MMA. I think we’ve done it better than anyone else.”
Note: Makhachev’s translated quotes have been edited for clarity.
