Gordon Ryan has just officially announced his retirement from Jiu-Jitsu competition, at least for the foreseeable future. Although the news has come as a bit of a surprise, it wasn’t completely unexpected given the health issues that have plagued his career over the last few years. Ryan was once among the most active competitors in the sport; taking part in regular EBI events across different weight classes and famously competing in as many brackets as he possibly could at ADCC. That wasn’t all either, he was also entering tournaments for smaller promotions around the US and regularly taking superfights at the same time too.
That all changed in 2020 though, as Ryan’s appearances were limited to just a handful of superfights and a local Grappling Industries tournament. He was experiencing stomach issues throughout this period and it hampered his ability to train, and subsequently his ability to compete too. Although he later made it to ADCC 2022 and put on one of the most iconic performances of his career, he barely managed to make it to the mat over the next few years outside of that weekend. His health issues were clearly becoming more of a problem around this point in time, as they began forcing him out of planned matches as well.
He also suffered injuries in between these bouts of stomach problems; resulting in him competing in just 3 matches between ADCC 2022 and the next edition of the tournament. This is when the rumours of his impending retirement started to swirl, particularly when it was announced that Gordon Ryan would be doing two superfights instead of one in an attempt to surpass a record number of titles set by Andre Galvao without having to wait another two years for the chance. He did end up making it to both of those superfights ADCC 2024 and although he won both of them on points, they did nothing to stop the rumours that it might be the last time fans saw him in action.
Ryan fanned the flames of those rumours himself in the immediate aftermath of the event too, as he started to say he wasn’t going to defend his superfight title at ADCC 2026. At the time of writing it’s been almost a year and a half since that event took place and Ryan hasn’t competed or even booked a single match. Other major figures in the sport have bought into the idea that he wouldn’t be returning, but now Ryan has finally made it official. Although he’s stepping back from competition, he’ll still be deeply involved in the sport as one of the main coaches at Kingsway Jiu-Jitsu.
Gordon Ryan announced his retirement from Jiu-Jitsu competition in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
