Gordon Ryan has emphasized several times that he doesn’t idolize anyone… But whom does he admire?
Well, it would appear that the legendary Roger Gracie is one of those people.
Here is what Ryan had to say in a recent interview with Canal Combate:
I was able to train or compete with several legends of the sport, but Roger is the one I consider to be the best of all time.
He was successful in MMA, won a belt in One FC, swept the World Championship and won three ADCCs – one of them by submitting all his opponents.
He did everything.
Ryan continued to explain that Roger Gracie had a game like not many people do:
I respect Roger a lot because he presented a game with many layers.
Most fighters are good at their plan A, but all you have to do is pass their guard or take their back and they fall apart.
Roger found himself in bad positions in several fights and recovered, and ended up winning.He wasn’t easy to take down, even less easy to submit – notice, he was in an extended Armbar against Buchecha [at Metamoris] and escaped!
He was very tough to beat, he was never submitted as a black belt, and he submitted guys throughout his career.
He emphasized how much he learned from him:
I only had three days with him recently, and we did seven or eight workouts with and without the gi.
But he’s probably the person in Jiu-Jitsu I’ve absorbed the most from in a short period of time.You can see that he thinks about the sport in a completely different way than the rest. And he’s a good teacher too.
The way he approaches the sport is completely different from the others.And even now that he no longer competes, almost 20 years after his prime, he is still competitive against the best.
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