In a recent interview on Sean O’Malley’s podcast, Craig Jones expressed his surprise at ADCC’s decision to introduce an additional medal for the upcoming championship.
Specifically – Gordon Ryan’s opportunity to compete in two matches.
And, well, Jones says that many in the grappling community see this as an attempt to boost Gordon Ryan’s medal count.
Which is an aim because his goal is to cement his status as superior to legendary competitor Andre Galvao.
Here it is in Jones’ words, making it clear that the ADCC organizers are going out of their way to accommodate Ryan:
It’s pretty clear that this is just a way for Gordon to add another ADCC medal to his collection.
He can use that to say: “Oh, I’m better than Andre Galvao, I’ve got more ADCC medals.”
Which to me kind of just seems, like – whatever the f*ck he says goes, you know?
It’s also been added that Ryan had previously made fun of Galvao for his claim of having had six ADCC medals.
Why? Well, because Galvao had been in a string of superfights in which he would face the winner of the absolute from the event before.
The streak was ended by Gordon Ryan in 2019.