Wrestling vs Jiu-Jitsu is very popular these days. Yesterday, the world’s best No Gi grappler Gordon Ryan faced Wrestling world champion Bo Nickal in a modified rules grappling match where leglocks were not allowed. Ryan was able to bring the fight to the ground 3 times with scissor takedowns but was not able to maintain top position since Nickal scrambled out of bounds every time. Ryan attempted the scissor a few more times, but this time Nickal was wise to it and stuffed all the attempts. Nickal played it safe, with a game plan of not taking it to the ground too early so as to not give Ryan a chance to use his Jiu-Jitsu.
At one point Ryan was so frustrated with Nickal not attempting to take him down that he gave him his leg as bate and also turned his back to him. Nickal reacted by pushing him away and foot sweeping him and at one point, he seized the moment and executed a beautiful suplex. The fight did finally get to the ground with about 10 mins left and Ryan was immediately able to set up his shoulder crush sequence (that swept Buchecha at ADCC) and set up a sneaky triangle that ultimately led to a submission victory…
When interviewed by Flograppling Nickal was asked about those scissor takedowns and their effectiveness. He stated that those are also wrestling techniques and that he was used to them.
On the other hand Gordon Ryan gave props to Nickal for stepping out of his comfort zone and shared his thoughts on social media. For him he was able to take down the world champion wrestler 3 times:
After finishing one of the most fun matches of my life here are my thoughts. First of all, stalling calls were not as strict as id hoped, ibjjf rules state that if you leave the mat in a secure position that you start in the same position in the middle of the mat, i had 3 or 4 cross ashi entrances where he dragged me out of bounds and we were started on the feet again which was not something i was expecting and kept the match standing far longer than i had expected.
Overall i scored 3 takedowns with kani basami and he scored 1 with a huge back arch which finally got the match down to the ground after around 13 minutes. After being on the ground for roughly 1 minute i was able to enter into shoulder crunch sumi gaeshi. As he defended i moved into sankaku (triangle) and he tried his best to pull out. Similar to my match with josh barnett i played the dilemma between juji gatame (arm bar) and sankaku (triangle). As he tried to pull out of the triangle before my legs were locked i threatened juji which forced him to pressure back into the triangle to avoid arm extension. Once the triangle was locked he tried 1 last slam and ended up tapping.I want to give a huge shoutout to Mr. @nobickal for stepping out his comfort zone on short notice (even though we mostly wrestled 😂) and coming into a ruleset which favors bjj. I want to make sure to return the favor in doing a mostly wrestling match in which no guard play is allowed. I have more respect for wrestling than anyone and it is a fine and very effective sport… but all you wrestling fan boys… dont call me a bjj guy. im different. I went 3-1 for takedowns with a d1 all American today and finished him in under 2 minutes on the ground. Im the f*cking GOAT and dont you f*cking forget it. @pat_downey im coming to drag your hillbilly as* all over the mat in 3 different rulesets in 1 day. Im the future of bjj, and the future of “scrimmage” wrestling.
We changed the sport through the use of leg locks and now we are gonna change the sport through scrimmage wrestling. Im the future.
ps- i called a strangle and got a strangle
This is reminiscent of ADCC champion Yuri Simoes takedown on Olympic silver medalist Travis Stevens at their Fight2win superfight:
