Gordon Ryan told Tim Kennedy on the Overdogs USA podcast that, while Brazil’s legacy in Jiu-Jitsu remains secure for now, its grip on the sport’s competitive edge is starting to loosen.

Here is what he had to say:

I think Brazil has such a head start and they have so many people, so many champions already, that they’ll probably be prominent for the next decade.

But if the Brazilians don’t start making adjustments, if they just are hard-headed and they do everything they’ve been doing for the last 30 years that has worked because the sport wasn’t really progressing that much, they’ll be phased out.

That shift is already visible in the Trials circuit.

Once considered secondary to Brazil’s domestic competitions, the American Trials have surpassed their Brazilian counterpart in both prestige and depth of talent:

Back when I started, when you were competing, the Brazilian Trials was the big trials.
Now it’s the American Trials.

If you win the American Trials, you’re seated way higher.
The American Trials has so much more talent now.

Ryan attributes much of that change to access.

The rise of instructionals, subscription platforms, and match footage has given American athletes a resource advantage that hasn’t translated equally to Brazil:

The conversion rate in Brazil is so tough. For most Brazilians, it’s hard to afford.
So they just don’t have the access to the information that you would in America.

He also pointed to a factor few in the sport have discussed openly…
The potential rise of Russian competitors:

I’m very interested to see what it will be like when the Russians start getting involved, because that’s going to be a problem for everybody.

Once you get guys who are just that good at wrestling and also really envelop themselves in Jiu-Jitsu, so they’re like world-level black belt Jiu-Jitsu and Olympic level at wrestling, that’s going to be an issue for everyone.

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