Gordon Ryan recently shared his opinion on how elite MMA grapplers would fare in pure submission grappling competition, specifically ADCC.
Speaking on Mike Perry’s OverDogs podcast, Ryan discussed fighters like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khamzat Chimaev, two of the most dominant grapplers in mixed martial arts.
Ryan clarified that his comments were not criticism of their overall abilities as fighters, but rather a comparison between different competitive environments:
Nurmagomedov and Chimaev aren’t the best wrestlers.
They’re not the best freestyle wrestlers in the world, and they’re not the best Jiu-Jitsu guys in the world.If you put those guys into ADCC, they would get beat pretty easily.
But what they’re doing is submission grappling… They’re supposed to be the best MMA fighters.
According to Ryan, MMA grappling and ADCC grappling require completely different skill sets.
Inside a cage, the ability to combine striking threats with pressure, positional control, and conditioning is what makes fighters like Nurmagomedov and Chimaev so effective.
He emphasized that their real strength lies in how they apply wrestling in a fighting context rather than a specialist tournament.
Gordon Ryan says Khabib and Khamzat would get beat in ADCC 👀😲
“Khabib and Khamzat aren’t the best wrestlers. They’re not the best freestyle wrestlers in the world, and they’re not the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world. If you put those guys into ADCC, they would get beat pretty… pic.twitter.com/8nUi7Ho9SY
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) February 15, 2026
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