Nick Rodriguez put on a spectacular performance at the UFC Fight Pas Invitational 4 submission grappling absolute tournament; winning the $30,000 by defeating Roberto Jimenez, Vagner Rocha, and “Big” Dan Manasoiu in the finals.

Rodriguez recently spoke with the Grappling Insider, saying that Gordon Ryan put down Big Dan – his own teammate – by calling him a “junior” team member.

He criticized Ryan for doing so:

Gordon hates B-Team and Nicky Rod so much that he’ll actually talk bad about his teammates to try and make me look bad.

Big Dan is a tough guy. He won ADCC trials, he’s an ADCC veteran.
And then Gordon’s, like: “Oh, he’s not even on our main roster, he’s our backup.”

You’re gonna say that to your guy, your main training partner that you’re supposed to be friends with and training with?

So that just speaks to his character.
And it honestly sucks for the up-and-coming guys on that team.

Nicky Rod also shared his opinion on the possibility of a match against Gordon:

[He] said “no”, but there’s part of me that thinks he might accept it.
Either way, if he fully declines, at least everybody knows that he fully declined a match with me and that doesn’t make him look good.

His whole spiel is technique is very valuable.
He’s, like: “Oh I teach the best technique, whether you’re big and strong or small and not as strong, you can use it.”

But it’s like, alright, well why are you taking gear to be stronger?

If your Jiu-Jitsu is that good, take the Lachlan Giles route and sub the big dudes without needing all the extracurriculars.