Former wrestler and current BJJ competitor Brandon Reed has just issued a challenge to Gordon Ryan for a wrestling match after the two have gone back and forth on social media recently. It isn’t the first time that competitors have called out Ryan of course, and he’s gotten into several disagreements with other popular figures in the sport in the past. This particular beef actually stems from one of the most recent instructionals that Ryan has released. That might seem like an unusual topic of debate but it’s actually relevant to Reed personally, as it was centred around scrimmage wrestling and Reed is a veteran wrestler himself.
It all started with a recent interview that Reed did, where he complained about Ryan’s use of the term scrimmage wrestling in general:
“Peak cringe lately has been like Gordon Ryan consistently saying scrimmage wrestling, like dude what the f**k is that? It doesn’t make any sense… Gordon’s okay, like he’s a weirdo but… Everyone knows my opinion on it… He kinda low-key disses all the wrestlers in Jiu-Jitsu. He’s like ‘guys you’re getting these instructionals from wrestlers in Jiu-Jitsu, you need to get my scrimmage wrestling instructional. This is the real stuff for Jiu-Jitsu.’ I’m like ‘Gordon, what are you talking about bro?’”
Gordon Ryan actually shared the footage of the clip to his own social media account and directly called out Brandon Reed for his statements, referencing some wrestling exchanges that they had during a previous training session together:
“Brandon Reed remember the 1 time we trained in a 20-minute round, and I beat the p**s out of you so bad that you couldn’t get up at the end of the round that was only wrestling and basically no jiu jitsu because I kept letting you stand up ? Also, remember how I scored about 847 points on you under ADCC takedown rules, and you scored 0 on me because you have no idea how to scrimmage? You wanna market wrestling, fine by me, but don’t come at me knowing how our wrestling exchanges went. Come at me with your s****y not even D1 skills, gtfo lol.”
That’s when Brandon Reed decided to challenge Gordon Ryan to a wrestling match and it came about from the comments that Ryan made about his college career:
“You’re right I do suck at bjj and might never get good. You’re also right I didn’t wrestle d1. I was never one of the best wrestlers. I was only a 3x NAIA National Champion (90-19) & multiple time Fargo All-American who went to a school that paid for everything and treated me right. I had a Mediocre college career at best. With that being said, you said I’m a BAD wrestler. Wild take from a guy who’s never wrestled a match before. I’ll never take you out in bjj. Never said I would. I never disrespected you. I said you’re weird for saying scrimmage instead of scramble. I also said you’re impossible to score on in ADCC and complimented you in the same clip. But you still crashed out. So, no more talking or saying I suck. Prove your words. No one cares that you can smash me under bjj rules. You’ve done it for 15 years, trained with the best coach ever, had the best partners, and I’ve done it for 4 years, 1x a day. If I’m so bad at my sport, Beat me in a WRESTLING match. 6 mins with traditional freestyle rules. Since im a terrible NAIA wrestler after all. It should be easy to take me out in my own ruleset and then you can promote your DVD! And no, I know I can’t beat you or even score on you in bjj. Never said I could. You’re the GOAT. I’ve always been nice to you and complimented you. I have viral videos talking good things about you. But you said you were a better wrestler than me and ragged on my college career (insane coming from someone who didn’t even wrestle in college). So let’s do the sport of wrestling (my sport) and see how you actually do. Shoes and all. Or stop talking shit about my wrestling career because you have 0 titles at any level, zero wins, and zero notable accolades in the sport of wrestling. Your bjj opinion means nothing in our world – no matter how much you think it does. I’m done responding to stupid story and being attacked by BJJ people for no reason. Never hear Jordan Burroughs crashing out for nothing a fan said.”
It might seem like an unusual challenge but it isn’t without precedent, as Ryan has actually already had a wrestling match with Pat Downey back in 2020. That was part of a pair of matches and although it ended with Downey registering a very quick technical fall, Ryan won the Jiu-Jitsu match by submission. Reed is already conceding that he isn’t going to beat Ryan in a Jiu-Jitsu match though, so all that’s left is to have a wrestling match at that point.
The full challenge from Brandon Reed for a wrestling match with Gordon Ryan was shared to his official Instagram account:
