Craig Jones recently gave his assessment of his old rival Gordon Ryan’s grappling style, and he was surprisingly complimentary. Jones took part in an interview with his own brother, fellow grappler Adam Jones, and they spoke about a number of different topics throughout. Although they spoke about the Craig Jones Invitational and the challenges involved with putting that together, but the conversation eventually turned to Ryan. Having competed against him multiple times and shared the mats with him for a very long time as a member of the Danaher Death Squad, Jones knows more than most about his grappling skills.
The first comments he made on Ryan were pretty positive but in true Jones fashion, he couldn’t resist cracking a joke:
“He is the best grappler ever. But, like, if that’s if that’s the life it gives you, like brother, have you tried having a friend. You know what I mean? Like, do you need a hug? That’s honestly the feelings I feel towards him. It’s like I kinda want the best for him and if I have to make fun of him to do it, I’ll do it.”
He later went on to talk about his grand plans for the future of CJI, and he actually praised another one of his former teammates alongside Ryan:
“Gordon (Ryan) is unquestionably the best grappler in the world and I think from a historical perspective, Garry Tonon is one of the most exciting. He’s probably the most exciting grappler we’ve ever had.”
Craig Jones then made an observation about Gordon Ryan’s massive social media following, and how his style has fed into that:
“From a spectator point of view… For outside viewers, to be like Gordon and be unbeaten, to not have a blip in his record, to not have a f*ck up is really very rare in combat sports, which is what draws viewers in to him. I think he has his following in spite of his persona, not because of it. I think just his five, six year run, that alone is what draws in the viewers. Not necessarily his personality.“
That’s when he also related that back to Ryan’s success off the mats as well. When it comes to instructionals, there’s nobody else in the world who sells more than Ryan:
“Gordon’s style is perfection. I would say it’s perfection. It’s low risk, most people can replicate it, which is why he’s the bestselling instructor. He’s good at teaching and he performs those moves in high-level competition.”
That’s when Craig Jones made his final point about Gordon Ryan’s style, and how he looks at it from the perspective of one of the world’s biggest professional grappling promoters:
”In terms of a viewer or spectator perspective, I’d rather have an organization full of Andrew Tackett vs Kade Ruotolo style matches than this unstoppable champ like Gordon. Because again if Gordon does lose, that magic vanishes. Whereas if you have an organization built on guys that are exciting to watch win or lose, like a Charles Oliveira style, the organization itself is always guaranteed to deliver entertainment.”
The full interview with Craig Jones where he shares his thoughts on Gordon Ryan’s grappling style was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of A Quick Razz:
