Gordon Ryan has had huge success in no time-limit matches during his Jiu-Jitsu career, but even he acknowledges that they’re not the best way to watch the sport as a fan. It’s hardly a controversial opinion of course, as many no time-limit matches end up being a grinding slog for well over an hour. On the other hand, many competitors and fans see them as the purest form of the sport as submission is the only method of victory. This means that the general BJJ community feeling about true submission-only matches without a time-limit is pretty mixed to say the least.
It would be reasonable to assume that Gordon Ryan would be a fan of no time-limit matches though, as he’s had many of them during his career and has even specifically asked for them on certain occasions. In fact, some of the biggest moments in his career have come under that ruleset and one of the early major victories that helped catapult him to the top of the sport was a heel hook win over Keenan Cornelius after 90 minutes. Even though they’ve generally worked out well for him as a competitor, Ryan agrees that no time-limit matches aren’t the best for fans:
“It’s not spectator-friendly. It’s just to determine who’s better at Jiu-Jitsu, but no time-limit matches for spectators are just atrocious because who the f**k wants to watch four hours of Jiu-Jitsu? Like most people don’t want to watch ten minutes of Jiu-Jitsu. So who wants to watch, like, a two-hour match?”
Ryan went on to explain why he believes they still hold value from a competitive perspective:
“They’re important to have sometimes just to show who’s the best, because you actually have to do Jiu-Jitsu and know how to do submissions. Well, not in the Felipe (Pena) match because there wasn’t a submission… but you have to be better at Jiu-Jitsu than the other guy. There’s no stalling and playing tactics for ten minutes and winning by advantage or two points.”
The main goal right now for Jiu-Jitsu is to increase popularity and become a more mainstream sport. Ryan believes that’s better done with other rulesets though:
“They have their place, but to build the sport to a spectator sport, no time-limit’s not the way.“
The full interview with Gordon Ryan where he gives his thoughts on no time-limit matches was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of The Joe Rogan Experience:
