Gordon Ryan has levied some bold accusations against his opponent Nicky Rodriguez, stating that he believes he was greasing during their match at UFC FightPass Invitational 3. Originally, Ryan was due to face Vinny Magalhaes in a rematch at the event but unfortunately Magalhaes withdrew from the bout. At the last minute, Rodriguez stepped up and was moved from the event’s absolute tournament into the superfight against Ryan. The match went to EBI overtime in the end and was closer than most that fans have seen Ryan in lately, but he believes that some part of that was due to lotion:
“The moment he started sweating, he definitely was lotioned and the lotion came out. I couldn’t get a hold of him. He was so slippery.”
Gordon Ryan went into detail on the match he had with Nicky Rodriguez, analysing the actual match itself outside of the greasing accusations. Rodriguez approached his guard conservatively, staying low as he attempted to pass:
“His head was down and hips were back and low and he was not doing anything so I already knew that it was gonna be a long match.”
Ryan also addressed one of the key talking points that came about from the match, the toehold that Rodriguez caught him with at one point. It happened when Ryan had managed to work his way to 50/50 and was attempting to get some heel exposure, but Rodriguez was defending well. Rodriguez then turned to take the toehold grip on Ryan’s free leg and cranked hard on it while it gave out some audible pops. According to Ryan those pops were a sign of some damage, although nothing particularly bad:
“My ankle popped when he attacked a toe hold. It’s no big deal, I’ll be ok in two days.”
The full interview with Gordon Ryan where he accuses Nicky Rodriguez of greasing during their match was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of MMA Mania:
