Gordon Ryan was in attendance supporting his teammates at Who’s Number One 27 and that gave him front row seats for the main event of the evening, but he clearly wasn’t impressed with either Nicky Rodriguez or Kaynan Duarte. The match between the two men was one of the biggest in recent memory, as they both had one of the best performances of their respective careers last year. Rodriguez submitted everyone in the over 80kg division at CJI, while Duarte did the same at under 99kg at ADCC 2024. Duarte also became the double champion later that weekend by submitting three out of his four opponents in the ADCC 2024 absolute division as well.
They have both proven themselves to be among the very best heavyweights grapplers in the world, and there was a lot of eyes on this match. It went the distance and Rodriguez ended up winning the decision based on a prolonged period of mount control, but they weren’t the only top heavyweights on the card. Luke Griffith also won a decision over Victor Hugo in the co-main event and that complicated the division’s rankings quite a bit. Griffith already holds a submission win over Duarte from UFC Fight Pass Invitational 7 and Hugo submitted Rodriguez at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 10 just recently.
Gordon Ryan actually pointed this out in his first public comments on the match between Rodriguez and Duarte, using the situation to illustrate the difference between him and them:
Ryan wasn’t just critical of how the last two years’ results have looked for both men though, he was also unimpressed by their actual performance on the mats. Almost half the match played out with Rodriguez on top in mount, attempting to isolate an arm while Duarte tried to stay safe and escape. Although it was a dominant period positionally and it won Rodriguez the decision, Ryan instead criticised the fact that he wasn’t able to finish the match in that time. He also criticised Duarte for not being able to escape the position despite being held there for quite some time, before using the social media post as an opportunity to hint at his instructionals on BJJ Fanatics:
