The UFC have just announced that Gordon Ryan will be competing against Mason Fowler in the main event of the night at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 5 on December 9th, 2023. This isn’t the only match that has been confirmed for the event either, as the co-main event will see Ryan’s training partner Nicholas Meregali taking on his old rival Felipe Pena. Both of these matches are fantastic matchups between some of the best competitors on the planet and although the rest of the card hasn’t been announced yet, there will no doubt be several more exciting matches added.
This was the same event that was supposed to see Georges St-Pierre making his return to professional grappling competition for the first time in two decades as well. While the promotion was originally searching for a suitable matchup for St-Pierre, they reportedly eventually settled on his former foe Nick Diaz. Unfortunately for fans everywhere, the match has now had to be postponed as both St-Pierre and Diaz have suffered injuries and cannot compete. Although he won’t be hitting the mats, St-Pierre is still going to be in attendance and working as a guest commentator instead.
Previous UFC Fight Pass Invitational events have varied in format and have included either single-night absolute grand prix tournaments, or originally team grappling tournaments. It’s unclear which direction their fifth event will go in, but either way it’s sure to be a night full of high level grappling action. Most of the attention will naturally be on the main event battle between Gordon Ryan and Mason Fowler though, and it’ll be interesting to see whether Fowler is able to put an end to Ryan’s fantastic winning streak.
UFC Fight Pass announced the news that Gordon Ryan would face Mason Fowler in the main event of UFC Fight Pass Invitational 5 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
