The beef between Gordon Ryan and Lucas “Hulk” Barbosa along with the rest of ATOS has intensified after he released a ten-minute long answer to Barbosa’s armbar attempt against Yuri Simoes in his quarter-final matchup at BJJ Stars 5. Gordon Ryan started out by criticizing the IBJJF World Champion’s performance and claimed that this explained why he was so reluctant to take up a challenge that was issued previously, for both men to release videos demonstrating an armbar to find out who was the better teacher.
After this, Ryan made good on his promise and he uploaded a ten-minute long video to his official instagram account showing several different options that Barbosa could have chosen from the position he was in. This was just the latest in a long line of public spats between Ryan and several different key members of ATOS, but at least this time the fans have got something out of it that they can use themselves. Ryan isn’t just all talk however, as he has actually defeated Barbosa in competition on two separate occasions, once on points back at ADCC 2019 and once by judge’s decision at F2W 30 in 2017.
Not just Barbosa either, Ryan has also had a run-in with another of ATOS’ elite representatives Kaynan Duarte back at the 2018 IBJJF no gi Pan-Ams where he won by Rear-Naked Choke. These matches along with the recent back-and-forth between Ryan and basically anyone from ATOS on social media serve as a lengthy build-up to the match that everyone has been waiting for; Andre Galvao v Gordon Ryan. While ADCC head organizer Mo Jassim wasn’t able to guarantee that the match would be taking place, we should finally get to see the two men meet at ADCC 2022 in a battle for the superfight championship.
