Gordon Ryan decided to reveal some private messages between him and fellow elite BJJ competitor, Felipe Pena, on his official Instagram account just yesterday. The exchange between the two athletes is pretty much the furthest thing from civil imaginable, although that’s hardly surprising knowing Ryan’s penchant for trying to get under his opponent’s skin. What is surprising however is how willing Pena was to go on the offensive as well, insulting the most recent ADCC Double Champion and giving just as good as he got in the exchange.
The pair first met back in 2016 in a superfight for Studio 540 where Felipe Pena submitted Gordon Ryan with a Rear-Naked Choke, to mark the first, and to date the only, time that Ryan would tap in black belt competition. It wasn’t long before they met again, this time in 2017 on the very biggest stage of the sport, at the ADCC Absolute final match. In the rematch, Pena won again although slightly less decisively this time as the match lasted the full length and he won 6-0 on points to deny Ryan his first shot at getting double gold at ADCC.
In the years that have followed, Ryan has only lost one more match against Vinny Magalhaes by decision and has gone on to establish himself as the biggest name in no gi grappling. Pena meanwhile has added a few more IBJJF World Championship medals to his collection and lost an incredibly close match on the scoreboards to Andre Galvao at the ADCC 2019 superfight. Most recently, he dominated Erberth Santos at BJJ Bet until he tapped verbally, although news surfaced later that he had suffered an ankle injury. One thing is certain, the bad blood and interesting history between the pair should make any promoter eager to arrange the third match.
