Gordon Ryan has just revealed in an interview with Combate that he has had some very lucrative offers to make the transition to professional MMA in the past. While plenty of BJJ stars have decided to move to MMA and been compensated well for it, Ryan is one of only a handful that have decided to stick with their original sport. That decision becomes all the more surprising after the hearing him explain that he’s actually received seven-figure offers from MMA organizations. He didn’t go into detail on exactly which promotions had made these offers, but Ryan did previously sign a professional grappling contract with ONE Championship.
In an interview with Combate (translated back from Portuguese), he explained exactly when his career path changed from moving to MMA to staying with no gi Jiu-Jitsu.
“I was actually planning on fighting MMA in 2019, but I tore my lateral collateral ligament, and when I was coming back from this surgery, I had to go straight into camp for the ADCC because I competed seven months exactly after my surgery, so the second I came out of surgery , I had to enter the camp. I was going to start fighting at the beginning of 2019, then I had to enter the camp, then I won two golds (at ADCC), and I started to get pulled back into jiu-jitsu. I won the absolute, then I had the biggest superfight in history with André (Galvao) , and now I have to defend the superfight title, and my teammates haven’t won the absolute yet, and now I’m 28.”
“And John is never wrong about anything, and he says, “You’re already the best no-gi competitor of all time, you make a lot of money, there’s no reason for you to fight MMA. You already make more than most fighters in the world. UFC, you have an established legacy in this sport and you’re not even close to your peak yet. You should keep doing this and be the absolute, undisputed best of all time, to the point that even when you’ve been dead for 50 years, no one has a record next.” But yes, I’ve received seven-figure offers to fight MMA, for sure.”
