Gordon Ryan has officially announced his decision to take a hiatus from Jiu-Jitsu due to his ongoing battle with Gastroparesis, as he will now quit competitive BJJ. He has had an incredibly long battle with the stomach condition and it took several years just for him to find out that what he suffered with was Gastroparesis, with it going undiagnosed until very recently. Ryan has been open about the fact that this condition has often hampers his ability to train and has on several occasions meant that his preparation for a competition has been unsatisfactory by his standards.
As he is a fierce competitor and someone who takes his Jiu-Jitsu career incredibly seriously, his decision to temporarily leave the sport does make sense. He’s unable to give 100% of what he’s capable of due to reasons outside of his control, and it would no doubt be devastating for his legacy to be tarnished by subpar performances if his condition worsens. Gordon Ryan made the announcement of his decision to quit competitive BJJ in a post to his official Instagram account where he also explained the logic behind it.
Unfortunately for all Asian MMA fans, this means that his upcoming debut for ONE FC in a grappling match with Shinya Aoki will no longer be going ahead. Even more unfortunately for grappling fans around the world, this will have a devastating effect on the upcoming ADCC World Championships. Not only were organizers hard at work trying to bring Andre Galvao back to defend his superfight title against Gordon Ryan, but there was also plans to allow him to compete in his weightclass as well just so that the fans could see more of him. Now it seems as though both of those plans will have to be put on the backburner.
