Marcelo Garcia recently sat down for an interview with MMAFighting recently and at one point they ended up discussing Gordon Ryan, along with his claim of being the greatest no gi grappler of all time. There are few people on the planet better-positioned to have an opinion on this topic too, as not only is Garcia one of the other people in contention for that title but he’s also shared the mats with the other popular choice; Roger Gracie. Garcia is able to share a unique perspective on the question and although his answer might seem surprising to the current generation of competitors, he has the benefit of years of experience watching and competing in the sport.
When he was first asked about Gordon Ryan being the greatest of all time, Marcelo Garcia was open about the fact that he thinks there’s still more work to be done:
“He’s at the top right now, but it’s hard to say he’s the greatest of all-time. I don’t want to be a hypocrite here. I know I’ve done a lot. I’ve done a lot being the size I am, 170 pounds, and facing the best in my weight class and the absolute, guys that were bigger than me, and imagining that many people were using steroids. And I imagine many of this new generation out there are using steroids. He’s at the top right now, but it’s hard to say he’s the greatest of all-time. I don’t want to be a hypocrite here. I know I’ve done a lot. I’ve done a lot being the size I am, 170 pounds, and facing the best in my weight class and the absolute, guys that were bigger than me, and imagining that many people were using steroids. And I imagine many of this new generation out there are using steroids.”
Garcia is famously one of the few grapplers to be outspoken against PEDs in the sport, while Ryan is one of the most open about taking them himself. That’s a big difference between the two men and although Garcia thinks that Ryan definitely could be considered the greatest of all time in the future, that’s a difference he thinks is worth noting:
“If he continues to compete and no one beats him, and continues to have the performances he’s putting on, you can’t say (he’s not the GOAT), and he’s young too. Of course he can be that guy. But I can say all I’ve done was steroid-free. I don’t know that’s the case with Gordon. To me, that’s a decisive point, if someone needed extra help or not. Like people say, ‘that person didn’t come alone’. I was alone every single time, only with my training and my technique. And when people say, ‘Oh, but everybody uses it.’ Not to me. That excuse doesn’t make sense to me.”
The interview with Garcia only came about because he’s making his return to competition after more than a decade away at ONE 170, and he explained that it all links together. One of the reasons he decided to make a comeback was to show what’s possible without the assistance of PEDs:
“And that’s one of the reasons why I’m coming back to fighting because I want to prove you don’t need that. And how do we prove that? To me, if someone has used (PEDs) once, he’s already contaminated. You’ve cheated the game. I have to defend that because that’s how it always was for me. I wish the young ones; my children, if one day they decide to compete and be successful, I don’t want them to depend on that.”
