This article is part of our ADCC 2024 coverage. To get live results, play by play, and commentary, we’ll have a live updates article running all weekend.
Yuri Simoes is set to challenge Gordon Ryan for the superfight championship at ADCC 2024 and he’s just opened up about the match itself. It’s undoubtedly going to be one of the biggest matches of the year and the superfight at the ADCC world championship is the only match in the BJJ world that fans can look forward to for two years. Fans knew that this was going to be the ADCC 2024 superfight all the way back at ADCC 2022, thanks to the performances that both Simoes and Ryan put on at the event.
Before anything related to the superfight championship happened, Ryan won the over 99kg division with one of the best performances in ADCC history and Simoes lost in the quarter-final of the under 99kg division by dropping a close decision to Nicholas Meregali. It wasn’t either of these divisions that set the wheels in motion for this epic rematch though, and the first steps toward it happened after the conclusion of the regular weight classes. Simoes started out strong when the absolute division started, putting on a tough and gritty display to win his first three matches and set up a rematch with Meregali in the final.
Simoes got his revenge and defeated Meregali in another close match, taking home gold in the absolute division. That gave Simoes the automatic right to challenge for the superfight championship, but he still had to wait for one match to find out who he’d be facing. That’s when Ryan put on an absolute clinic against the reigning champion Andre Galvao, dethroning him and becoming the superfight champion for the first time. That meant that the main event for ADCC 2024 was set as Yuri Simoes challenging Gordon Ryan, as is customary, for the superfight championship.
This won’t be the first time that the two men have met in competition though, with the first time dating all the way back to 2016 when Ryan submitted Simoes in overtime at EBI 6. The pair met again in a superfight at Kasai a year later, with Ryan winning by submission once again. It was another year before their next two matches happened, with them meeting in both the ultra-heavyweight and the absolute division at the IBJJF no gi world championship in 2018. Ryan won the match in their weight class by an impressive 11-point margin, but the final of the absolute division was significantly closer, with him winning by a single advantage. As it stands, Gordon Ryan holds a perfect 4-0 record against Yuri Simoes so it’ll be interesting to see if Simoes can make the necessary adjustments to win the superfight championship at ADCC 2024.
Yuri Simoes opened up about the upcoming match against Gordon Ryan for the superfight championship at ADCC 2024 on his official Instagram account:
