Gordon Ryan has a lot of reasons to be confident. The American grappler managed to win nearly every single relevant BJJ title that there is out there and is undefeated in his last 53 matches.
This prompted Ryan to boast about how he would fare against some of MMA’s best grapplers. The names mentioned were Khabib Nurmagomedov and Khamzat Chimaev and Ryan doesn’t think it would even be a competitive situation.
A fan on Gordon Ryan’s Instagram questioned the outcome, to which Ryan responded:
“Generalists usually won’t beat specialists in their domain. Generalists never beat the absolute best specialists. A submission grappling match wouldn’t be competitive, objectively.”
Fans then asked him about Nurmagomedov:
“Khabib is a generalist. These are very silly questions lol. No one who specializes in jiu-jitsu can beat me. Why would an MMA fighter be able to?”
Khabib Nurmagomedov was once close to making it into a special match at ADCC. According to an episode of Matburn podcast, ADCC organizer Mo Jassim was eager to get Khabib but Khabib declined even prior to his retirement. In recent history Khabib discussed the possibility of a grappling match against Georges St Pierre and dismissed the likelihood of it happening in spite of some of his Eagle FC promoters wanting to stage the event.
Another very controversial grappler, Dillon Danis, also answered if he thinks he could beat Khabib in grappling.
“In straight grappling? Ahh, come on.” Danis said.
The reporter then replied: “Yeah? Easy Work?”
“Yeah, come on everybody knows that though. But it’s not my fight. It’s Connor’s fight.”
Despite not holding any major black belt titles, Danis became known for being an up-and-coming prospect in BJJ. The Marcelo Garcia blackbelt later transitioned to MMA and became the training partner of Conor McGregor.
In the past, Metamoris became known for involving grappling matches between MMA fighters and professional grapplers. Even Dillon Danis faced an MMA fighter in one of Metamoris’ events.
In Metamoris VI, Dillon Danis faced the UFC Lightweight veteran Joe Lauzon. The match ended with Danis submitting Lauzon with a D’arce choke five minutes into the fight.