Gordon Ryan has seen a meteoric rise in the world of combat sports. The American holds an indomitable record of winning the coveted ADCC Championships 5 times. He is also regarded by many to be the best ‘no-gi’ submission grappler to ever grace the sport. ‘The Iron Dragon’ was also signed by the Asia-based global MMA promotion, ONE Championship. But, unluckily, the viewers of ONE never got the opportunity to see him in a showdown. Ryan also said that never competing inside the circle was definitely a regret for him.

Recently, Ryan appeared on the podcast of the known MMA coverage personality, Ariel Helwani, and talked about a volley of stuff. He also revealed the reason why he never had the chance to compete in ONE Championship.

Ryan described how natural occurrences and many more factors made him stay away from the circle of ONE despite him being well under their contract.

What restricted Gordon Ryan from competing in ONE Championship?

Helwani started off the discussion regarding this issue. He stated, “I remember when you signed with ONE. That was a really big deal.”. Helwani threw a question at Ryan right after this. He asked, “But the ONE deal kind of just came and went and now you’re no longer with ONE. How come?”.

The regret was apparent in ‘The Iron Dragon’s’ voice as he described his untoward tenure with ONE Championship.

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Ryan stated, “Yeah. With ONE I felt so bad because I just signed with them, I think, in the beginning of the, it was 2020. And then … COVID happened, so I wasn’t able to compete. And then, right when everything was starting to open up again, my stomach hurt so bad that I couldn’t compete anymore.”

He also revealed that he had some contract-related issues with ONE authority which restricted him from competing in the circle. Ryan also said, “We had to re-negotiate contracts and we just never came to an agreement.” It may be agreed that this was when the final string attaching ONE and Ryan was ripped.

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Ryan was also aware of ONE’s plan of hosting an event in the US. He expressed his regret saying, “When the ONE comes to the US, I felt so bad about not competing.” He had also planned a step to pacify his regret.

Ryan stated, “I’ll do a grappling match for free for ONE. Just because I have been a part of the organization for two and a half years or two years whatever I was. But, I was not able to compete.”

Gordon Ryan would love a return to ONE Championship after an amicable contract

Ryan stressed that despite being out of ONE’s contract, he had good relations with the authority of ONE Championship. Talking about his preferred agreement, he said, “I’ll do it if they offer me enough money but it’s just gonna have to be a lot of money.”

‘The Iron Dragon’ also looked hopeful about competing in ONE as he stated, “I think I definitely want to compete for ONE again.” He also corrected his mistake saying, “No! ONE for the first time, do my debut because it’s interesting, they have a big audience, specially all over Asia.”

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He further stated, “ONE has been nothing but great to me. It’s just a matter of coming to terms on agreements and getting out there and competing”. Quite expectedly, the ONE audience will also be enthralled to see ‘The Iron Dragon’ compete inside the circle.

Do you want to see Ryan competing inside the circle as well?