BJJ great Gordon Ryan was all set to face his arch-rival and former opponent Felipe Pena in a highly anticipated WNO rematch on February 25. This would follow his victory over Pena in their dual last year in August. However, this much-anticipated clash is not going to see the light of day. ‘The Iron Dragon’ has withdrawn from the bout citing health concerns, leaving Felipe Pena with going for a replacement instead.

‘The Iron Dragon’ even reached out to Pena personally to explain the situation, but unfortunately, the latter was not pleased with Ryan‘s reasoning, leading him to leak Ryan‘s private messages. Despite this setback, the 93-5-3 didn’t shy away from taking responsibility and put out a two-part, lengthy justification for his withdrawal, apologizing to ‘Preguiça’ and the entire BJJ community for this unfortunate occurrence.

Felipe Pena didn’t accept Gordon Ryan‘s apology and justification for withdrawing from their highly anticipated rematch at the last moment. Pena compared the 27-year-old’s situation with his own experience of fighting Ryan on the same day he lost his friend and said that it was not a good enough reason to pull out from a crucial match.

‘Preguiça’ also called Ryan a coward for citing health issues as his reason for withdrawal.

This prompted Ryan to put out a lengthy justification explaining his unfortunate decision. The 27-year-old asserted that he tried his best but failed and apologized to the BJJ community.

Gordon Ryan blames his stomach for the withdrawal

Gordon Ryan‘s two-part apology revealed that he couldn’t fight Felipe Pena due to his stomach issues and high fever, which made him lose 15 lbs. ‘The Iron Dragon’ revealed how in the past, he fought ‘Preguiça’ with food poisoning, and he didn’t want to repeat the same mistake again. Despite his illness, Ryan tried his very best to prepare for the bout, but unfortunately, his efforts were in vain.

The 27-year-old asserted that he felt terrible about how things turned out and went on to apologize further to ‘Preguiça’ and the BJJ community.

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Now that Gordon Ryan is out of the picture, Felipe Pena will face Ryan‘s last opponent; Nick Rodriguez at Tezos WNO. ‘Preguiça’ and Rodriguez are no strangers to each other as they competed against each other back in 2017. Rodriguez, however, prevailed over Pena.

This serves as yet another opportunity for Pena to avenge his loss, if not from Gordon Ryan, then from his new opponent.

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