Gordon Ryan sounds off on Andre Galvao: ‘He’s mediocre everywhere’

We are now less than nine months away from the 2022 ADCC Championships, and the trash talk between Gordon Ryan and Andre Galvao is already at full-steam. At the event, the two are slated to compete in one of the most anticipated superfights in ADCC history.

In a recent interview with FloGrappling, Ryan spoke about Galvao and the ADCC superfight. Watch the full interview here.

“Now [Galvao] has to actually show up,” Ryan said. “He’s in a kind of tough spot, if he shows up he’s gonna get submitted and if he doesn’t show up then everyone is gonna think he’s a loser and he’s afraid.”

The rivalry between Galvao and Ryan has been simmering for years. Following his fourth consecutive ADCC superfight win at the 2019 ADCC Championships, Galvao publicly flirted with retirement from competition. Ryan won double gold at that same event and has looked nothing short of dominant since then, building anticipation for a Galvao/Ryan superfight at the 2021 ADCC Championships. But with the global COVID-19 pandemic, that event became the 2022 ADCC Championships.

Adding to that anticipation was a war of words on social media that lasted months, with Ryan trying to prod Galvao out of apparent retirement. That war of words culminated in an altercation in early 2021 between Galvao and Ryan in which Ryan slapped Galvao. In May 2021, Ryan announced an indefinite leave of absence from competition, citing ongoing health concerns. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that Galvao had accepted the 2022 ADCC superfight, and he had accepted it before Ryan had announced his break from competition. 

Before breaking down his upcoming match against Galvao, Ryan broke down the 2019 ADCC superfight between Galvao and Felipe Pena. Notably, Pena holds a pair of victories over Ryan.

“It was pretty much how I thought it was gonna go,” Ryan said. “I didn’t expect Felipe to break mentally that fast and get exhausted like he did, probably because he was partying in Mykonos like two weeks before he had to go to ADCC so that was probably a big part of it, because he’s an unprofessional s***bag.”

Ryan then commented on Galvao’s strengths and weaknesses as an opponent.

He’s not really impressive anywhere besides the fact that he has good cardio, he keeps going, and that’s really about it. His jiu-jitsu is not great. He has really good quality of movement, he moves his body well. He can move fast in and out, he can move fast side to side, he can invert, he can do all the stuff you need. But technically, in the standing position he doesn’t look great, his hand fighting is not great. His shots are okay, not great. His submission wrestling is terrible… Guard isn’t great. Passing is atrocious. He’s mediocre everywhere besides the fact that he’s tactically good, physically intimidating for most people, and that’s pretty much about it.

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