Jiu Jitsu ace challenges CWFC champion Pimblett to face 15-year-old brother

Paddy Pimblett is used to receiving challenges from fellow fighters, he’s the Cage Warriors featherweight champion but this time around the challenge has come from an unlikely source, at least for those who don’t follow professional Jiu Jitsu.

Mr Gordon Ryan.

Gordon Ryan is a Garry Tonon black belt – Garry himself is a black belt under former Bellator and UFC fighter Tom DeBlass – and is the current EBi (Eddie Bravo invitational) middleweight and open weight champion. He’s also renowned for having the loudest mouth in Jiu Jitsu and has garnered a reputation for calling out every competitor he can for super fights. Thus far, he has been hugely successful against those he has faced, dominating his opposition and usually submitting them all with the ‘Danaher Death Squad’ trademark heel hook, including against whizz Keenan Cornelius in a match that went 90 minutes before a finish.

It appears now that Ryan fancies himself some of the MMA spotlight and has issued a challenge on Instagram to Pimblett for a grappling match with his 15 year old brother, Nicky. 

To an outsider this would appear ridiculous, a 15-year old-kid against a BJJ brown belt who competes in MMA. However, Nicky Ryan has been submitting black belts this past year even though he holds no official rank in BJJ and his coach, John Danaher (Jiu Jitsu savant and Renzo Gracie black belt) stated recently that he won’t get his blue belt until he’s 16. The challenge by Ryan was that Pimblett puts up TWO THOUSAND pounds of his own cash against two thousand of Ryan’s in a 15 minute No-Gi superfight, winner takes all. 

Pimblett happily accepted the challenge on the comments of Gordon Ryan’s post before calling for a match with Gordon Ryan himself, although it would cost Pimblett a cool FIFTEEN THOUSAND pound to face the EBi champion.

Whilst I’m sure Pimblett’s grappling is very, very good, he may need to be careful facing off against a member of the ‘Danaher Death Squad’ as they are supremely talented and ferocious grapplers and Pimblett could end up on the wrong side of a heel hook in seconds, although I’m sure the Liverpudlian would relish the challenge.