Gordon Ryan has taken the Brazilian jiu-jitsu world by storm in recent years, as his astonishing string of championship titles attests to his remarkable proficiency.
Gordon Ryan has been one of the most successful grappling athletes in recent memory, and he’s only 27 years old. He’s won multiple world championships in both no-gi and gi divisions and is a two-time ADCC champion.
Unfortunately though, not all the attention he receives has been positive. In 2018, one of his former Renzo Gracie teammates Matthew Kaplan accused him of using steroids to achieve unparalleled success – pointing to Ryan’s remarkably quick weight gain from 147 pounds to 197 pounds within just three months prior as proof that he was using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Not everyone was convinced though and some alleged that if anyone besides Gordon Ryan knew whether or not he was taking steroids it would probably be Kaplan himself – so his accusation raised a lot of questions about its validity.
Ryan denied the claim and no concrete proof was ever presented either way to provide evidence that he had or hadn’t used PEDs, leaving fans with nothing more than confusing rumors surrounding their beloved champion.
Other than being hospitalized shortly after ballooning up 50 pounds in such short notice, no other evidence has ever been presented to suggest that Gordon Ryan was using PEDs.
In the interview, Gordon made it very clear that not everyone was on steroids. His team was the only one who do not use them.
As far as his own transformation is concerned, it appears he has opted for a more natural approach – an aggressive stretching program – rather than taking any performance enhancing drugs.
Despite these allegations, he believes that most people who talk about such things have never accomplished anything close to what he has achieved; this doesn’t concern him too much.
His new physique looks like something unleashed from the pits of Hell, making it completely understandable why no one would want to face him in competition, whether he’s a world-class pro or a white belt.