Gordon Ryan argues in favor of athletes using steroids after Mikey Musumeci's recent criticism: "The best athletes are people on PEDs"

Gordon Ryan recently voiced his disapproval of Mikey Musumeci, who opposes the use of performance-enhancing drugs in the sport of grappling. Ryan hinted that using steroids improves an athlete's performance and appearance, which ultimately leads to better pay.

The ongoing dispute between Ryan and Musumeci, two world-renowned grapplers, has piqued the interest of grappling and combat sports fans. The two have recently exchanged words on their divergent views on the usage of performance-enhancing drugs in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

During the post-fight press conference of UFC 310, Ryan defended his claim of using steroids in grappling, saying:

''The reason people watch professional sports is to see the absolute best athletes in the world do what they do. And when you take performance enhancers, it makes you a better athlete. So I just think that across the board, if people wanna see the best athletes, the best athletes are the people on PEDs...So then you have natural guys competing against juice guys anyways. Whereas if they’re legal, then everybody can just take as many steroids as they want''

Check out Gordon Ryan's comments below (via FULL SEND MMA's X post):

Notably, Ryan was present at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 9 on Dec. 5 at the UFC's Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, which saw Musumeci making his promotional debut in a grappling contest against Felipe Machado. The 29-year-old, who acted as a commentator for the event slammed 'Darth Rigatoni' for his performance, despite the latter winning via points.

In his Instagram story, Ryan wrote:

''Psa- The fact I was able to call little Mike's f**k ups like 5 seconds before they happened just goes to show you that he was never as good as you guys thought. S*cks to s*ck''

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Gordon Ryan discusses his BJJ future

Gordon Ryan had a knee injury during this year's ADCC tournament. Ryan is coming off with victories against Felipe Pena and Yuri Simoes on Aug. 17 and Aug. 18, respectively.

During the aforementioned UFC 310 post-fight press conference, Ryan opened up about competing in future jiu-jitsu tournaments, saying:

''Number one: the main thing is my health, just getting my stomach to a point where I can actually grapple well. And then number two: we’ll see what ADCC becomes in 2026, because this last one, my stomach was so bad. I just did this as a favor to [ADCC organizer] Mo [Jassim]. But now that Mo’s gone, I really have no reason to do it unless I’m healthy enough and there’s some kind of incentive to do it.” [H/t: MMA Mania]