Gordon Ryan plays coy on competing at ADCC 2026 at UFC 310: “We'll see how it plays out"

Gordon Ryan is the most decorated athlete in the history of the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championships. He holds six titles across a seven-year span, and is widely considered the best submission grappler of all-time. However, 'The King' refused to confirm whether he'd compete at the 2026 edition of ADCC, a surprising revelation, with him being only 29 years old.

Ryan was in attendance for UFC 310 on Dec. 7, where he appeared in front of the media to answer questions. He was asked about the likelihood of him competing at ADCC in two years time, and said:

"Well yeah, Kaynan [Duarte] called me out. Everyone calls me out, so here we are. I'm just trying to rehab my knee. I had an ACL and PCL sprain and a grade two LCL tear... Mo [Jassim] stepped down from ADCC, so someone is gonna take [over] ADCC. I wasn't going to do this ADCC this last time [in 2024]. But I felt like I owed it to Mo, and I felt like it would be important to me to break the all-time gold medal record for John [Danaher] our coach."

He continued:

"But [2026], we'll see. We'll see how it plays out. Number one, the main thing is just my health. Getting my stomach to a point where I can actually grapple well. Number two. we'll see what ADCC becomes in 2026... I really have no reason to do it unless I'm healthy enough and there's some kind of incentive."

Check out Gordon Ryan's comments below (8:05):

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Gordon Ryan slams Mikey Musumeci's UFC Fight Pass debut

Mikey Musumeci, one of the best pound-for-pound submission grapplers in the world, recently signed an exclusive deal with UFC Fight Pass. He made his debut at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 9 against Felipe Machado on Dec. 5, but his performance did not go to plan.

'Darth Rigatoni' hoped to secure a submission win, but was instead kept to a victory on points in overtime, a somewhat surprising result. With Musumeci and Gordon Ryan having shared a feud for the past year or two, 'The King' took aim at the former ONE Championship grappler on Instagram following his match.

Ryan's Instagram story was posted to X by @mmamania, as he wrote:

"[Public service announcement] - 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. Sucks to suck."

Check out Gordon Ryan's post below: