Gordon Ryan slams comparison between Jon Jones and Alex Pereira’s UFC double champ paths: “These stupid stats"

Gordon Ryan believes that any comparisons between Jon Jones' and Alex Pereira's paths to UFC double-champion status are futile. 'The King' recently went online to defend 'Bones' over a statistic highlighting the length of time both Jones and Pereira took to attain a second title.

The American became the youngest UFC champion of all-time, at 23 years old, after beating Mauricio Rua at UFC 128 for the light-heavyweight title. Fast-forward 12 years to Jones making his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285, where he submitted the Frenchman in Round 1 to win the vacant belt.

Comparitively, 'Poatan' secured the middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 281 after only three promotional appearances. He lost to Adesanya in an immediate rematch, after which Pereira moved to light heavyweight, where he won the title in his second fight at 205 pounds against Jiri Prochazka.

With Ryan having been part of Jones' training camp for his scheduled clash with Stipe Miocic in 2023, it seems that the Brazilian jiu-jitsu phenom holds his teammate in high-regard, coming to his defense online. He recently took to Instagram and wrote:

"Shut up with these stupid stats, lol, the only reason [Jon Jones] didn't win a 2nd title [earlier] is because he didn't move up earlier."

See Gordon Ryan's post below:

Screenshot of Ryan's take on Jones and Pereira's path to two UFC titles

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Gordon Ryan won't be entering ADCC 2024 at 100%

Gordon Ryan is the consensus greatest no-gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete of all-time. He is currently in the final stages of preparation for the biggest no-gi grappling tournament globally, the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) World Championships.

The latest edition of the competition will happen on Aug. 17-18, with 'The King' scheduled to defend his Super Fight titles against Felipe Pena and Yuri Simoes on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

Ryan is the most accomplished ADCC athlete in history, and announced last year that he'd be stepping away from competitions to get his health right for ADCC 2024.

Ahead of his appearance at this year's edition of the tournament, he shared an update on his health, saying:

"This is one of the biggest if not the biggest matches of my life. I'm having a tough time right now. If I could say anything to Felipe right now, if you beat me I'm going to blame it on my stomach issues. But you better not make an excuse if I beat you."

See Gordon Ryan's health update below: