Jump to
Gordon Ryan put out a $500 bounty on his former teammates, but no one was able to cash in.
UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4 ended up as a big night for the B-Team, as the two former DDS grapplers Nicky Rodriguez and Craig Jones both picked up quality wins at the talent stacked BJJ event. “Nicky Rod” was the biggest winner on Thursday night, as he won the $30,000 8-man absolute tournament.
Rodriguez won three matches, and capped it off with a really entertaining overtime victory over New Wave’s Dan Manasoiu in the finals to become the open-weight tournament champion. Shortly after taking the win, Rodriguez called out Manasoiu’s teammate in Gordon Ryan, who was in attendance at the UFC Apex Center.
Full results: Nicky Rodriguez wins $30K BJJ tourney – UFC Fight Pass Invitational 4 results, video highlights
Nicky Rodriguez calls out Gordon Ryan after tournament win
“You see this physique right? You’ve got this guy called Gordon Ryan, who keeps accusing me of being on steroids, right? So let’s do this. All the accusations, let’s do a match, 10-minute match, EBI overtime, but with a catch!” Rodriguez said.
“Let’s both pass USADA tests before and after competition. Pretty fair right? He’s accusing, I’m showing up and competing!” Rodriguez exclaimed. “Let’s get it done.”
Gordon Ryan accused him of PEDs, Nicky Rod got tested
As Rodriguez mentioned, Ryan repeatedly accused him of PED use and greasing in the past in a back and forth that got pretty ugly. As all this talk was happening, Rodriguez was asked to take a random drug test, and he promptly accepted.
Long story short, even if the test was impromptu and relatively close to his match with Ryan, the results seemed to show that Rodriguez was clean and showed no signs of PED use within a pretty reasonable time frame.
Rodriguez previously faced off against Ryan at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 3. Rodriguez actually broke his foot, but the injured Ryan found a way to continue and win the match.
Ryan, whose PED use is pretty much an open secret at this point, is obviously unlikely to accept the terms to this proposed match. Rodriguez probably knows this as well, but he is making a point to highlight the flawed logic behind those accusations.
Either way, the back and forth between these two teammates are just likely to continue.
We are aiming to offer the best grappling and technique writing of any MMA news site. If you want to see more of this kind of work, please subscribe to the Bloody Elbow newsletter and learn how you can support the site.
Join the Bloody Elbow Substack!
Support Bloody Elbow, and get exclusive content.
About the author
