Gordon Ryan will look to tie the score against Felipe Pena when they face off for the 4th time on February 25th.
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Gordon Ryan is largely considered the greatest of all time in the no-gi jiu jitsu world. He’s won ADCC (the olympics of jiu jitsu) 5 times, he won the ADCC super fights against Andre Galvao who hasn’t been beaten in that rule set for 15 years, hes a multiple time world champion, and hes single handily put jiu jitsu on the map.
So its sometimes strange to think that he lost to the same person twice.
Felipe Pena has flown under the radar for most of his career, winning the occasional world championship but not getting much recognition for it.
When a young Gordon Ryan was coming up the ranks, Felipe Pena was in theory the perfect step up for him in competition. He challenged Felipe Pena to a match with 10 thousand dollars of each men’s own money on the line. Everybody expected Gordon Ryan to win the match. The hype behind him at the time was unmatched.
Felipe Pena shut down the hype fast though when he tapped Gordon Ryan out with a rear naked choke.
Gordon was fuming but was confident that when they met in the final at the next ADCC he would get the win.
Then Pena beat him again, even hitting him with the exact same move for the win.
Pena stopped competing as much the next few years and Gordon dominated the rest of the competition destroying everyone in his path. Gordon begged for the rematch for years though and Pena always declined saying Gordon didn’t deserve it.
Then 5 years after their second meeting Pena finally accepted.
Gordon dominated the match up, putting Pena in trouble multiple times. When the match reached the half hour point Pena tapped out. Gordon didn’t even have a submission on. Pena said “he just wasn’t feeling it.”
Gordon Ryan has all the momentum in the world behind him, and Felipe Pena is coming off of a few tough losses. I fully expect Gordon to dominate this match, but I wont count Pena out yet as hes proved he can beat Gordon twice before.
Watch this match live on FLOGRAPPLING February 25th.