Gordon Ryan is never one to shy away from talking about the business side of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and it’s no secret that he’s been financially rewarded from his career either. However, things weren’t always easy for Ryan who recently detailed how he bet his entire net worth to double his money as a younger grappler.
In an Instgram post he stated “Story time – in 2016 @nycdivorcelawyer was supposed to sponsor a match of mine in nyc. At the time I had beaten Keenan and won EBI at black belt. Myself and munch from MGA (where he trains) got into some shit talking. He threatened me and said “you will have to stop attacking him or I will pull your funding”. Basically, “do what I say or else”. At the time I had $10,400 to my name and was doing a 10K bet match (yes I was putting up my own 10K) and he was putting an extra 2K on top for the winner. When I decided to follow his “orders”, he pulled my funding and publically told me “have fun working at a lemonade stand in 5 years”. I got someone to host my match, the same day, for double what he offered me (4K). I put up all of my money and doubled my net worth in a day. Since then I’ve won everything, beat everyone on his team, and make more money every month than he makes in a year. @nycdivorcelawyer I don’t forget”
In brief, according to Ryan, he was told by a possible match sponsor that he’d be working at a lemonade stand and had the funding pulled by the said sponsor. Since then, the rest has been history and Ryan has gone on to do bigger and better things.
