During a recent appearance on the “Connect Cast” podcast, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt Kaynan Duarte revealed a disagreement with fellow grappler Gordon Ryan that occurred during a training camp hosted by ADCC organizer Mo Jassim. According to Duarte, he declined Ryan’s request to film their training sessions, which reportedly caused friction between the two athletes.
Specifically, Duarte said on the matter: “In my first year as a black belt, I fought Gordon Ryan, but he doesn’t mention my name much. There was a time when we did a camp with Mo Jassim, and he invited some athletes. At the time I accepted, but he wanted to record the behind-the-scenes of the camp and I didn’t feel comfortable appearing on camera, because I was out of shape and not training optimally,” stated Duarte. “There I trained with Gordon, we had some good training in the first few days, but then he ‘crushed’ me. I just didn’t want to appear in the videos,” Duarte added.
According to Ryan, this footage would have been auctioned off for charity which is the main reason why the Austin based grappler was annoyed by Duarte’s actions.
Duarte, a two-time ADCC champion and three-time IBJJF World champion, holds a slight age advantage over Ryan, who is 26 years old. Notably, Duarte secured a decisive victory against Fabricio Andrey in the open grand prix finale of Polaris 25 in October 2021, clinching the $30,000 prize with a rear-naked choke submission.
Charles Vieira
Charles Vieira is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu brown belt. He has travelled the world extensively training on 4 continents.