Can Gordon Ryan Beat Mikey Musumeci? BJJ Says Maybe Not
A question that would have sounded like pure trash talk a few years ago is suddenly being asked in earnest in Jiu Jitsu circles: could Gordon Ryan, the most dominant no-gi grappler of his…
A question that would have sounded like pure trash talk a few years ago is suddenly being asked in earnest in Jiu Jitsu circles: could Gordon Ryan, the most dominant no-gi grappler of his generation, actually beat Mikey Musumeci if leg locks are allowed? That's the claim Andrew Tackett put on the table during a recent podcast appearance alongside Demetrious Johnson, and it's worth sitting with, because Tackett isn't a random commentator. He's someone who trains with Musumeci.
The topic came up while the conversation was drifting toward Musumeci's upcoming match with Bryce Mitchell, and the general sense — one that's followed Musumeci for years now — that the wider BJJ world still underrates how technically dense his game actually is. Watch the full conversation on YouTube if you want the context firsthand. Johnson opened with a version of that thought, saying people don't fully grasp how good Mikey is. Tackett didn't just agree — he escalated. He explained that he's been training with Musumeci for about a year and has only recently reached the point where he isn't getting submitted every single session. That's not a throwaway compliment. That's a black belt describing a full year of losing before things leveled out even slightly.
Where the leg locks come in
The real spark came when the discussion turned to a hypothetical: Arman Tsarukyan against Musumeci, leg locks on. Tackett's answer was blunt — if leg locks are live, he doesn't think Tsarukyan wins, and he doesn't think anyone wins. Then he went further, saying he isn't sure Gordon Ryan could beat Musumeci either, once legs are part of the equation. Johnson backed that up, pointing out that Ryan has more or less said the same thing about himself. Tackett's follow-up was the line that's been making the rounds: "I don't even know if Gordon Ryan could beat Mikey if there's legs," as Tackett put it, via BJJEE. His reasoning was simple — how do you even pass that guard in the first place, let alone survive what's waiting underneath it once you're there.
That's a genuinely notable thing to hear said out loud. Ryan has spent the last several years being treated as the sport's final boss, the guy whose no-gi resume makes every other comparison feel unfair to the other person. Hearing his name paired with "might not be able to" isn't something that happens often in BJJ media, and it says as much about Musumeci's leg lock game as it does about Ryan's.
Why this actually matters for the rest of us
It's easy to file this under gossip and scroll on, but there's a real lesson buried in it for anyone training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu below the highest levels of the sport. Musumeci built his entire competitive identity around a size disadvantage. He's competed and beaten grapplers who outweigh him by 60, 80, even 100 pounds, and the way he's done it is by making the leg lock game so airtight that size stops being the deciding factor. That's not a gimmick — it's a blueprint. Most of us aren't training to beat Gordon Ryan, but plenty of us are training to compete against, or simply survive, someone bigger and stronger on a Tuesday night. Musumeci's whole career is proof that a deep enough technical system beats raw physical advantage, even at the absolute top of the sport.
It also says something about how the sport itself is evolving. A decade ago, "leg locks" in a lot of gyms meant a heel hook here or there, taught cautiously and often not at all. Now it's a serious enough phase of the game that a training partner of one of its best practitioners can float the idea that it might neutralize the sport's biggest star, and nobody laughs it off. That shift — leg locks going from a fringe specialty to a central pillar of high-level Jiu Jitsu — has changed what "well-rounded" even means in BJJ.
Whether Ryan and Musumeci ever actually meet under those rules is a separate question, and probably one that stays hypothetical for a while yet. But the fact that the conversation is being had seriously, by someone who trains with Musumeci and knows exactly what it feels like to get caught by him, tells you everything about where his game currently sits in the sport. Some matches don't need to happen to teach you something.
See you on the mats.
Original report via BJJEE.