Kade Ruotolo sounds like he’s given up hope for a potential match against multiple-time ADCC World Champion Gordon Ryan. The rivalry between the BJJ goats is quite a bit new as well as old.

The 21-year-old BJJ phenom recently spoke about his ongoing rivalry with Ryan during an appearance on the Beasts with Brains Podcast with Alex Wendling.

Ruotolo brothers’ response to Gordon Ryan’s steroid comments

Ruotolo – the current ONE Lightweight Submission Grappling World Champion – is preparing for a wildly anticipated World Title defense against fellow BJJ superstar Mikey “Darth Rigatoni” Musumeci on September 6 at ONE 168: Denver. That contest will go down live in U.S. primetime at Ball Arena and, if he’s able to win, would further solidify Ruotolo’s status as one of the planet’s top pound-for-pound grapplers.

Ryan, though, has also been long regarded as a pound-for-pound great. Naturally, fans have wondered how the heavyweight would fare against either one of the twin brothers Kade or Tye Ruotolo.

According to Kade, he didn’t have a problem with the outspoken grappler until Ryan made a comment about the Ruotolo brothers in the context of steroids.

Ruotolo explained “I feel like it’s been at the same place where it’s been. For me, we never really had like beef with Gordon until it was one of those comments, it was such a goofy comment, it was like ‘If I wasn’t on steroids or whatever performance enhancement drugs, I’d still be able to beat the Ruotolos.’ And I literally burst out laughing when I heard it. So that was when we had to respond. I couldn’t bite my tongue anymore.”

Kade Ruotolo challenges Gordon Ryan and claims he’s afraid of any real match

Despite the beef, Ruotolo was quick to credit Ryan for his impressive accomplishments. However, he says that the New Jersey native is afraid of accepting a match – in any ruleset – against him.

“Gordon is great at what he does, he’s one of the best in the world. I think if you were to put it on a scale of 10, he’s really confident in the jiu-jitsu scene. But I promise you, if we wanted to run a MMA match or whatever the case may be, he wouldn’t accept it.” Ruotolo said.

He further added, “Even a combat jiu-jitsu match, he wouldn’t accept it. I know for a fact. He likes to act tough in the jiu-jitsu scene, he’s twice my size, but I guarantee you he wouldn’t take any real match with me.”