Through trials, tribulations, and prolonged illnesses, Gordon Ryan has always fought back. He’s set himself up to be a championship-winning caliber wrestler, picking up seven ADCC Submission wrestling world titles, three IBJJF No-Gi World championships and becoming a four-time Eddie Bravo Invitational champion. Thankfully, his purse also reflects that championship mentality, evident from Ryan’s latest revelations. But before we get to that…

Things have never been easy for the 29-year-old. For several years, he battled a stomach condition that would not just affect his personal life, but also his professional one. In 2019, that condition earned itself a name: Helicobacter pylori—a bacteria that infects the stomach causing ulcers, nausea, and vomiting. Unfortunately, the diagnosis was incorrect.

On March 4, 2021, revealed on Instagram, “After 4 doctors and 167182 tests, (im still waiting on h pylori results) we have narrowed my stomach issues (i hope) down to 2 things- bile reflux, or gastroparesis, a situation where my stomach doesnt empty properly, meaning that i cant eat enough food to maintain (and gain) size because my stomach is always full from the last meal.” The diagnosis was incorrect again. In a Joe Rogan podcast episode back in 2022, he had further revealed how “it ended up being a massive fungal growth in my small intestine, a huge bacterial imbalance in my stomach… It was misdiagnosed as a gastroparesis”. 

“…it was affecting my kidney function, it was just awful. I was 24/7 nauseous. The best way that I can describe is – the worst hangover you ever had. Like, you want to throw up to feel better, but you can’t… That was my baseline. And imagine you go to training, with the worse hangover you’ve ever had. And then you have to run a marathon, 30 minutes later. So, the more tired you get – the worse it gets.” At one point, it got so bad that the veteran even considered retirement. Thankfully, he has enough in his bank account to make that notion a reality!

On January 7, Taking to his Instagram story, the 29-year-old shared a photo of the revenue he earned through selling merch and products through his official website, and it was a whopping $9 million. His course ‘They Shall Not Pass’ earned over eight hundred thousand, while ‘Systematically Attacking The Crucifix’ earned seven hundred thousand. In the caption of the story, the grappling star wrote, “2024 was a good one. Looking forward to 2025.”

Now that he has earned more than enough for himself and his family to sustain, it wouldn’t be surprising to see if the 29-year-old decides to finally call it quits on his career. After all, he has found a new passion in fitness and recently stunned his fans with a 48-pound body transformation through an Instagram post as he wrote, “2024—another year of me being half dead, but still on top,” Ryan wrote on Instagram. “Ohhh, how sweet. Have a great day, everyone.”

But, from his message, one thing’s for sure: Gordon Ryan will be back this year. On the contrary, even if didn’t want to, that’d be okay, too. Case in point: Besides his revenue from last year, the professional grappler enjoys a massive net worth of around $50 million as per reports. Additionally, just last year, he had also signed a 7-figure, non-exclusive partnership with FloGrappling. “They put the best grappler in the world, pound for pound, under contract, and that opens the door for others to follow to make Jiu-Jitsu a real way to earn a good living,” former UFC two-division champion Georges St-Pierre had said.

But we are forgetting one very important variable here: His health. Notably, Ryan has stepped back from the sport twice already. In 2021, he had “soft-retired” when his body just couldn’t take it anymore. “It saddens me to make this post. My stomach isn’t cooperating with me anymore,” Ryan began. “Most of you by now know it’s been an uphill battle for 3 years ever since the staph antibiotics messed up my stomach. Effective immediately, I will be taking a leave of absence from competition. My stomach is at a point now where I can’t train properly. It was always an issue, but it’s been progressively getting worse as time goes on,” he had written.

“In training, I’m essentially useless because I’m always so nauseous,” he continued. “While I have been showing up on competition day, I don’t believe it’s professional for me to have camps like I have been and showing up to compete,” he continued. “The future for myself as an athlete is uncertain, but the future as a coach is definite. I was supposed to compete once a month until October, I’ve pulled out of all of them and don’t plan on making a return until my stomach is 100% better, if it ever is,” the announcement further read.

However, in 2022, attempted to resurrect his career again, winning nine straight clashes, and one ADCC Championship. But his body gave up (again). ” I came back for ADCC 2022, which I barely made it to with my stomach. After ADCC, I got overconfident and went ahead and started competing again, which was against my initial plan. The 4th pena camp was the hardest I ever pushed my body. The last 2 weeks, my body shut down, and after my best camp ever, i couldn’t compete.”

“Then, because of my stomach issues, my suppressed immune system took 45 days (on antibiotics) to clear a simple strep throat infection, which then colonized in my tonsils (also have strep and staph in my intestines), needing them to be removed. It took me 6 months to recover from that camp 😂. I was bedridden for weeks without eating, stomach full with bile, spending 3-4 hours a day belching and dry heaving in the bathroom. While living that, I’ve finally accepted and came to peace with the fact that my body can’t handle the amount of pressure I put it under until my stomach and immune system is 100% better.”

“I don’t care how much money I lose, I don’t care what people think, I can not live like this. As much as it pains me, I’m going to attempt to step away from all competitions EXCEPT ADCC until my stomach is 100% healthy on paper, by the tests, and by how I feel,” he wrote on January 15 last year.

Having said that, despite all the success, Ryan’s career wasn’t one without controversy. After all, the jiu-jitsu black belt himself confirmed that he has used and still often uses PEDs to give a solid boost to his performance. But while many would expect that it might be a guilt that bothers Ryan, the BJJ king claims that he could’ve achieved everything he has so far even without the PEDs.

Gordon Ryan opens up about steroid use

Gordon Ryan is no stranger to controversy. Even on taboo themes in combat sports, such as the use of steroids, the American speaks openly about it. Despite admitting to using performance-enhancing substances, he insisted that he never participated in events that had banned the use of PEDs. According to him, the only reason he does it is because they are legal in jiu-jitsu and because people just remember the winners in life. He said, “Number one, because they were legal in jiu-jitsu. Especially back then in 2016 when I started, there was no organizations in jiu-jitsu that even tested for PEDs. So they were clearly legal.”

He further added, “Number two, people don’t remember anything other than the fact that you won or lost.” He further added, “The only place they’re not legal is in IBJJF, where they started testing after I won worlds. I won the No Gi Worlds, and they were like, ‘Yeah, we have to make sure Gordon doesn’t win again.’ So then they started testing. I never competed in any event where steroids were illegal, where they said you couldn’t take them or we’re gonna test for these.”

In other realms of combat sports, anti-doping procedures have been established to discourage this type of practice. However, according to Gordon Ryan, the presence of a governing agency does not completely stop athletes at the top of the pyramid from using “PEDs” to “circumvent” the system and compete. What do you think? Are there actually other athletes who secretly use steroids? Let us know in the comments.