What does it really take to become the greatest of all time in any field? Is it talent? Luck? Natural ability? According to Joe Rogan, the answer is much simpler—but far more demanding.
There are countless examples of this mindset in sports, but Rogan pointed to one name in particular—Gordon Ryan. The jiu-jitsu phenom has dominated his sport like few others, and Rogan believes his success isn’t just about technical ability. For Rogan, Ryan is proof that true greatness is achieved with the willingness to outwork everyone else, day in and day out.
So impressive are his achievements that Rogan found a way to bring him into a conversation that wasn’t remotely going in that direction.
In an episode of his podcast with comedian Andew Schulz, Rogan dove deep into what makes certain people so successful.
“There are a handful of these psychotic people who have incredible will. Gordon Ryan in Jiu-Jitsu, he works out every f**king day of the week 365 days of the year.”, he said.
“If you want to be really great at something you kinda have to be out of your mind. But you also have to have an iron will. If you want to get past the guy who eats cake and sleeps, you don’t eat cake and you don’t sleep.”, the UFC commentator explained.
Ryan, widely regarded as one of the greatest no-gi grapplers in the world, has won multiple ADCC World Championship titles, IBJJF No-Gi World Championships, and victories at the Eddie Bravo Invitational. But all this success can often come at a cost.
Except if you are Ryan, that sacrifice is simply worth everything.
Ryan aims to be great at all costs; even his life
There is a very public feud that has been taking place between BJJ stars Gordon Ryan and Mikey Musumeci over steroids and PED in the sport that doesn’t seem to be cooling down anytime soon.
Ryan has just dropped a nearly 30-minute video explaining why using steroids was a “no-brainer” for him, even at the cost of integrity and with question marks over his legacy.
“Number one, because they were legal in jiu-jitsu,” Ryan said, talking about the time when he had just started competing.
It should be noted that nobody in 2016 was even testing athletes at the time.
He also made a bold claim that, in the long run, no one cares about the details—only the results. To make his point, he cited former UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“No one talks about the fact that Khabib missed weight how many times? Six, seven, eight times? They talk about the fact that Khabib’s undefeated.”, the Jiu-Jitsu legend said.
For the record, Khabib only officially missed weight once.
Ryan also believes IBJJF started testing for PEDs just to stop him from winning again, saying, “I won No-Gi Worlds and they were like, ‘Yeah, we have to make sure Gordon doesn’t win again.’”
And as for the risks to his health? He doesn’t care.
“Even if it were to take 20 years off of my life, I wouldn’t regret doing the things that I’ve done to become the greatest of all time in this sport.”, he claims.
To Ryan, the only thing that ultimately matters is that when he dies, his legacy will be the only memory of him remaining on this earth.
