Gordon Ryan set to make ONE Championship bow against Shinya Aoki in openweight grappling match

Decorated Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, Gordon Ryan is set to kick-off his stint under the ONE Championship banner, with an openweight grappling match against the promotion’s former lightweight champion and renowned submission threat, Shinya Aoki on August 27th. 

New Jersey native, Ryan penned a contract with the Singapore-based promotion in March of this year, linking up with the banner which is led by Chatri Sityodtong. As part of Ryan’s contract, he is set to compete in both professional mixed martia arts competition as well as grappling matches as per Sityodtong — and his first outing will come against recent feature, Aoki.

Originally scheduled to meet with former UFC contender, Sage Northcutt at ONE on TNT 4 in April, former lightweight champion, Aoki met with fellow former titleholder, Eduard Folayang at the Kallang event, after Northcutt was ruled from proceedings as he deals with lingering health issues amid a positive novel coronavirus test result.

Matching with Philippines veteran, Folayang on short notice, Aoki notched his fourth consecutive victory since his championship loss to Christian Lee back in May of 2019 — submitting Folayang with a late opening round armbar, which came as his whopping thirty-first professional submission win in mixed martial arts. 

ONE Championship president, Sityodtong announced the grappling ‘super match’ between Ryan and Aoki this afternoon.

“BREAKING NEWS: Gordon Ryan will make his debut in ONE Championship against Shinya Aoki in an openweight grappling super match on August 27!” Sityodtong tweeted.

Ryan, a 1st. degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Garry Tonon and John Danaher, holds a 144-9-3 record in submission grappling, and most recently featured in March of this year against Vanger Rocha — submitting the Brazilian with a reverse triangle at a Who’s Number One event in Austin, Texas.

The 25-year-old has won the ADCC world championship on three separate occasions, as well as the World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu championship thrice. Ryan has also taken gold twice at the Pan No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu championships in 2018.

Ross Markey

Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.