Gordon Ryan shares how rolling with strongman The Mountain helped him prove to 'idiots' that BJJ is effective against everyone

Gordon Ryan has sounded off on rolling with Hafthor Julius Bjornsson.

Before competing at the UFC Fight Pass Invitational 3, Ryan was seen grappling with ‘Thor,’ a highly-credentialed professional strongman featured on HBO’s Game of Thrones.

During an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, ‘King’ had this to say about his experience rolling with the strongman:

“This is actually perfect for me because now whenever I get into an argument with an idiot who’s like, ‘I’m just too strong for that s**t to work on me.’ I can be like, well, I literally grappled the strongest person on the planet, and I can assure you that it worked…”

Ryan continued by saying:

“First of all, it was probably the dumbest and most risky career choice I’ve ever made. It was the day before I was supposed to compete. I was like, man, if I get hurt, John [Danaher] is gonna kill me…”

The jiu-jitsu legend was supposed to grapple against Vinny Magalhaes at the third UFC Fight Pass Invitational before Magalhaes pulled out last second. Ryan ended up taking on Nicky Rodriguez and won in triple overtime with a faster escape.

Luckily, ‘King’ managed to survive his unexpected training session against the Icelandic strongman without an injury.

Watch Gordon Ryan discuss grappling with Thor Bjornsson below:

---

Gordon Ryan wants Thor Bjornsson and Martin Licis to train for a future jiu-jitsu match to help grow the sport

Gordon Ryan believes Thor Bjornsson and Martin Licis can help grow jiu-jitsu with their fanbases. During the same interview with Ariel Helwani, Ryan revealed he plans to train with the strongmen again:

“Now I’m trying to convince them to do like six months of training and do a jiu-jitsu match with another strongman 'cause that’ll be great for the sport. They are coming to Austin in January to train with us a little more. They are kinda into it now.”

Ryan is widely considered to be one of the greatest grapplers of all time. The 27-year-old trains under John Danaher and continues to help jiu-jitsu grow after overcoming severe stomach issues. ‘King’ has teased an MMA transition in the past, but he seems dedicated to competing in jiu-jitsu full-time.