Originally Posted by
WhiteMike2k9
There's some valid points here. As Andrew pointed out, Ryan has been the most active American competitor over the last few years, I mean the guy had almost 200 wins by Triangle alone before he was a brown belt. He's had success at the ADCC West Coast Trials, subbing every opponent, as well as getting Bronze in the ADCC itself. He's also had pretty good success at the Worlds, with good matches against Rafael Mendes, etc. I'd say the man has earned the right to slow down and start being a little more picky about when and where he competes. He's one of the few players that's had zero slow down in competition when his belt color's changed. He won at blue, purple, brown, and didn't even slow down at black. I bet he's incurred a lot of injuries too, and he even mentions some bad injuries on his new DVD sets. He also has a full time gym to operate. If he only does a few fights a year from now on, he has earned the right to do so arguably more than any other American player. Also, I think I mentioned it before, but someone said Ryan never won the No-Gi Worlds, and I'll mention again that he did in 2007. With every match ending in submission except for maybe the final match, I don't remember. He at least had a triangle, Darce, and RNC that I remember.