Ryan Hall Teaching The Twister Roll

[Jon Watkins]

[QUOTE=WhiteMike2k9;27588]

I meant besides Cobrinha he is the only one to LOSE to Mendes by points after scoring on him.

Okay. Cool.

[Andrew Peters]

I talked to my Sensei about this and his thoughts on the subject were that Ryan is trying to step his reputation in BJJ up to Rafael Mendes' and Cobrinha's level. And he probably took the Hermes Franca superfight because the guy is just a better known name on the traditional scene. The only people he'd possibly impress if he beat Denny would be the people who follow 10th Planet. So what would it benefit him to do a superfight with Denny?

Ding, ding, ding - and run the risk of further injury before Pan Ams, Worlds, and ADCC

[Robert Kipness]

I am really suprised you are diminishing Ryans accomplishments winning Bronze because Leo and Rany got hurt. He bet Jeff Curran and Jeff Glover and only lost to Viera in OT after Vierra couldn't pass his guard once in 15 minutes. I seem to remember Vierra passing another 10th Planet players guard much easier and beating that person like 20-2 or something like that."

Wow, you took it there. Bravo sir, bravo.

I can't say much though, he would do a lot worse to me.

[Jason Mallory]

Originally Posted by Jon Watkins
I talked to my Sensei about this and his thoughts on the subject were that Ryan is trying to step his reputation in BJJ up to Rafael Mendes' and Cobrinha's level. And he probably took the Hermes Franca superfight because the guy is just a better known name on the traditional scene. The only people he'd possibly impress if he beat Denny would be the people who follow 10th Planet. So what would it benefit him to do a superfight with Denny?

Ding, ding, ding - and run the risk of further injury before Pan Ams, Worlds, and ADCC

In the words of Nick Diaz - "Don't be scared homie."

[Jon Watkins]

Originally Posted by Jon Watkins
I talked to my Sensei about this and his thoughts on the subject were that Ryan is trying to step his reputation in BJJ up to Rafael Mendes' and Cobrinha's level. And he probably took the Hermes Franca superfight because the guy is just a better known name on the traditional scene. The only people he'd possibly impress if he beat Denny would be the people who follow 10th Planet. So what would it benefit him to do a superfight with Denny?


In the words of Nick Diaz - "Don't be scared homie."

I was only scared for my Sensei. I don't want him getting any more bad press on my account. The dude got boned by Brandon Quick and his original BJJ instructor is now claiming to have Japanese Jiu Jitsu Lineage so he's now the most beast 2 stripe white belt ever under Marcelo Monteiro. But don't be fooled. My teammates have tooled Relson Gracie Purple Belts. And I have every intention of representing him at the Hoosier Open or any other tournament that pops up in the area and taking home some gold.

[Jason Mallory]

I was only scared for my Sensei. I don't want him getting any more bad press on my account. The dude got boned by Brandon Quick and his original BJJ instructor is now claiming to have Japanese Jiu Jitsu Lineage so he's now the most beast 2 stripe white belt ever under Marcelo Monteiro. But don't be fooled. My team mates have tooled Relson Gracie Purple Belts. And I have every intention of representing him at the Hoosier Open or any other tournament that pops up in the area and taking home some gold.

Jon, I wasn't referring to your instructor, I was referring to Ryan Hall. To say that he won't fight Denny to prevent injury before the major tournaments or because he doesn't feel that Denny has a big enough name is weak.

[Jon Watkins]

Jon, I wasn't referring to your instructor, I was referring to Ryan Hall. To say that he won't fight Denny to prevent injury before the major tournaments or because he doesn't feel that Denny has a big enough name is weak.

Oh, I thought you were referring to me deleting my post and being too slow to the draw because Andrew quoted me.

[VJ Bella]

My thoughts on the issue...when you start picking and choosing who to fight and refusing to fight certain jj players...you open yourself up to this kind of talk. I would think that it would be much more beneficial to his reputation if he took the fight and completely dominated Denny (as he believes) adding on to his highlight reel, than it would be going to class and teaching that night or what have you. The more likely scenario is that ryan probably realized that the risk of losing to denny (who trains in an unorthodox style that he is not completely familiar with) outweighed the reward of beating him. I've always been of the school to take on all comers...settle it on the mat and leave no doubt who the better grappler is. It wasn't that long ago that nobody knew who Ryan Hall was either...but he proved himself against some of the better names and thus became a household name...but you have to be given that opportunity to be able to do that

[Mike Nall]

Originally Posted by Jon Watkins
I talked to my Sensei about this and his thoughts on the subject were that Ryan is trying to step his reputation in BJJ up to Rafael Mendes' and Cobrinha's level. And he probably took the Hermes Franca superfight because the guy is just a better known name on the traditional scene. The only people he'd possibly impress if he beat Denny would be the people who follow 10th Planet. So what would it benefit him to do a superfight with Denny?



In the words of Nick Diaz - "Don't be scared homie."

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.

[Mike Nall]

My thoughts on the issue...when you start picking and choosing who to fight and refusing to fight certain jj players...you open yourself up to this kind of talk. I would think that it would be much more beneficial to his reputation if he took the fight and completely dominated Denny (as he believes) adding on to his highlight reel, than it would be going to class and teaching that night or what have you. The more likely scenario is that ryan probably realized that the risk of losing to denny (who trains in an unorthodox style that he is not completely familiar with) outweighed the reward of beating him. I've always been of the school to take on all comers...settle it on the mat and leave no doubt who the better grappler is. It wasn't that long ago that nobody knew who Ryan Hall was either...but he proved himself against some of the better names and thus became a household name...but you have to be given that opportunity to be able to do that

I agree with you. I would like to see him fight Denny too. I actually think it will happen sooner than later.

But at what point do you start sacrificing "reputation" for making a living? I'm not asking a rhetorical question either. If Ryan Hall spent all of his time accepting challenges and superfights, he would literally never have time to make money from seminars or at his academy. He would always be having to train to take on all-comers. Then on top of that, if you fight enough, you are eventually going to lose. I'm not talking about Denny, but if Ryan started to take on all-comers, eventually he would fight someone that is truly not on his level. If he wins, big deal. He should have won. If he loses, then everyone would go, "that Ryan Hall is overrated, he got beat by such-and-such." It's a slippery slope to take on "all-comers" as you say, because there will always be "all-comers."

As you said, he has proven himself by beating many a household name not only in superfights, but in tournaments. Leo Vieira wins almost every fight by submission and is arguably the best guard passer alive and he was never able to pass Ryan's guard. Before that fight, Ryan did not even know about Marcelo Garcia's style of guillotine, and even though he lost fair and square, that was one of the 2 or 3 best matches of Day One of 09 ADCC, along with Gracie/Garcia and Weidman/Galvao.

A lot of the people we look up to don't even have health insurance. Everyone jumped down Rafa Mendes' throat when he didn't take the 10,000 dollar winner-take-all sub only match with Cobrinha, but what if he didn't win? Sure, rep is very important, but Mendes beat Cobrinha a handful of times already & would have lost so much time and money if he took the match and lost it. This is coming from Cobrinha's number one fan. I would have loved to see that match as much as anyone else, but I do understand why Mendes turned it down, and I don't just chalk it up to, "he's scared of losing to Cobrinha", because I don't think it's that simple.

Sorry for the rambling.....