John Danaher Says Gordon Ryan and Craig Jones Won’t Fight Again

John Danaher started out by posting a congratulatory message directed at Craig Jones for his brutal victory over Vinny Magalhaes at Submission Underground 3, where he Magalhaes refused to tap to a heel hook, but ended up discussing the possibility of the Austalian phenom getting a rematch with Gordon Ryan instead. The pair have met three times before, with Ryan earning the victory all three times although interestingly, they have not faced each other for two years now. This, coupled with both grapplers reaching higher heights of success in the last two years has got many fans clamoring for a fourth match.

Below is the post from John Danaher’s official Instagram page:

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Great victory for Craig Jones! Aussie grappling super star and champion Craig Jones took on the great Vinny Magalhaes, former ADCC champion, last night in Chael Sonnen’s Submission Underground Event. Mr Sonnen has done a great job of keeping the event running during the Coronavirus epidemic by staying inside government regulations – events are played without a crowd and with special restrictions on the numbers and interpersonal contact of people inside the venue etc etc. In the end regardless of the situation it’s always two athletes and a referee inside the cage and when the action started Craig Jones went straight into his powerful leg attacks. Mr Magalhaes has a well deserved reputation for tremendous resistance to submission holds in general and leg locks in particular. Previously squad members Garry Tonon and Gordon Ryan had gotten close but not the breakthrough. This time we worked on a particular strategy based around hip positioning and Mr Jones brilliantly worked it to get a severe break. Mr Magalhaes showed his usual unflappable composure but after two very strong inside heel hook attacks it was apparent that there was a spiral fracture of the fibula – that’s an injury that is rarely seen with heel hooks as usually the soft tissue of the knees and ankles gives way first. Mr Jones is as much a gentleman on the mat as he is off – he realized what had happened and backed off. It was agreed by all that the match could not continue even though Vinny had never actually tapped. There is only so much that flexibility and stoicism can do in the face of a determined application of good breaking mechanics so the match was over. Mr Jones was always a real stand out, but has shown tremendous improvements over the past twelve months. He went through a very difficult training camp for this event due to the many restrictions and limitations in currently in place that put very precise limits on who he can train with and how often and under what conditions – but he went through it all and on to a brilliant performance on the stage. Hope you all enjoyed the show!

A post shared by John Danaher (@danaherjohn) on Apr 27, 2020 at 2:01pm PDT

A curious fan asked Danaher the following question in the comments:

“Would Gordon think about doing a rematch with Craig but under this rule set if he beats another big name? I know they’re training partners but he did verse Garry. Think that’d be interesting to see again.”

But Danaher shot this idea down almost immediately:

“They train together every day so no – the situation with Garry is forced by ADCC regulations which force team mates to fight each other in quarter finals to prevent fake matches.”

While this does mean that we’re not going to get to see Gordon Ryan v Craig Jones any time soon, as Danaher hinted at himself, anything can happen at ADCC 2021.