Gordon Ryan has been making waves in the grappling world for quite some time now and has racked up some serious bank in the process. He is one of the most successful accommodation grapplers in the sport and has been able to earn a massive following on social media thanks to his instructional videos and tournament wins. Ryan has also been able to make some pretty substantial endorsement deals, most recently signing a seven figure deal with Flosports which was the biggest ever signed by a BJJ athlete.

Ryan’s hard work and worth ethic was ingrained in him by his trainers Tom DeBlass and Garry Tonon early on, which would later be further solidified by the philosophy and methodology of John Danaher. He began his jiu jitsu career in the No Gi world where he quickly rose to prominence with high level victories against a number of the sport’s top athletes. It was his submission only match against top USA grappler Keenan Cornelius in the Eddie Bravo Invitational in 2015 that would ultimately inspire his nickname, “The King”.

Ryan has kept most of his personal life private, but he does have an interesting girlfriend in Nathalia Santoro who is a model, bodybuilder and competing jiu jitsu competitor herself. She has been featured on many of Gordon’s Instagram posts and is a regular in his jiu jitsu instructionals on BJJ Fanatics. The couple reside in New Jersey, where they train at the Danaher Death Squad gym along with their teammate and fellow black belt, Nicky Ryan.