Exclusive - Gordon Ryan Set To Undergo Treatment Amid Battle With Gastroparesis

Mandatory Credit: Future

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace and recent ONE Championship signee, Gordon Ryan has revealed that he's set to undergo treatment as he deals with the intestinal disease, gastroparesis -- which has forced him to take a step back from active competition.

Ryan, 25, a 1st. degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt under the renowned, John Danaher and ONE Championship featherweight standout, Garry Tonon, penned a multi-fight deal under the Chatri Sityodtong banner in March of this year, and according to the promotional leader. Ryan was set to compete in both submission grappling matches, as well as make his long-awaited professional mixed martial arts debut under the promotion's scrutiny.

The New Jersey native was then penned to meet with former lightweight champion, the Japanese pioneer, Shinya Aoki in a submission grappling 'super match' on August 27th. under the ONE Championship banner, however, he released a statement on the May 21st. -- detailing how he's set to take a step back away from active competition and competitive grappling as well as he looks to manage his health given the fact his condition, gastroparesis has worsened over the last number of years.

According to the MayoClinic -- gastroparesis is defined as a; condition that affects the normal spontaneous movement of the muscles (motility) in your stomach. Ordinarily, strong muscular contractions propel food through your digestive tract. But if you have gastroparesis, your stomach motility is slowed down or doesn't work at all, preventing your stomach from emptying properly.

Appearing on the latest episode of the MMA Power Hour, Ryan detailed that he is set to undergo treatment, including the use of stem cells, in a bid to manage his battle with gastroparesis.

"I don't want to think (I'm) retired, because I'm supposed to compete until I'm 40-years-old, and I'm only 25," Ryan said. "So 15 years is a long time (to recover) -- hopefully my stomach is better in the next fifteen years. There is no cure for gastroparesis, but they do have some treatments that I can try. And luckily, I was just on the Joe Rogan podcast, and ever since then I've had thousands, if not tens of thousands of people reach out to me and try to give me suggestions."

"So, I'm trying to trial and error some certain medicines now -- the problem is, they all take (between) four to six weeks to kick in," Ryan explained. "So if you want to try like 10 different things (treatments), it takes you over a year to try those 10 different things because they all take so long to have any effect if they're going to help. I just got some stem cells done, with a company called 2WaysToWell and hopefully, that's going to start helping me. I have four to six weeks to try that. And if that doesn't help, I'll try something else and trial and error a bunch of things until something works." 

As far as a potential foray into the world of professional mixed martial arts is concerned, Ryan wants to make sure he's dealt with his stomach issues as much as possible, as well as compete in the ADCC superfight tournament before he even considers an eventual transition.

"The first thing that (a transition to MMA) would depend upon would be the ADCC superfight, where it is in correlation to me coming back," Ryan said. "The ADCC superfight is something I've never competed in and pretty much the only thing I haven't won in No-Gi grappling, so I definitely would want to win that before I start focusing on mixed martial arts."

"And another thing is, it depends on when I get back (to active competition)," Ryan explained. "Like, if I don't get better for the next seven years, and I'm just going to start going into mixed martial arts in my mid or late 30s, I'll probably just stick with grappling, so it depends on how long it takes me to get better. I think if I'm going to start mixed martial arts, I'm going to do it before I'm 30. So it depends on how long it's going to take me to get better -- it depends on -- you know, I keep getting roped back into the grappling world with like ADCC and all these big events, and I feel like grappling is starting to kick off right now and take off as a sport. So it depends on where grappling is, how the ADCC super fight is going as far as dates go, and how it takes me to get better overall."

A highly talented submission grappler, Ryan has scored an overall 144-9-3 record over the course of his submission grappling career, which has seen him landed tournaments such as three ADCC world championships, two Pan No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu world championships, and a further three World No-Gi Jiu-Jitsu world championship gold medals.

Over the course of his submission grappling career, the 25-year-old has bested a lengthy list that includes the likes of Mickey Gall, Dan Martinez, Gio Vasquez, Mattheus Lutes, Pat Sabatini, Keenan Cornelius (x2), Vagner Rocha (x2), Romulo Barral, Roberto Abreu (x2), Craig Jones (x3), Ralek Gracie, Vinny Magalhaes, Josh Barnett, Vitor Riberio, Marcus Almeida, Rousimar Palhares, Bo Nickal, Aleksei Oleinik, Gabriel Gonzaga, Pat Downey,