Every now and again absolute divisions at tournaments wind up yielding a matchup that could qualify as a “superfight.” These sorts of matchups don’t come about often but can be very exciting for fans. This afternoon, the possibility (some may say certainty) of one such matchup was announced by Grappling Industries. Promotion president David Aguzzi announced on the organization’s Facebook page that RGA teammates/close personal friends Gordon Ryan and Tom DeBlass are both entering the upcoming New York City event’s absolute division. DeBlass subsequently commented on the Facebook thread that they would NOT close out the division, but rather assuming both make it to the finals (which is highly likely) will in fact face off against each other.
While it is not uncommon for teammates to meet in finals, teammates of this caliber tend to avoid each other. DeBlass’s words official on this matter were short and sweet:
“Everyone is afraid of Gordon. To me Gordon is like the son I never wanted. Just a super talented annoying jiu jitsu super hero I am stuck with for life. However, I’ll break his face.”
These two competitors are in different weight classes, DeBlass has acted as a mentor to Ryan’s mentor and instructor, Garry Tonon, for many years and Ryan’s black belt was given to him by Garry in the presence of Tom. The opportunity to see these practitioners with a relationship like these two have compete against each other is a true rarity in the jiu jitsu world…
I was also interested to hear the tournament promoter, Marcos Flores’ thoughts on this incredible possible match:
“This is an exciting event for us at Grappling Industries. We are able to have 2 world class jiu jitsu practitioners compete in our No Gi Absolute, which literally any competitor that wants can enter…
What is even more special is that they are both from the same team and have said they will compete against each other. This gives a lot of guys out there a chance to be able to have a match and test their skills against arguably 2 of the best in the game right now. NYC has always been a staple for us and this just solidifies why we are the go to event in and around NYC.
We have brought prior matches like Gordan Ryan and Keenan Cornelius in a no time limit sub only match, so we are looking forward to what this division can produce on Aug 19th.”
Registration for this event closes on Tuesday, August 15th at 11:59pm and can be found here: http://grapplingindustries.com/nyc/
