This Thursday, December 15, 2022, is the date set for the third edition o the Fight Pass Invitational, an event that marks the debut of Gordon Ryan (New Wave JJ) under the UFC umbrella, whose performance will be streamed live on the most famous combat sports streaming platform in the world (UFC Fight Pass). Ryan, who is undeniably at this point, the most successful no-gi grappler ever in this sport, will be facing one of the items in a very short list of men who have beaten him in competition, Vinny Magalhães (10th Planet), a loss that happened 4 years ago.
Much has changed since their match at the now-defunct combat sports organization, ACB. At the time Gordon was an ascending star and Magalhães the gritty and hard to submit veteran. Today, Ryan is a battle-tested champion and the biggest star in the sport with an incredible 4-year winning streak who just cruised through the biggest challenge of his career – the ADCC World Championship – without breaking a sweat. The performance of a lifetime. Vinny’s grappling career, on the other hand, is not looking healthy right now with his last 5 outings at the professional level resulting in a 1-3-1 (w-l-d) record. Although this appears like a one-sided affair on paper, as mentioned above, Gordon just made quick work of every big player in the grappling world back at September’s ADCC event, so anyone would likely be a one-sided affair at this point.
The Fight Pass Invitational is also featuring a very interesting tournament. We are unsure at this point of which ruleset will be in use in the Grand Prix (please not EBI, please not EBI), but the lineup looks good, despite the overtly heavy 10th Planet representation.
FIGHT PASS INVITATIONAL TOURNAMENT LINE-UP
– Haisam Rida (Assembly JJ) x Patrick Gaudio (GF Team)
– Mason Fowler (CTA) x Pat Shahgholi (10th Planet)
– Nicky Rodriguez (B Team) x Andy Varela (10th Planet)
– Richie Martinez (10th PLanet) x Oliver Taza (New Wave JJ)
Also included in the card will be two interesting superfights between one of the most successful female jiu-jitsu athletes of all time, Beatriz Mesquita, and MMA legend Miesha Tate in the featherweight division and a heavyweight clash between John Danaher‘s pupil “Big Dan” Manasoiou and BJJ veteran Ricardo Evangelista.
