At the moment, there’s no bigger star in jiu-jitsu than Gordon Ryan.

We probably could have nominated 'Gordon Ryan Eats Toast' as the biggest moment of 2018 and his fans would have still managed to propel him to the top of the list – he is simply that beloved and admired.

There are two sides to Gordon's fame, and while admiration and respect lie on one side, seething undertones and frustration lay on the other– the old guard wants Gordon Ryan to lose. 

Medals be damned, there’s simply more at stake here.  

The brash American upstart calls his shots early, taking aim at the established jiu-jitsu elite, and then as promised delivers the results– this has been the case since ADCC 2017 (and even earlier).

As Ryan's reputation expanded and solidified over the past three years, so has the bounty on his head, and it doesn't take a whole lot of detective work to see that many people want to see Gordon lose his crown. 

Those same individuals hoped that this would be the case at No-Gi Worlds in the end of December 2018, which saw elite no-gi players such as Cyborg, Yuri Simoes, Mahamed Aly, enter the ultra-heavyweight division.  

And we all know what happened next. Gordon Ryan through his weight class and the absolute, and Cyborg created quite a controversy, and in the end, Gordon was still king. 

It was certainly a wild-ride for us on the ground and an exclamation point on an incredible 2018.