- Gordon Ryan arm wrestling with the sport’s most famous teacher lit up timelines after a hands-on session at the table.
- Ryan called the discipline “way more technical” than expected and said it was “fun,” sharing multiple clips and captions.
- The No-Gi king even joked that amid his well-documented stomach issues, “my belly can handle arm wrestling.”
- The crossover moment shows a dominant grappler choosing to be a beginner—on camera—with a legend guiding him.
Gordon Ryan Arm Wrestling With Devon Larratt
It wasn’t a gimmick. It was a sit-down with the sport’s standard-bearer and a crash course in a ruleset where the hand is the whole fight. In the viral session, Gordon Ryan arm wrestling under a legend’s eye became the rare crossover that felt like news, not novelty.
The ADCC megastar—more at home choking out world-class rivals—parked his elbow on a pad and let a master rewire his grip strength in real time.
Ryan’s own captions set the tone for the moment.
“Weekend of shenanigans with @devlarratt. Arm wrestling is way more technical than you’d think. Arm wrestling is fun.”
– Gordon Ryan –
The surprise in the footage isn’t just that Gordon Ryan arm wrestling looks natural—it’s that he insists it isn’t. He underlined the micro-mechanics that make even elite athletes feel like rookies at the table, and he did it with the same plain-spoken tone that built his following.
“Arm wrestling is way more technical than you’d think.”
– Gordon Ryan –
The other line that caught fire was a wink at his well-known gastrointestinal battles—an ongoing subplot to every conversation about his competition schedule.
“My belly can handle arm wrestling.”
– Gordon Ryan –
And, speaking more broadly about how his health frames all training right now, Ryan spelled out what he’s trying to solve day to day.
“I always have a belly ache… you’re just trying to get that back to normal.”
– Gordon Ryan –
A Different Kind Of Flex
Plenty of stars “try” new sports on camera. What made Gordon Ryan arm wrestling land was who was standing across from him and how seriously he treated the lesson.
With a decorated icon walking him through setups and hand positions, Ryan leaned into being corrected—on film—while admitting the nuances went way deeper than he imagined.
That tone—curious, not performative—turned a 15-second clip into a day-long headline. It reframed the session as apprenticeship, not clout: the best grappler of his era borrowing a page from a different book and giving the teacher full credit.
The Hand Is The Fight
For a fanbase used to seeing him dominate with back takes and pressure, Gordon Ryan arm wrestling offered a clean, tangible twist: here, your elbow is fixed, and your wrist position is everything.
That constraint makes the learning curve obvious even to casuals—and it explains why Ryan’s “way more technical” line traveled. When the greatest no-gi closer says a different discipline out-tech’d his expectations, people click.
It also explains the smile in the footage. If grappling is a chessboard, the table is speed chess with one piece: your hand. The mechanics are visible, the feedback is instant, and Ryan’s reaction read like a guy who found a new puzzle worth solving.
Ryan’s Next Competitive Sport?
There’s no suggestion that Gordon Ryan arm wrestling signals a competitive pivot. But as a moment, it checks every box: a champion learning in public, an all-time great teaching, and quotes that underline respect for a parallel craft.
“Arm wrestling is fun.”
– Gordon Ryan –
Whether it stays a one-off training day or becomes a recurring grip lab, the clip did its job: it showed the No-Gi king choosing humility—and made a niche sport look cool to fans who might never have watched it otherwise.
And for a guy whose every move gets scrutinized through the lens of recovery and schedule, one line summed up the mood as cleanly as the pin pad ever could:
“My belly can handle arm wrestling.”
– Gordon Ryan –
