John Danaher-trained teenage submission artist Nicky Ryan won the highly-anticipated match against 10th Planet black belt Geo Martinez at KASAI Pro 2. 

The match was held under submission-only rules over a period of 15-minutes, with a judge’s decision in the case of no finish. 

Martinez– who had spoken about the responsibility of representing his team against their rivals, the “Danaher Death Squad”– came out looking aggressive and pushed the pace of the match early on. 

Younger brother to ADCC champion Gordon Ryan, 16-year-old Nicky remained composed throughout and played both from top and bottom. He locked up a triangle from guard in the final 30 seconds of the match that saw him transition to a reverse triangle from the back, squeezing Geo’s neck as the clock ran down. 

Ryan was awarded a unanimous decision after 15 minutes of action. 

“It feels amazing,” said Ryan in his post-match interview with Shawn Williams. “Geo is a very tough competitor. None of our teammates have been able to submit him. I wasn’t able to today, but I came out of it with the decision. 

“Our gameplan was to attack the upper body to expose the upper body, right at the end I switched to a triangle and that probably won me the decision.” 

Martinez utilized a number of rolling kimura attempts and came close with a back attack, but was unable to score a control position on his young foe. 

“Big ups to Nicky Ryan, all the praise and attention he’s getting, he deserves it,” said Martinez. “I’m not happy with the decision obviously, he had a late attack and I think it made an impression on the judges. I wasn’t going to tap.” 

Watch the match below

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