After a stellar 6-month brown belt run, where Ryan won important tournaments such as the Newaza Challenge and the World Championship, Ryan was awarded his black belt by Garry Tonon on February 2016 in a ceremony supported by the presence of Tom deBlass, Ricardo Almeida and John Danaher – who shared the responsibility of the new belt rank. On April 24, 2016, Ryan won the Eddie Bravo Invitational Championship, defeating world championYuri Simões and noted grappler Rustam Chsiev on the way. Ryan next faced top USA grappler Keenan Cornelius in a no time limit, submission only match where Ryan was able to upset Cornelius and submit him with a heel hook. In September 2017 Ryan competed at the prestigious ADCC World Championship. He took gold in the -88 kg weight category, defeating Dillon Danis, Romulo Barral, Xande Ribeiro and Keenan Cornelius. He also took 2nd place in the absolute division, submitting all his opponents on his way to losing to Felipe Pena in the final. He would go on to win another EBI title and defeat Yuri Simões in a superfight at Kasai Pro to wrap up 2017. In September 2018, Ryan competed at the IBJJF Pan No-gi, winning both his weight class and the absolute division all by submission. Ryan led Team Alpha Male's victory in Quintet's 2018 Tournament, Quintet 3. Ryan’s submission victories against Josh Barnett and Marcos Souza saw Team Alpha Male advance to the Finals. His submission victories against Craig Jones and Vítor Ribeiro earned his team's ultimate victory in the tournament. He also competed at the IBJJF Nogi Worlds in California, again taking gold in both his weight class and the absolute division. In 2019 Gordon Ryan competed in a superfight against Joao Gabriel Rocha at KASAI Super Series in Dallas, Texas. Gordon ultimately won the match, but during an exchange there was an entanglement where Gordon was attempting an entry for a heel hook and his knee popped multiple times and tore his LCL. This injury was expected to keep him out of competition for about 6 months. In September of 2019 it was reported that Gordon injured his hand in a freak accident with one of his motorized bikes. The tire became flat and he decided to carry the bike on his shoulders. When he went to hoist the bike on his shoulders the throttle stuck and sucked his hand in between the tire and fender leaving him competing at ADCC with one hand heavily bandaged and injured. Despite the injury he went on to win the -99kg division. He beat Ben Hodgkinson, Tim Spriggs, Lucas Barbosa and Vinicius Ferreira. He would then move on the absolute division where he would claim gold following victories over Pedro Marinho, Garry Tonon, Lachlan Giles and Marcus Buchecha Almeida.
