Watch out, UFC featherweight division: Ryan Hall is on his way back to competing.
Hall is an elite level grappler and IBJJF world champion known for his nasty leg locks. In the UFC he is known as that weirdo who spammed Granby rolls endlessly in an attempt to grab heel hooks. The gameplan was odd but effective — he went 5-1 in the UFC with it, beating Artem Lobov, Gray Maynard, BJ Penn, and Darren Elkins.
He did not beat Ilia Topuria with it … “El Matador” sent him to the shadow realm with a blistering KO when they fought in 2021. After that, Hall earned one more win over Darrick Minner before disappearing for three years.
“I’ve had 21 general anesthesia surgeries since my last fight,” Hall said. “Hold on … 19 since that fight. There were two prior. So yeah man, it’s kinda been a bit of a journey.”
“I got fallen on, tore my ACL, had to fix a plantar plate that was torn under my foot, got fallen on again, had to have a tightrope surgery — the one that Pat Mahomes and a couple of other people have had. The ACL got infected, had to have a couple of emergency septic arthritis [surgeries]. The tightrope, I was actually allergic to the hardware they put in me somehow, so that had to be re-done.”
“The big one recently is I had a torn shoulder,” he added. “I had a 270 degree tear in my labrum, my torn rotator cuff, big old cyst in my shoulder that was causing weird nerve stuff too. Getting that all fixed as well, you know, has has been huge.”
“Finally on the back end of it, and doing a heck of a lot better,” he concluded.
With all of Hall’s stretches of inactivity you’d think he’s just too fragile to compete in the rough and tumble world of MMA. But he clarified that this was the first stretch of serious injuries he’s ever had over a lifetime of combat sports competition. It all started leading into the Topuria match.
“I went 15 years completely bulletproof,” he said. “I ended up getting fallen on and tore my hip right before that fight and I didn’t know how much that really affected me … About half the surgeries that I had more than half the surgeries that I had were actually, ‘Oops. We screwed that one up. Sorry, dude. Let’s run it back. Didn’t mean to goof up’ … I had 6 elbow surgeries, 5 knee surgeries.”
Now he’s with a new doctor who fixed his knee properly and took care of his shoulder. He’s looking to make a comeback in 2025, although the exact date and even weightclass is in question. There’s a chance he could drop from featherweight to bantamweight. Hopefully he won’t have the same issues securing a fight.
“I’ve been in the UFC for 9 years, and I had long stretches of time where nobody would fight me,” Hall said. “This is the third separate two-plus year period during my time in the UFC of no fights. This one was on me, though, because that’s just injuries. The other two were nobody would fight.”
“I had fight after fight after fight get declined or fight after fight fall through. And then it turns out that your only loss is [to Ilia Topuria] under really difficult circumstances. I had a bunch of injuries going into that fight … he’s a great fighter anyway, and the only fight I lost is [to] the current champ.”
Now in a new interview with BJPenn.com he describes what’s kept him off cards, “Basically the most serious string of of unfortunate health stuff that I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
19 surgeries? Just retire.
It should upside down, his legs prone and him on his back. 
Ryan’s an odd duck but a dam good BJJ master. I always enjoyed watching his fights because of how the opposing fighter had to deal with him.
If kicks and or stomps were allowed to a downed fighter he would have never had a career in the UFC.
One of my favorite fighters to root against. Glad he’s back in the mix. Hope he gets starched.
If only fights were determined by one’s sense of self-superiority. He’d be walking around with three UFC belts.
does ufc health insurance pay for all that?
had to cost more than hes made in his fight career
Damn, that is a lot to overcome. Best wishes.
19?! Fucking guy is going to be in a wheelchair at 50. Love his jiujitsu but it can be painful to watch in MMA.
Fuck all mate. Why come back after that?
5 feckin knee surgeries on a guy with skinny leg.
Anybody that assflops and focuses on cheap leglocks like he does deserves 100 knee surgeries
Egg shells for fists.
He needs money.
Curious does any of the BJJ wins come with money?
He’s gotta be an instructor somewhere? Did he ever get his electrical engineering degree. He’s gotta be a smart kid but I love that he’s always got a retard look on his face….its endearing.
He has Tourette syndrome which accounts for the sometimes unusual looks on his face. I applaud him for trying MMA despite his condition and for attempting to comeback from that much adversity and that many surgeries. Great interview, he speaks vey well, especially for someone with his condition and his intelligence is very evident.
short version: https://youtu.be/engL3ndsWvs
long version:
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Ryan Hall’s Radical Restaurant Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Adventure
Back in my day we didn’t consider having 19 surgeries even worth mentioning. I once had 19 surgeries in a single April and I was back dancing the Charleston by St. Swithin’s Day.
I hope he worked on his striking …
This is good news!
Fun fact:
I knew Ryan Hall way before he started training BJJ/MMA.
He was training reality based self defense under this chode of an instructor named Sammy Franco and I met him several times.
I remember when I first saw him in the UFC and I was like WTF?!?
Good on him for training and not sticking around with Franco. That dude was a dickhead and a dead end.
Glad to see him back. Him whipping BJ Penn was glorious