Gym of the Month: Drysdale’s, Las Vegas

A gym named ‘Robert Drysdale Brazilian Jiu Jitsu’ isn’t necessarily the first place one would associate with any kind of striking or kickboxing pedigree, but don’t be fooled by the name. As gym manager Ryan Renaud explains, the facility has a solid base in various disciplines.

“It’s called Drysdale Jiu Jitsu because it’s his gym and that’s what he personally specializes in but he himself is a Mixed Martial Artist so he has worked extensively on his striking,” he says.

“We have some excellent striking coaches here. We have Ken Hahn as the head striking coach, he used to have his own gym here in Las Vegas called ‘Striking Unlimited’, and James McSweeney was with us until recently when he moved to Thailand. We’ve had some really strong kickboxers here, though obviously the gym strong suit is jiu jitsu.”

Gym owner Robert Drysdale is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu prodigy and also currently fights in the UFC light-heavyweight division. Originally from Utah, he moved to Las Vegas 1998 for college studies and thereafter discovered jiu jitsu, earning his black belt in 2004.

His competition record is exceptional both in gi and no-gi competition and includes tournament victories in the prestigious ADCC organization. He also has a reputation as an excellent coach and this led to his becoming the jiu jitsu instructor of choice for many of the professional MMA fighters based in Las Vegas.

Former UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin trained his jiu jitsu at Drysdale’s, alongside other top talents such as Jon Alessio, Matt Riddle, Dan Hardy and Diego Nunes. At present Evan Dunham, Kevin Lee and Brad Tavares are three successful UFC fighters training on the mats there.

“Dunham just beat Ross Pearson, Kevin Lee just won his UFC fight, Tavares has a fight coming up, we are hoping to get a guy on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter… we’re pretty busy right now,” laughs Renaud.

“And Drysdale should be fighting in the next few months so he’s getting back into fight condition now. I pity the guy he fights next. We also have some guys fighting for World Series of Fighting (WSOF) and one of our amateurs, Ian Radford, is on the undercard of the GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS show.

“Obviously we have a strong jiu jitsu competition team as well. A lot of world champions and major tournament medalists, we are hoping to sweep the upcoming master world’s tournament. There’s a lot going on.”

Drysdale’s gym is sponsored by Hayabusa. The top Canadian brand recently came on a GLORY sponsor, the high quality of it’s striking equipment being an excellent fit with the world’s premier striking league.

Hayabusa is hosting the GLORY 23 LAS VEGAS open workouts ahead of the Friday, August 7 event, and the workouts are open to fans and the public. They will take place on Wednesday, August 5 from 11:00-1:00pm at the Drysdale gym.

Renaud says there is a good buzz around the gym ahead of GLORY’s Las Vegas debut. “A lot of our gym members are purchasing tickets just because Ian is the on the card. But all our MMA guys are really interested in GLORY. Anybody who is interested in MMA or fight sports can’t help but be into it.”