In early 2012, Goodridge was diagnosed with early onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
52 Facts About Gary Goodridge
1.
2.
Gary Goodridge was born in Saint James, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago before moving to Barrie, Ontario, Canada.
3.
Gary Goodridge was a world champion in arm wrestling, and was able to defeat the likes of greats Sharon Remez and John Brzenk in 1991 and again in 1994.
4.
Gary Goodridge was the super heavyweight amateur boxing champion of Canada.
5.
Gary Goodridge originally applied for Ultimate Fighting Championship at his friends' suggestion after they watched the fight between Remco Pardoel and Orlando Wiet in UFC 2.
6.
Gary Goodridge started training in a Kuk Sool Won school, as he wanted some martial arts credentials aside from his boxing championship, only to find out that the school was already training a fighter to compete in UFC.
7.
Gary Goodridge was forced to fight him, and he won in dominant fashion, so he was quickly offered a 4th degree black belt and a free dobok if he represented the school at the event.
8.
Gary Goodridge ended up going to UFC 8 with less than a month's experience in the art.
9.
In 1996, Gary Goodridge made his debut in UFC in the eight-man tournament at UFC 8: David vs Goliath in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
10.
The first elbow strike landed on Herrera's temple and knocked him unconscious, but the fight was not stopped until Gary Goodridge landed seven more blows, giving Herrera a concussion and a broken cheekbone.
11.
Gary Goodridge made usage of his strength advantage to control Bohlander, but he got swept and received punches and headbutts until he could escape from Bohlander's mount.
12.
Gary Goodridge opened the fight throwing Frye to the mat with a waist lock and trying to get a finishing kick to the head, only for Frye to escape and punish him with uppercuts from the clinch.
13.
Gary Goodridge returned at UFC 9: Motor City Madness in a non-tournament bout against Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz.
14.
On July 12,1996, at UFC 10: The Tournament, Gary Goodridge took part in his second UFC tournament.
15.
Gary Goodridge first fought wrestler John Campetella, knocking him out with left punches from the mount after reversing a takedown, and advanced round against wrestling champion and eventual winner Mark Coleman.
16.
Gary Goodridge was taken down repeatedly, struck with elbows and headbutts and finally submitted for giving his back.
17.
However, Frye reached for two armbars attempts and got free, performing his own takedown, and then Gary Goodridge tapped out due to exhaustion just like their first time.
18.
On July 6,1997, Gary Goodridge participated in the first International Vale Tudo Championship tournament.
19.
Finally, after grabbing again Otavio's testicles from a clinch, Gary Goodridge overpowered him and landed strikes for the KO, winning the tournament.
20.
In late 1997, Gary Goodridge was recruited to compete in Japan's PRIDE Fighting Championships and made his promotional debut in its very first event PRIDE1 on October 11.
21.
Gary Goodridge returned at PRIDE 2 on March 15,1998, where he faced UFC 7 tournament winner and Brazilian luta livre fighter Marco Ruas.
22.
Gary Goodridge dominated most of the match, cutting Ruas with a punch and landing ground and pound on the mat, but as they were restarted on the feet, a slip allowed Ruas to come back with his own offense.
23.
The UFC veteran punished Rahnavardi with punches while the latter attempted leglocks and triangle chokes to no avail; at one point Gary Goodridge theatrically shouted Amir to hit him back.
24.
Gary Goodridge landed blows against the inexperienced Ogawa, but the judoka eventually took him down and started attempting submissions.
25.
Gary Goodridge added that PRIDE executive Nobuyuki Sakakibara had promised him "to write his own ticket" if he defeated Ogawa in order to increase his motivation.
26.
On January 20,2000, Gary Goodridge took part in the sixteen-man, open weight tournament PRIDE Grand Prix 2000.
27.
Gary Goodridge's first opponent was a debutant, former professional wrestler Osamu "Tachihikari" Kawahara, whom Goodridge defeated via choke in under a minute.
28.
Gary Goodridge was eliminated from the tournament, but continued to cement his status as PRIDE's gatekeeper, which gave name to his official biography.
29.
The debutant Rodriguez attempted repeated takedowns in the first round, but Gary Goodridge was able to block most of his offense and land opportunistic strikes.
30.
Gary Goodridge finally bounced back against Yoshiaki Yatsu, another professional wrestling veteran making his debut, at PRIDE 11.
31.
The last was especially notable, as after outstriking Overeem and negating his guard, Gary Goodridge avoided a Kimura lock, thanks in part to his arm wrestling skill.
32.
Gary Goodridge then landed a heavy knee strike and followed with ground and pound until the TKO.
33.
Gary Goodridge's debut was going to be against Mark Coleman, but the latter pulled out due to an injury and Goodridge stepped in on short notice.
34.
The bout was short, although Gary Goodridge worked to avoid his adversary's Brazilian jiu-jitsu expertise, Nogueira managed to bring him to his guard and lock a triangle choke for the win.
35.
Gary Goodridge's last fight of the year was a special "K-1 vs PRIDE" rules bout against vale tudo fighter Ebenezer Fontes Braga in Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye, which ended in a draw.
36.
Gary Goodridge started 2002 opposite to Achmed Labasanov from Russian Top Team at PRIDE 21.
37.
The Russian opened strong and controlled the Trinidadian on the mat, but Gary Goodridge scrambled, managed to get on top, and scored knees and punches for some minutes.
38.
At the third, Gary Goodridge took over and scored knees and punches for the unanimous decision.
39.
At PRIDE Shockwave 2002, Gary Goodridge faced Dutch kickboxer Lloyd van Dams, whom he defeated quickly by takedown and ground and pound despite the Dutchman's size advantage.
40.
Gary Goodridge returned to PRIDE after some months, fighting fellow UFC veteran Dan Bobish.
41.
The match met a controversial ending, as Gary Goodridge knocked him out with a punching combination while Bobish was trying to signal an eye gouge to the referee.
42.
Gary Goodridge had his official retirement fight at PRIDE Shockwave 2003 after six years of fighting for PRIDE.
43.
Gary Goodridge would write in his autobiography that he had to receive numbing injections in his lower back only to be able to walk, while Frye himself looked in pain just to get up from his chair.
44.
Gary Goodridge was then met with a standing ovation while he celebrated with Frye and PRIDE executives Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Nobuhiko Takada, who presided his retirement ceremony.
45.
In 2004, Gary Goodridge began competing for the K-1 promotion's HERO'S series.
46.
On March 26,2005, at HERO'S 1, Gary Goodridge defeated Russian sumo wrestler Alan Karaev by submission.
47.
At HERO'S 8 on March 12,2007, Gary Goodridge beat South African Jan "The Giant" Nortje via TKO.
48.
Gary Goodridge made his kickboxing debut in 1999 at K-1 Revenge, against Musashi and lost the fight by disqualification.
49.
In 2005, Gary Goodridge participated in two K-1 World GP tournaments held in United States.
50.
Gary Goodridge was again given the chance to qualify for the World GP in 2005 but was knocked out by Jerome Le Banner .
51.
Gary Goodridge is a convert to Islam, and first made the revelation in July 2018 while on The Deen Show.
52.
Gary Goodridge stated in a 2010 interview that prior to his bout with Naoya Ogawa at Pride 6 in 1999, he was offered a bribe to lose the match.