Ffion Davies, a two-time ADCC champion and multiple-time IBJJF world champion, has been outspoken about the pay gap between male and female grapplers for some time already.
She hopes that by withdrawing from ADCC, she can draw attention to this issue and inspire change.
Which is one of the reasons she walked away from the tournament and chose to compete at the Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) instead:
The pay discrepancy, particularly between the men and the women in the sport, has been pretty bad.
My hope was that if I remove myself from the division as the current champion, the prize money would then be raised or changes would be made.
Furthermore, Davies is very excited about competing against Mackenzie Dern in their scheduled superfight:
Mackenzie has the “it” factor.
She’s fiery, she’s exciting, and she’s going to fight 100% because she doesn’t fight in any other way.
I’m very excited for that.She’s obviously still going to have a very good guard, but I also see improvements in her top game and her wrestling too.
Davies, who has a strong judo background, is excited to showcase her diverse skillset – which she feels could give her an edge against Dern:
I come from a judo background, so I started judo when I was seven, and it’s been something that’s really helped me in my Jiu-Jitsu career.
I do think that my wrestling is obviously something I’d have to still work on a lot, because it’s different in MMA and it’s different in the cage…
But I do think that would speed the progress up.
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