Ffion Davies has publicly shared that she will be taking a break from competition, opening up about recent struggles in a heartfelt Instagram post.
And, while many fans expressed support, her announcement also prompted immediate backlash from Gordon Ryan.
Davies has been under intense scrutiny lately, largely due to her decision to sign an exclusive contract with the UFC.
While many top athletes have inked similar deals, Davies has faced an outsized amount of criticism.
Much of it stems from her longstanding role as a vocal advocate for the growth of women’s Jiu-Jitsu.
As some feel that aligning with an exclusive promotion contradicts her message – while others argue that her UFC platform could help push women’s grappling into the mainstream.
Here is what Ffion had to say about her decision:
I’m struggling a bit to write this as I don’t want to come off as looking for pity or oversharing, but at the same time I want to be honest.
The last few weeks I’ve been struggling a lot mentally; I’ve always been told to suck it up and told to grow a thicker skin.
I’m also aware that situations like this bring up past wounds of feeling like an outsider, so I’m definitely taking things harder than I normally would and not being able to train made it worse.I’ve never loved Jiujitsu more. I’ve never wanted to quit so much.
Seeing comment sections and online threads talking about me is not natural or healthy but also hard to avoid – I’m a strong believer in what’s said behind my back is none of my business, but the internet means that that’s no longer possible.
Going into competition, the fear is no longer if I lose – the solution is easy; go back to the gym, fix mistakes.
The new, overwhelming fear is what will people say about me, how will I be torn apart.I know in my heart that the reason I stop competing could likely be because of that.
For now I’m going to focus on the opening of ARMA and I’m so excited to be a coach and grateful for something to throw myself into.
I know many are so good at tuning these things out and I’ll be doing the work (in therapy) to make sure I can too – because I’m not a quitter.
It didn’t take long for Gordon Ryan to react:
The soft as baby sh*t world champion telling everyone how she can’t take the mean tweets that Joe from Ohio makes about her.
Could you IMAGINE being this f*cking soft?
Not even just being this soft, but criticizing my mentality and worldview while simultaneously not being able to handle 1/100000000th of what I do on a daily basis.Moral of the story here. It is not ok to be a weak f*cking pu**y.
Everyone has issues, and NO ONE cares about yours.
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