Brianna Ste-Marie and Elisabeth Clay will be meeting on the mats at Who’s Number One 20: Night of Champions on October 1st, 2023, and the promotion’s vacant featherweight title will be awarded to the winner. This is just the latest of several announcements for the event and it’s set to be one of the best BJJ events in recent memory with titles on the line in every match so far. Gordon Ryan will be returning to competition in the main event to defend his heavyweight title and the co-main event will feature the light-heavyweight champion, Pedro Marinho, defending his belt against Rafael Lovato Jr.
This latest matchup that’s been announced isn’t the only one for a title in the women’s division either, as Rafaela Guedes will be defending the heavyweight title against Nathiely De Jesus. Who’s Number One have decided to mix things up a little for the rest of the card too, as the only other matches announced aren’t straight title-defenses. Instead, four of the best featherweight grapplers on the planet will be meeting in a short tournament to determine who takes home that vacant title.
It’s going to be a fantastic event for so many reasons, but the battle between Brianna Ste-Marie and Elisabeth Clay is likely to be one of the highlights. Although they can both make the featherweight limit, Clay does normally compete in a slightly higher weight class than Ste-Marie and she’ll have a slight size advantage as a result. This will be the first time that they’ve crossed paths in black belt competition despite the fact that they’ve entered the same tournaments in the past, like Polaris 23. Both women are exciting competitors who always hunt for the finish but are also remarkably hard to submit themselves. It’ll be interesting to see if either woman is able to submit the other, or if this will be a lengthy battle of scrambles and fun exchanges.
FloGrappling announced the news that Brianna Ste-Marie and Elisabeth Clay would fight for the vacant featherweight WNO title in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
