It’s just been announced that Ffion Davies will now be defending her under 55kg title against Brianna Ste-Marie at Polaris 27 on March 23rd, 2024. It’s a fantastic matchup for several reasons, perhaps the most important of all being that it’s actually a rematch of the final from the under 60kg division of ADCC 2022. Although Davies ended up winning that match by a pretty wide margin and taking home the title, there’s still plenty of interest in seeing her and Ste-Marie run it back again. Davies won 10-0 on points but Ste-Marie managed to bounce back and win the IBJJF No Gi World Championship at lightweight later that year.
Although Davies didn’t compete in that tournament in 2022, she returned in 2023 to make history by winning both the lightweight and absolute divisions. That’s an added layer of interest surrounding this matchup, as Davies and Ste-Marie have actually won the last three editions of the IBJJF No Gi World Championship between them. They have also shared the mats together at another Polaris event before, although not actually opposite one another. They both competed in the women’s under 66kg grand prix at Polaris 23, although they were both submitted by bigger opponents in the semi-final and didn’t cross paths.
It’s a superb matchup between two of the top competitors in the world at that weight class and the match will take place on a stacked card with an 8-man welterweight grand prix as the main attraction of the night. The match between Ffion Davies and Brianna Ste-Marie isn’t even the only title-fight at Polaris 27 either, as Gabriel Sousa and Owen Jones are going to battle it out for the promotion’s vacant featherweight belt. There will also be a preliminary card featuring some of the top grappling talents in the UK before either of these take place, and an interesting match between UFC veterans Nathaniel Wood and Mason Jones.
Polaris announced the news that Ffion Davies was defending her title against Brianna Ste-Marie at Polaris 27 in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
