Pat Downey has just signed an exclusive contract with Polaris for any submission grappling matches in the UK, becoming the latest of several elite grapplers to do so. Ffion Davies was one of the first to sign a similar contract at the beginning of the year but she has since been joined by quite a few top competitors, including teenage prodigy Helena Crevar. Downey is somewhat unique compared to his peers under contract with Polaris in the UK though, as he has actually had multiple different combat sports careers at some of the highest levels before dedicating himself to Jiu-Jitsu.
Downey originally started out his career with wrestling and he was a very successful competitor there, winning an NCJAA championship and becoming an NCAA Division I All-American. He also won a US National Championship in 2019 before eventually making the decision to transition to MMA, signing to make his debut with Bellator. Downey didn’t spend long at Bellator though, as he only fought twice with both of his fights coming in 2022. Downey went 1-1 during his time in MMA before leaving the sport, without much news about his future at the time.
Downey had competed in submission grappling sporadically over the years, including a famous match with Gordon Ryan and an impressive performance at Subversiv 5. Then, almost out of nowhere, Downey announced that he was making a return to submission grappling at the Craig Jones Invitational. It had been over 3 years since his last match and he was coming in as a bit of an unknown quantity, but he put on a superb performance at CJI by beating Luke Rockhold in the opening round and finishing the event at 1-1. Now it seems like that has attracted the attention of Polaris, as they have decided to secure his services for some upcoming matches.
Polaris announced the news that they had signed Pat Downey to an exclusive UK contract in a recent post to their official Instagram account:
