Date of Birth
June 10, 2000
Birthplace
Katy, Texas, USA (family later moved to Oklahoma, then Alaska)
Team / Academy
Ares BJJ Association, under Osvaldo Moizinho (“Queixinho”) and Samir Chantre
Belt
Black Belt (awarded November 2020 by Osvaldo Moizinho and Samir Chantre)
Belt Lineage
Lineage 1: Carlos Gracie → Hélio Gracie → Francisco Mansur → Augusto Mendes → Osvaldo Moizinho → Elisabeth Clay Lineage 2: Carlos Gracie → Hélio Gracie → Carlson Gracie → Carlson Gracie Jr. → Alan Moraes → Samir Chantre → Elisabeth Clay
Weight Class
Featherweight / Middleweight (has competed at multiple weights, plus the absolute division)
Full Bio
Elisabeth Clay was born in Katy, Texas, and began gymnastics at 18 months old, following older siblings into the sport with early ambitions of competing at the Olympics. Her family relocated first to Oklahoma and then to Alaska, where limited access to gymnastics coaching led her, at age 11, to a local MMA gym. There she discovered a preference for grappling and began training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under coach Mason Spadafore.
In 2015, Clay joined Jordan Kontra’s Legacy Jiu-Jitsu in Anchorage, an Ares-affiliated academy, and began competing internationally. As a 16-year-old blue belt, she won the 2017 ADCC Submission Grappling West Coast Trials, a result that put her on the radar of the wider grappling community, though an injury kept her out of that year’s ADCC World Championship. She continued winning major IBJJF titles through the blue and purple belt ranks, including gold at the World Championship in the heavyweight juvenile blue belt division and an absolute blue-belt world title.
In mid-2018, Clay moved to Ares Jiu-Jitsu Team headquarters in Modesto, California, to train directly under Samir Chantre and Osvaldo Moizinho. Family circumstances brought her back to Alaska in 2019, though she continued making regular trips to the Ares base camp to train and compete. That year, as a brown belt, she won the IBJJF World No-Gi Championship, submitting every opponent she faced.
Clay received her black belt from Moizinho and Chantre in November 2020. She built her professional reputation quickly, defeating former IBJJF super-heavyweight and openweight black belt champion Kendall Reusing by split decision at Fight 2 Win in June 2020, and was named FloGrappling’s “2020 Female Grappler of the Year.” In February 2021 she made her black belt gi debut at Fight to Win, submitting the No. 2-ranked medium heavyweight competitor to win the welterweight title. She went on to win the Subversiv 5 superfight by kneebar, followed by silver at the 2021 Pan American Championship and a double-gold, 100%-submission run at the 2021 Pan No-Gi Championship across middleweight and the absolute division, finishing the openweight final with a submission over Kendall Reusing. That October she claimed her first black belt world title at the 2021 World No-Gi Championship.
Clay has continued to compete at the top of the sport in the years since, winning multiple IBJJF Pan, World, and National medals across the gi and no-gi, and building a professional record on cards including Who’s Number One (WNO), Fight to Win, Subversiv, and UFC Fight Pass Invitational. In 2023 she won the vacant WNO featherweight title against Brianna Ste-Marie and submitted Luiza Monteiro at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 5. In 2024 she returned to elite competition at the IBJJF No-Gi Pan Championship less than three months after giving birth. In April 2025 she lost her WNO featherweight title to Helena Crevar by submission. Later that year, at the 2025 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship, Clay became the first competitor to submit Gabrieli Pessanha at black belt, defeating her in the absolute division final.
As of March 2024, Clay was ranked FloGrappling’s #2 pound-for-pound female no-gi grappler in the world.
Achievements
- 3x IBJJF World No-Gi Champion (black belt)
- 4x IBJJF Pan No-Gi Champion (black belt)
- IBJJF World, European Open, and Brazilian Nationals medalist
- ADCC Submission Grappling West Coast Trials Champion (2017, as a 16-year-old blue belt)
- FloGrappling “2020 Female Grappler of the Year”
- Winning WNO Featherweight Title (2023–2025)
- First competitor to submit Gabrieli Pessanha at black belt (2025 IBJJF No-Gi World Championship, absolute final)