# Elisabeth Clay

> Black Belt | United States

## Overview

**Name:** Elisabeth Clay

**Belt Rank:** Black Belt

**Nationality:** United States

**Gender:** Female

**Weight:** 65 kg


## Bio

Elisabeth Clay was born on June 10, 2000, in Katy, Texas, USA, where she lived up to her 8th birthday. Clay then moved to Oklahoma where she spent 2 years before setting in Alaska with her family.

Connected with sports from the time she was a toddler, Clay joined gymnastics classes when she was 18 months old, following her older siblings’ footsteps into the competitive side of the sport soon after.

As a young athlete, Elisabeth hoped to represent her country at the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, once the Clay family relocated to Soldotna, Alaska, the level of coaching and the team’s lack of ambition led Elisabeth to abandon her Olympic dream. Clay was 12 years old when she started looking for an alternative sport, finding the competitiveness she looked for in mixed martial arts at a small, local club. It was while training all aspects of MMA that Elisabeth discovered her preference for grappling.

Committed to everything she loved, Clay started dedicating 100% of her spare time to jiu-jitsu, under the guidance of coach Mason Ryder Spadafore. After 4 years of training in her hometown, the teenager was ready to step it up and join a bigger team with a more diverse practice room. For that, Elisabeth opted to join Jordan Kontra’s Legacy Jiu-Jitsu in Anchorage, a gym affiliated with the international grappling team, Ares. Under the guidance of Kontra, a 16-year-old, Clay rose to grappling stardom after her medals at the World, Pan, and ADCC trials.

After showing tremendous potential on the international circuit, Clay opted to move to the Ares Jiu-Jitsu Team headquarters in Modesto, California, midway through 2018. There she continued to progress and show her skill set while working with two of the top grappling coaches in the nation – Osvaldo Moizinho and Samir Chantre.

Although forced to return to Alaska in 2019 for family reasons, Elisabeth continued to make regular trips to the Ares basecamp, while competing against some of the toughest athletes in our sport. Her tremendous achievements on the professional circuit, particularly in no-gi, earned Clay her black belt from coaches Samir Chantre and Osvaldo Moizinho, in November 2020.
## Specialties

- closed guard
## Achievements

- F2W Heavyweight Champion (2021)
- 1st Place Polaris Grand Prix (2023)
- 1st Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2021 / 2022** / 2024 / 2025**)
- 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2021**/ 2022** / 2024**)
- 1st Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2023)
- 1st Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2025)
- 1st Place IBJJF American Nationals (2022)
- 1st Place IBJJF American Nationals NOGI (2023*)
- 1st Place SUBVERSIV Tournament (2020)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2025)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2021*)
- 2nd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2021)
- 2nd Place IBJJF American Nationals (2022* / 2023)
- 2nd Place CBJJ Brazilian Nationals (2022)
- 2nd Place AJP Grand Slam, MIA (2022)
- 3rd Place IBJJF World Championship (2025*)
- 3rd Place IBJJF European Open (2023)
- 1st Place IBJJF World Championship (2018* blue)
- 1st Place IBJJF World Championship Juvenile (2016** / 2017)
- 1st Place IBJJF World Championship NOGI (2018** purple, 2019** brown)
- 1st IBJJF Pan Championship (2018** blue)
- 1st IBJJF Pan Championship Juvenile (2016**)
- 1st IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2018** blue, 2019 purple)
- 1st Place ADCC American Trials (2017)
- 2nd Place IBJJF World Championship (2018 blue)
- 2nd Place IBJJF Pan Championship Juvenile (2017**)
- 1st IBJJF Pan Championship NOGI (2019* purple)
- 3rd Place IBJJF Pan Championship (2019** purple)
- 3rd Place ADCC American Trials (2019)
## Lineage

- Carlos Gracie (Red Belt)
- Hélio Gracie (Red Belt)
- Master Francisco Mansor (Red Belt)
- Augusto Mendes (Black Belt)
- Osvaldo Moizinho (Black Belt)

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**Last Updated:** September 08, 2026

**Data Source:** bjj.space (https://bjj.space/people/elisabeth-clay)