Both Stevie Ray and Craig Ewers have reached the highest levels of their respective sports and both men are able to use those skills to great effect when it comes to submission grappling.
Ray is a UFC veteran who amassed eleven fights in the world’s premier MMA organization before retiring from the sport in 2020. He walked away with an impressive 23-9 professional record that saw him submit eight fighters and win the Cage Warriors Lightweight championship throughout his decade of competing. He made his professional grappling debut at Polaris 11 and managed to submit fellow UFC fighter Paddy Pimblett with an inside heelhook, earning another callup for the coming event.
At Polaris 18, Ray will take on another veteran of the promotion, Craig Ewers. Ewers is a top-tier Judoka who has competed for the promotion several times, most recently having defeated Liam Cann back at Polaris 12. He was a two-time Commonwealth champion back in 2004 and 2006, before going on to coach the Welsh Judo team for six years and then opening up his own Jiu-Jitsu academy. This match represents an interesting clash of styles as two men with markedly different combat sports backgrounds will meet in a ruleset designed to push the action as much as possible.
