Blind wrestler fighting for a shot at the top

33-year-old wrestler and jiu-jitsu practitioner Clinton Davies. Photo / Doug Sherring

Blind grappler Clinton Davies is fighting for a shot to compete on the world stage next year - and against athletes who can see.

The 33-year-old wrestler and jiu-jitsu practitioner is 95 per cent blind and qualifies for the Paralympics but prefers to go up against sighted athletes.

And he's now fundraising for the chance to compete internationally in both codes next year.

Davies lost his sight at the age of 2 after an allergic reaction to penicillin left him with Stevens Johnson syndrome, blistering his body and severely damaging his lungs.

He can only make out shapes within 1m of him.

"I can compete with sighted people so why wouldn't I do that?" he said.

"I'm sure there are disadvantages but I'm actually not the person to ask that. The person to ask would be someone who had sight and then blindfolded themselves, they would know how limiting it was. Being blind is just something I've always had to deal with."

Davies is the reigning New Zealand champion in under-75kg Greco-Roman wrestling and was hailed as the first blind Kiwi wrestler to compete at wrestling worlds in 2013.

Davies said sighted athletes didn't go easy on him, adding at times he felt they tried even harder.

"They know I don't take it easy on them," he said.

"I don't really think of myself as inspiring. I'm just another athlete that goes to training and does what he can. "

When Davies started wrestling at 17 he was beaten up for the first couple of years before finding his feet, but starting jiu-jitsu was a different story.

After less than a year training, he won two golds and a bronze at last year's Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Pan-Pacific Championships.

"I'm just a baby in this class," he said.

"It was my first international jiu-jitsu comp and I entered in the open weight division as well as my own. I was fighting a guy that was 132kg -- 55kg heavier than me -- and I tore all my intercostal muscles and my rib kept dislocating. I won though, so that's all right."

The cost of competing internationally has taken its toll on more than just Davies' body.

Fighting at the Fila Wrestling World Championships cost him a whopping $7000, meaning the father-of-two has to choose carefully which competitions he enters.

Coach Pedro Fernandes said Davies had made a name for himself in the New Zealand grappling scene.

The 100-odd athletes Davies trains with at Tu Kaha Jiu Jitsu Club do not take it easy on the blind athlete, Fernandes said.

"Especially here in New Zealand, they know he is a ninja. They're already expecting a very hard fight. Maybe overseas they would think: 'Oh he's blind' and try to take it easy on him, but then they feel the power.

"When he wants something he'll get it. He's one of the most committed students I've ever had."

A Givealittle page has been set up to fundraise for Davies to get to the Jiu-jitsu World Championships and Oceania Wrestling Championships next year.

• To donate, visit: givealittle.co.nz/cause/blindgrappler