Chuck Mindenhall from UFC.com writes about Maine native, Marcus Davis, a fighter who has been very successful versus UK fighters in their home arenas:
When Britain can’t beat Marcus Davis, that’s when “Britain Adopts Marcus Davis.” Or at least that’s what the UK Sun’s headline read after Marcus Davis KO’d Liverpool’s Jason Tan in Belfast, Ireland, at UFC 72, submitted Walsall’s Paul Taylor in UFC 75 at the O2 Arena, and knocked out London-based Jess Liaudin at UFC 80 in Newcastle. This Saturday, Davis will hop the pond for the fourth time in as many fights to take on Mike “Quick” Swick at UFC 85 in London, in what has finally become friendly confines for the Maine native.
“Swick’s going into my backyard,” Davis says, “because I’ve already been there, I’ve fought there—I’m very comfortable there. Not that I’m thinking that’s going to affect him. I mean, it’s never affected me to go into anyone’s back yard, and I’ve done it a lot. I’ve always been the bad guy. I fought on a Marine base [against Shonie Carter] and he was a Marine. I fought Pete Spratt in Houston, he was from Houston. I fought Paul Taylor in London, he was from England. I’ve always fought guys in their hometowns, and I’ve always beaten them. But Swick’s going over there, and he’s going to be the outsider.”
Whether or not his adopted hometown fans will come to his aid, one thing that seems inevitable is that pairing Mike “Quick” Swick and Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis will make for a super-charged war with plenty of immediate action. In all three of the aforementioned overseas fights, Davis won in the first round. In 2007 alone, Davis stole the show by earning four post-fight bonuses for knockout, submission and fight of the night. Of his eleven straight victories dating back to April of 2006, only two of those fights have gone the distance, and eight of them never made it past the opening round. In other words, Davis works fast. One might say faster than Quick, lately.
And there’s also this: though he’s one of the best strikers in the game, he ain’t a boxer any more, either. Improbably, at least for anybody who believes you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, more than half of Davis’ recent wins have come via submissions. The boxer with the pugilist’s brow who once dubbed himself the Nostradamus of MMA because he saw the potential of the sport and risked “going penniless” to be a part of it, has learned discipline. Joe Stevenson taught Davis that the sprawl and brawl approach wasn’t enough in MMA, and after rehabbing a separated AC joint suffered in that 2005 bout, the 34-year-old Davis reinvented himself completely. Well, almost completely.
Tags: Marcus Davis, UFC 85
Entries (RSS)