It’s got to be the mixed martial arts equivalent of getting a letter from the IRS telling you that you’re about to get audited – finding out that you’re fighting on the same card as Marcus Davis. Now, despite all your hard work, odds are that you’re not going to pick up an end of the night bonus for best KO, submission, or fight.
Why? Because Davis had a virtual monopoly on such awards in 2007, pulling down submission of the night for his April submission of Pete Spratt, knockout of the night in June for his KO of Jason Tan, and a double whammy of Fight and submission of the night in his exciting September war with Paul Taylor.
“They’re gonna have to change my name to ‘Kid Bonus’ or something if I keep it up,” laughed ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’, whose stellar 2007 not only saw him win three in a row in the UFC, it saw him run his current winning streak to ten in a row. All of a sudden, Davis has gone from question mark to contender. So how do you top a year like that in 2008?
“I just keep doing it,” said Davis, who faces Jess Liaudin at UFC 80 in Newcastle on Saturday. “If I’ve gotta take another neck kick to get people to jump out of their seats and have a good time, that’s what I’ll do. If I have to learn how to do a flying gogoplata or something crazy, that’s what I’ll learn. I’ll do whatever I’ve got to do to become better and better and better. I’m working all the time on all these holes that I’ve got, and wait until I feel comfortable enough that I’ve filled up all those gaps and I go back and start working on my hands again.”
I promised that I would get through this piece without mentioning Davis’ past as a pro boxer, but it’s impossible, mainly because his transformation into a legitimate 170-pound contender in MMA has been amazing. But he humbly admits that he still hasn’t shown his full potential yet, and at the same time, he knows that a lot of people still see him as the boxer trying to make it in MMA.
“I think I’m in the in-between stage,” he said. “What’s good right now is that people are still underestimating me, which I love. And I haven’t fought to 100 percent of my ability; I’ve still withheld some stuff. I show little bits and pieces here and there but I’ve never let it all hang out. At some point I’m gonna have to – I hope it’s not in this fight, but at some point I’m gonna have to show it all and do it all. But now, I think that guys are thinking ‘I’ve got to watch out for his hands, but he has holes in other parts of his game.’”
And it’s not just opponents who eventually get shocked when they see what Davis can do on the mat.
“When I was back home in Maine, I had two guys come in from Team Quest, and I had Tim Boetsch come up to train with me, and every one of those guys – after we finished working out, no matter what it was, they said ‘I can’t believe that you’re that good at that,’” he recalls. “So I think I’m still surprising people and people are still underestimating what I’m actually capable of.”
That’s got to be a good thing – show up to a knife fight with an uzi and you’ll be in good shape. But as far as Davis is concerned, he’s not going to underestimate any opponent he’s in with, especially not Liaudin, who may very well be the best fighter with a 12-8 record that you’ll find.
“Both of us have deceiving records,” said the 18-4 Davis. “Yeah, I’ve got four losses, but I haven’t lost a fight in two years, and the losses that I had, I had two in my first five fights when I didn’t know what I was doing, and there were two on the show (The Ultimate Fighter 2) – one to Joe Stevenson and one to Melvin Guillard at the finale. Since then I’ve changed a lot, and I don’t know quite a bit about Jess, but I do know that he hasn’t lost in a long time and he’s fought a lot of tough guys. So this is the kind of fight where people are gonna be ‘holy s**t, did you see that fight yesterday?’ He’s dangerous, he’s got great strikes, real good kicks, and he’s very good at striking in the clinch. I’m also very impressed with his ground game, I’ve seen a lot of footage of his ground game, and I saw all of this even before I knew I was fighting him because I don’t watch tape of guys that I fight.”
No tape watching? Isn’t that a serious mistake in terms of fight preparation?
“I don’t like to watch tapes of guys that I fight because I don’t like to get into a fight and wait and expect to see something that I saw on video,” he said. “I’ve learned my lesson and I know you can’t do that because anybody who’s any good is always changing. If you watch videotape of me two years ago, I’m obviously a totally different guy, and each fight I’ve had I’ve been a little bit different, so you’re never gonna get a good idea on me by watching tapes. So I don’t do that – I just go in there and react to whatever the situation is.”
It’s worked so far; well, at least in his last ten fights, eight of which ended inside the distance. For Davis, the real secret is in his approach to the game when the bell rings, a philosophy that has not only produced victories and bonuses, but one that has also garnered a sizeable fanbase, especially in the UK, where Davis says he is even more recognized than he is in the States.
“That’s who I am and I’ve always fought that way,” said Davis. “I’m always gonna go out and take the chances and the risks and throw the bombs. I haven’t fought the ‘safe’ way in ten fights, and that’s why I have ten wins. I fought the safe way when I fought Joe Stevenson – I was afraid to engage and I circled and threw jabs and stuff – and I fought the same way against Melvin. I tried to box then, and I’m not fighting safe anymore.”
And he’s not about to start anytime soon, especially not with the headline of a recent story on Liaudin in the UK newspaper ‘The Sun’ blaring the headline “Liaudin predicts Davis knockout’. Of course, in the actual story, the quote from Liaudin reads “He likes to knock people out and so do I. Someone is getting knocked out – probably in the first round – at UFC 80.”
But the headline gave Davis enough bulletin board material, and later in the week the story came out in November, the Maine native ran into Joe Rogan, Eddie Bravo, and Dan Henderson at breakfast in New Jersey. Henderson, with whom Liaudin was training with in California, greeted Davis and told him that there was nothing but respect towards him from Liaudin. Davis recounted the ‘Sun’ headline back to the trio and promised them a UFC first on January 19th.
“I’m going to be the first person in the UFC to literally punch a hole through somebody’s head,” said Davis.
There were laughs all around, but Davis was obviously still miffed at the headline.
“No hard feelings, I respect the guy, he’s talented, and he was nice to me the first time I met him, but he said that and in the story he promised that he wouldn’t shoot for the takedown. He’s lying. If his idea is that he is not gonna take me to the ground, he’s lost the fight already.”
Sounds like a good one’s brewing, and on a UFC 80 card packed with intriguing bouts, this one may be the most intriguing. And if Davis wins, he’ll have to start thinking about a possible title shot in a few fights. In fact, he’s already scouting, but that doesn’t mean he always likes what he sees, especially when it comes to interim welterweight titlist Georges St-Pierre’s recent win over Matt Hughes in December.
“Watching that was terrifying,” laughs Davis. “I’ve never seen anybody look so strong, and he’s not even as big as I am. And his wrestling, it would be like he was in college and I’m in kindergarten. But the one thing I’ve got is that you can hit me with a baseball bat and you might knock me down, but I’ll get back up. And if I touch you, it doesn’t matter – Matt Serra was able to put him to sleep - and I can make it so you’re putting your socks on wrong for a month. But I think about it, and I watch that and go, jeez, that day might be coming if I keep winning and the day’s gonna come when I might have to fight him and who am I gonna use to prepare and what am I gonna do. If it happens, it happens, but I’ll be prepared.”
And at the end of the day, win or lose, Davis will keep fighting – it’s in his blood and it’s what he does. But winning sure beats losing, especially when a bonus is tacked on to the end of it.
“There are so many people running after that title, and I’m running after great fights and having a good time while I’m doing this,” he said. “Right now I’m at 10 (wins) in a row. If I go 20-0, at some point I’m gonna get that (title) fight. But I’m patient, I don’t care, I’m just gonna keep fighting the guy in front of me, deal with that, and go on to the next guy until the UFC says ‘sorry to do this to you, but we’ve got to make you fight a title fight.’ Right now, just keep the fights coming, keep me busy, let me fight every two months, and I’ll be happy as hell.”
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