The ‘Irish Hand Grenade’ Marcus Davis has returned to his spiritual home of Waterford to prepare for a K1 world title fight in Dublin on Sunday. JOE caught up with him to discuss his fighting career past, present and future.
By Fergus Ryan
Fighting is in every fibre of Marcus Davis’ being. He just can’t not fight. “My mom will tell you I was throwing punches before I could walk or do anything babies are supposed to do”. Davis took to martial arts when he was 8 and began boxing at 14. When he witnessed UFC 1 in 1993 he was already hooked on fighting. He would later begin to dabble with Jeet Kune Do to compliment his boxing but it took another 10 years after seeing UFC 1 for Davis to enter the world of Mixed Martial Arts as a fighter.
“I was active on the Boston boxing circuit for years and I was working security in nightclubs at the same time. I started to realise that my boxing skills were limited in the fight situations I was getting into at work. Like, you might end up on the floor with a guy in the club and he’s trying to smash you with a pint glass. So you need more than boxing in that situation. I started some JKD classes and got into grappling a little bit. Around 2000 I just got burned out from all the negativity I was experiencing with boxing contracts and promoters; I was involved with some of the shady characters in the sport unfortunately.”
Davis left Boston and returned to Bangor, in Maine (not Co. Down) where he ran his own bar and nightclub. With a wealth of combat sports experience he insisted that anyone working in his security detail should attend his classes. One of those employees turned out to be ‘The Maine-iac’ Tim Sylvia. “Tim took some classes with me and figured he’d give some vale tudo fights a try” recalled Davis. Then a chance meeting at UFC 32 sent both the men’s lives down the MMA road for good.
“I was at a UFC event in New Jersey (UFC 32: Showdown in the Meadowlands) with Tim and we bumped into Pat Miletich and he asked Tim if he wanted to go up and train in Iowa with him. So we both went up and that’s when I decided to give MMA a try full-time.”
Many UFC fans know Davis as a hard punching welterweight (170lbs). His final fight in the UFC was at lightweight (155lbs). You’ll probably be surprised to learn his MMA career started out at the other end of the weight classes. “Not many people know this but I went from being a 150lbs boxer to a 220lbs MMA fighter. My first 2 fights, which aren’t even on my record, were at heavyweight. One was 220lbs and then next one was at 215lbs. I had some fights at 205lbs, then 185lbs and then settled at 170lbs and that’s when I got the call to take part in The Ultimate Fighter.”
Davis featured in the 2nd series of TUF and met an influential character in developing his MMA game. During in-house interviews Davis would often say that if he lost during the TUF process he would turn his back on fighting for good. He lost to Joe Stevenson during TUF 2 but rather than ending his career, this sent him further down the road on his MMA journey.
“After the show I was ready to quit. I met Jorge Gurgel during TUF 2 and he’s one of my best friends now. Jorge kept saying to me ‘what are you doing? Don’t quit, come on out to my place and I’ll show you some stuff on the ground.’ I had some injuries so while they were healing up I talked it over with my wife, then girlfriend and my kids and they encouraged me to keep going. My wife is a medical professional and she doesn’t want anything to do with any part of my fighting career, she never watches my fights even if I come home without a scratch, she won’t watch it [the fight] back. But she knows who I am and she knows that this is such a big part of my life and she supports me.”
Davis went to train with BJJ black belt Jorge Gurgel and consequently went on an 11 fight win streak with 6 of those coming by way of submission. “Still today guys think when they grapple or wrestle with me that they’ll have it easy. But I spent so much time working my ground game that I can hold my own with anyone. Like one weekend I was training at a gym just focusing on guillotine chokes. I must have tapped out 30 guys consecutive just using the guillotine.”
With a well rounded game and an impressive win streak it was only a matter of time before the UFC would come calling again. Once back in the UFC Davis kept on winning and turned into the UFC’s road warrior. He first reconnected with his Irish heritage on the promotional duties for UFC 72 in Belfast. After 4 trips to England for UFC’s 75, 80, 85 and 89 the call came for the trip that Davis had hoped for.
UFC 93 in January 2009, so far, is the UFC’s only Irish show. It represented a lot of things to Davis – a sort of homecoming, an opponent that suited his style, one of his greatest wins and a battle against adversity. “Obviously the fight with Chris Lytle has a lot of positive memories; it was one of the ‘fights of the year’, it was one of my best victories but there’s a whole back story to that fight that I won’t even get into. If you ask Mark Dellagrotte he’ll tell you he felt like he was walking me to the electric chair for execution when we walked out to the Octagon. He thought I was gonna get really hurt. I had a bad flu in the lead up to the fight and you can see my emotions after it. I was crying like a baby, Mark was crying, the win just represented so many things for us.” The tears were joyous ones as Davis proudly represented ‘Na Deise’ wearing the Waterford jersey for his post fight interview.
The Chris Lytle fight represented the peak of Davis’ UFC career. He lost 4 of his next 5 and ultimately parted ways with the UFC. The infamous Dan Hardy fight still rankles with Davis. “Anyone who watches the UFC knows the story. I felt I won that fight on the night. Commentators on ESPN told me they thought I won the fight. One of the judges wrote me a letter afterwards and apologised for the way he scored it and said when he watched the fight back and he realised he scored it wrong.”
Davis has kept active going 3-1 in his year away from the big league. His only defeat was to TUF 13 alumnus Chuck O’Neill. Davis is hopeful he can finish out his career in the UFC but is happy to just keep fighting and see where the road takes him. “I’ve been blessed with my life so far and the UFC owes me nothing, it would be great to retire a UFC fighter but if that doesn’t happen it won’t bother me.”
Before he gets back to the UFC or even MMA there’s the pressing matter of Mark Casserly. It was a given he would travel to Ireland once he was contacted by Chris Boyne of Primal Fighting Championships and offered a K1 title fight. “Chris rang me and we went back and forth for a little bit but once everything was straightened out I was excited. I love Ireland, I love the people, the atmosphere and the energy over here. Waterford is my adopted home and some of my closest friends are here. In fact some of the guys are like brothers to me, I call their mother and father ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ when I’m staying with them.”
Davis is also extremely complimentary about what’s he’s seen in the Irish MMA community. “No-one can teach you the work ethic and desire that I’ve seen from the Irish guys, you’re born with that. What I’ve seen in my visits to Ireland is a very strong culture amongst the MMA guys and that they’re durable, they work themselves to the bone to get better. Obviously the lack of a wrestling tradition is something of a negative but get over to the States and train with wrestlers over there. At my main gym in Brewer, Maine we’ve got a great wrestling coach and anyone can come out and train with us.”
At 38 many fighters would have hung up their gloves, but Davis hasn’t yet considered packing in his fighting life. “I’m not like a food, I don’t have an expiration date stamped on my forehead so I’ll keep going till I know my body and mind has had enough. I’ll listen to my wife also she’ll know medically when I’m done.” His fight this Sunday won’t be his Irish swan song either. “I have some MMA fights in the works I’m always getting offers and there’s some from Ireland for this summer that I’m seriously looking into.”
‘Primal Fighting Championships – Worlds Collide’ is on Sunday, May 6th at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. Tickets on sale from www.ticketgroup.ie. You can also get them from any Xtra Vision shop, The Fighters, Mullens Sports on Capel Street, Dublin 1 and from promoter Chris Boyne on 085 101 3222. There will be a public weigh-in on Saturday in the Square Shopping Centre in Tallaght at 1.00pm (3rd floor beside the cinema) followed by a press conference. All that’s left to say is: see you there.
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