Marcus Davis

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Boxing Career
3 Early MMA Career
4 The Ultimate Fighter
5 Rebuilding Career
6 Return to the UFC
7 Mixed martial arts record
8 Gallery
9 External links

Profile

Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis (born August 24, 1973) aka "The Celtic Warrior" is an American professional mixed martial artist who trains out of Team Sityodtong.

He stands 5 ft. 10 in. and fights in the welterweight division (170 lbs.). He is a veteran of The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 and currently fights for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Boxing Career

Davis began boxing in 1993 and went on to amass a 17-1-2 record which ended in October, 2000. His last professional bout was a TKO loss to Ed Bryant. After the bout, Davis retired from boxing to take up mixed martial arts.

Early MMA Career

Davis made his professional mixed martial arts debuton August 22, 2003, against Shawn Gay for the ISCF - Friday Night Fights organization. Davis defeated Gay via TKO at 2.09 of round 1.

In Davis' next fight he faced future welterweight stand out, Thiago Alves. Davis suffered his first professional loss when he was defeated by split decision. After losing again, this time to Nuri Shakir via rear naked choke, Davis compiled two straight victories. The first being a rematch with Shawn Gay and the second, an arm bar over Renat Myzabekov.

The Ultimate Fighter

After a 3-2 start to his MMA career, along with his quality boxing record, Davis earned a position on The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 as a welterweight in 2005.

Davis was eliminated in episode 4 in the opening round of the tournament. After selecting to fight pre-show favorite, Joe Stevenson. Davis was clearly overmatched in the bout, with Stevenson taking Davis down early and punishing him with elbow strikes until Davis tapped late in the first round.

He returned at The Ultimate Fighter 2 Finale against fellow opening round loser, Melvin Guillard. After getting dominated for the length of the bout, the scar tissure above Davis's eyes from his lengthy boxing career gave out, and Davis was stopped on cuts.

Rebuilding Career

After the show's end, Davis strongly considered retirement but instead decided to focus exlusively on improving the other aspects of his MMA game. Over the course of TUF 2 he befriended BJJ black belt, Jorge Gurgel who worked with Davis on improving his grappling.

Davis started to show off his drastically improved jiu jitsu with three out of his next five wins coming by way of submission in smaller promotions.

Return to the UFC

His impressive run and win streak earned Davis a ticket back to the UFC. He made his return at UFC: The Final Chapter, an event which was headlined by Ortiz vs. Shamrock 3. Davis faced Forrest Petz on the undercard and scored his first UFC victory with a guillotine choke at 4.58 of round 1.

At UFC Fight Night 7, Davis was matched up against TUF 4 veteran, Shonie Carter. Davis got a chance to show off his boxing skills in a unanimous decision victory over Carter.

Four months later, at UFC 69, Davis faced another TUF 4 veteran in Pete Spratt. Davis was allowed to show off his BJJ skills in this bout, submitting Spratt with an achilles lock in round 2.

In a quick turnaround for Davis, two months later he faced Jason Tan in the first UFC event ever to be held in Northern Ireland. Davis scored a quick KO victory which earned him "knockout of the night" honors.

The Tan bout marked the first of his next five bouts which would take place in the UK. At UFC 75, Davis submited Paul Taylor with an arm bar after getting rocked early with a head kick. The bout earned "fight of the night" and "submission of the night" honors.

The Taylor fight pushed Davis' MMA win streak to ten and his UFC win streak to five. He returned at UFC 80 against French fighter, Jess Liaudin whom he knocked out in just over a minute.

Davis tasted defeat for the first time in 11 fights at UFC 85 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Mike Swick. Davis stated after the bout that he had hurt his shoulder due to excessive weight lifting before the bout which affected his performance in the fight. After suffering another cut on his pre-existing scar tissue in the Swick fight, Davis decided to have the problem surgically taken care of.

Davis' next fight came against undefeated British fighter, Paul Kelly at UFC 89. Swick stated before the bout that this was the first training camp that he had not suffered a cut in and that he had chosen to focus on speed and agility rather than weights, which lent itself to a much less muscular physique. Davis looked very good in the fight, scoring a takedown in the first round while landing snapping strikes on the feet. After getting taken down in the second round, Davis latched onto a guillotine choke which forced the tap from Kelly.

After the fight Davis asked that his next fight be at UFC 93, the UFC's first event in Ireland, against Chris Lytle.