Issue 132
September 2015
Bellator MMA’s new 205lb recruit Phil Davis already has his eyes on the prize.
Why did you choose not to re-sign with the UFC and sign with Bellator instead?
It went down that the UFC made an offer and I chose to fight out the rest of my contract and become a free agent. At that time I had to wait around a little while. Bellator made an offer and some other companies made offers as well, but I don’t even know about the other offers because my management handles all that. The only offers that were brought to me were the UFC and Bellator offers. I chose the Bellator offer.
Did you get a number from the UFC, a number from Bellator and have a certain reaction one way or the other? Was it that simple?
Yeah. It was as simple as that. Both offers were laid on a table in front of me and I was asked which one I wanted. The Bellator offer was a better offer.
The Bellator light heavyweight division is getting more stacked by the day, with fighters like the champ Liam McGeary, former champ Emmanuel Newton, King Mo and veterans like Tito Ortiz. How much are you looking forward to earning a crack at the title through the Dynamite tournament?
Oh, absolutely. I want to go against the best of the best. Put me right in there. Put me in coach. I’m ready to roll. I definitely want to fight for the title ASAP, but at the same time it’s not because I ‘deserve’ to or because Scott Coker ‘owes’ it to me. No, no, no, no. Run your business. I will fight whoever you want me to fight. Give me a name and I will fight him.
You’re one of the fighters that gets the PR, marketing and promotional side of the sport. You’re an outspoken guy, you have a great look and a great personality. You have it all going for you. Where does that mindset come from?
Both of my parents have college degrees. Actually they both have master’s degrees. They are just very PC people in everything that they do. From the way they speak to people, they are very proper and by the book. Just being brought up in that kind of environment, I have to be by the book. I can’t do or say the stuff some of the other guys do on Twitter or Instagram. It’s just not me, and even if it was me, I still wouldn’t do it.
Even though your time in the UFC is over you seem to have some ill feelings for Jon Jones. What is it that makes you want to punch him in the face so bad?
I don’t have any real feelings or much to say about Jon Jones. He said something about me being Mr JV (Junior Varsity). I don’t know. He’s just one of those guys that you would love to beat up. I would even go as far as to say he’s one that got away. He can rest easy at night right now, but not forever.
How does it make you feel to see pictures from your NCAA championship-winning days around the Penn State wrestling facilities?
It’s definitely something I look at every time I go into the wrestling room. When I look around, our wrestling room at Penn State is inside Rec Hall and upstairs in the auditorium they have all the sports teams’ pictures dating back to the 1800s, even the tennis team in, like, 1850. It’s crazy. At that time black people weren’t even allowed to be involved in sports. My thought is, ‘Man, I get to have my face on the wall down in the wrestling room.’ It’s a big picture, it’s big enough that I’m uncomfortable when I’m in the room. Everybody thinks it’s cool to have a six-foot picture of yourself hanging until you get in the room and it’s pretty weird. What an awesome country. What an awesome experience I had at Penn State University.
