Issue 150
January 2017
Bellator 205lb champion
Nickname: Mr. Wonderful
Record: 21-5-0
Team: Alliance MMA
How does it feel to be the champion?
It feels good. Now we begin a new stage where we are trying to cement a legacy. It’s not about being a champion for a day or a fight, it’s about being that champion for a long time.
It’s about maintaining that dominance in a weight class over a long period of time. That’s what I want to do now.
How do you look back on beating Liam McGeary?
The fight was really just me staying out of the positions that Liam McGeary is dangerous. If you watch the fight and you are not familiar with Liam McGeary, it looks like that guy is nowhere near as good as me.
He is very dangerous. I just took him out of the scenarios where he is dangerous. I put him in the positions where I kick butt.
That’s what you are supposed to do every time you step in the cage. Put the opponent into positions where you are awesome.
You made it look easy. Were you surprised at the level of success you had on the ground?
There is no way I expected to take him down that easily. A lot of times there were shots that he stuffed but a lot of times I do that just to see how my opponent will react.
I’m not wasting any energy if I just go grab your leg. I’ll wait to see what you are going to do. A lot of times guys get their confidence up thinking they stuffed my shot. No, that was just me gauging where your takedown defense is. Now I know what you are going to do. I got you. It’s pretty much a done deal after that.
How were you so dominant on the ground?
We worked a lot of things in getting ready for McGeary. Even though he is a talented and very well-rounded fighter, I had no idea he had these blind spots in his game.
The game plan was: if I saw him in half guard, only pass on the high side. He always catches guys in that inverted triangle because they pass to the low side (into mount).
From that point you just run the score up.
It was confusing for me because I have never been against a guy that I could mount so easily and stay mounted for so long, but at the same time was so very difficult to submit.
On one hand, I have a guy who was letting me control him and mount him like a white belt, but he has black belt submission defense. It was very confusing.
Is there anyone out there you’d love to test your skills against?
(Adopts a sarcastic tone) I would say (Alliance teammate) Dominick Cruz.
The man is too big for his britches. He has such a unique style that it’s really hard to understand. I just want to know, if I was at his weight class, could handle his offense and do what I do?
You’re a BJJ white belt, yet you out-grapple black belts. How does that work?
In wrestling, there is no belt system. Either you are good or you are not good.
No one needs to explain that. Everyone who needs to know you are good knows and anyone who doesn’t need to know doesn’t know. An actual ranking system, to me, is unnecessary. I understand the basis of it but I hang with everybody and I’m supposedly a white belt.
Everyone who’s a white belt doesn’t hang with me in wrestling, that’s a fact. I have no desire to climb the belt ranking system to the point of someone saying ‘Oh, he’s a blue belt, or a brown belt or a black belt.’ If you don’t respect me you will get submitted and even if you do respect me you will get submitted.
You’ve got to feature in some high-profile commercials. What’s the secret?
My management do their best to make sure I get the maximum visibility and they promote me well. That’s just one of the many fruits of their labor.
They said, ‘Phil we have something for you but it is kind of short notice.’ I said ‘Uh, yeah I guess I’ll do it.’ And asked what it was. They said, ‘Well, it’s a Sprite commercial.’ I said, ‘Sprite? Why didn’t you just tell me?’
Do you have aspirations to work in Hollywood, too?
We will see what happens. I don’t like to say yes or no for sure. I definitely am interested. I’m not sure about the timing. I just want to concentrate on one thing at a time. If something came up I might do it. We will wait and see.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions about you?
When people recognize me they want to run up and have this cool moment.
That’s exciting but it’s also scary because I don’t know if they want to rob me or take a picture. Sometimes people come up to me with a knowing look on their face and I’m like, ‘OK, they know who I am.’ And then there are times when people aren’t quite sure and they box me into a corner in the bathroom and it can get weird.
I’m thinking I have to fight my way out of there. I was in the bathroom, peeing in the urinal, and I had this guy who literally wanted to take a picture of us peeing. I was like, ‘Dude, if you don’t put that camera down I’m going to have to break it.
Who inspires you to do what you do?
My parents are really good about supporting me in everything I do. After I won the national championship in wrestling everyone would call me the champ, you know.
‘This is Phil Davis national champion – blah, blah, blah,’ and I would introduce my parents and say, ‘These are my parents. They are national champion parents, they won a Division I national title this year,’ because they helped me get there.
You draw a line between call-outs on Facebook and Twitter. What’s the difference?
The Twitter call-out, you are calling me out to all of your fans, and whichever of my fans or friends follow you. But when you start blowing up my Facebook wall, all of my family sees it, my family’s family sees it, friends and friends of friends... Oh no, I ain’t having that.
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