When potential threats to Jon Jones’ reign atop the UFC light heavyweight division are discussed, the names bandied about are those of the man he most recently faced, Alexander Gustafsson, the man he’s set to face this weekend, Glover Teixeira, and the man many believe he’ll face in the future, Daniel Cormier.
Lost in the shuffle is Phil Davis, the 12-1 former national champion wrestler from Penn State who faces the returning Anthony "Rumble" Johnson and sits No. 4 in the light heavyweight rankings, one spot ahead of Cormier.
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Last week, Dana White illuminated part of the reason Davis doesn’t get the same kind of recognition as the past, present and probably future title challengers, saying that "Mr. Wonderful" needs to be more aggressive in pursuit of major bouts and have a sense of urgency about his place in the pecking order.
The UFC president suggested that Davis is happy being a contender and not necessarily driven to be the top man in the division. Davis thinks his boss has been getting some faulty information and a little too used to talking with people that are always in "fight hype" mode.
"I think [White is] kind of used to people talking crazy," Davis said to MMA Junkie in response to White’s comments. "Everything they say is about bravado and being tough. I’m a pretty honest dude – I’ll tell you my honest thoughts, and I’m going to say I want to fight for the title, and I want to be the best."
But the miscommunication between White and Davis touches on a deeper issue when it comes to contenders — how fighters move up the ranks and garner a greater share of the spotlight — and the light heavyweight’s comments about "people talking crazy" are on point.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease in this sport, even if it’s squeaking for no particular reason. Meanwhile, the wheels that always work never get any real attention because everyone just assumes things are fine. If they weren’t, they’d be squeaking, right?
Fighters like Davis shouldn’t need to make a bunch of noise or blow up White’s cell phone with frantic texts saying, "I want this guy! I want that guy!" It shouldn’t be about who makes the most noise and tugs at the boss’ suit jacket. That’s not how a guy like Davis operates — it’s not in his nature and it’s a serious departure from the "win and move forward until there is no one left to beat" reality of the collegiate wrestling world he comes from.
What’s curious about all this is that when he first burst on the scene, the UFC gave Davis a solid push, positioning him as one to watch in the 205-pound weight class. Davis won his first five UFC fights in the span of 13-months, a run that included a first-round submission win over Gustafsson and a unanimous decision victory over the significantly more experienced Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
That win pushed his record to 9-0 and had plenty of people talking about the four-time All-American wrestler as the fighter that posed the biggest threat to Jones, who had just risen to the top of the division a week earlier.
Less than two years into his UFC career, Davis was positioned opposite Rashad Evans in a No. 1 contender bout, squaring off with the former light heavyweight champion in the main event for the first full UFC on FOX event. Most considered it a sizable step up in competition for the emerging talent, and indeed it played out that way as Evans controlled the five-round fight and handed Davis the first loss of his career.
And just like that — poof! — he disappeared from contention.
One bout after headlining on network television, Davis was relegated to an unexplainable preliminary card fight with UFC newcomer Wagner Prado and a showdown with Vinny Magalhaes that the former TUF finalist scored by talking a bunch of junk on Twitter. Like everyone else in recent history that talked their way into a fight they didn’t earn, Magalhaes was dominated before going on to lose his next bout in 14 seconds and getting released.
Now Davis has been tasked with welcoming Johnson back to the Octagon in a dangerous bout that doesn’t come with much upside for "Mr. Wonderful." A win over the returning former welterweight is expected based on their respective rankings and track records, but it isn’t likely to move him any further ahead in the chase for the light heavyweight championship.
Here’s the ironic twist to all this: White espouses his "biggest sport in the world" line every chance he gets, but the reality is that the UFC doesn’t operate on conventional sporting lines. If they did, fighters like Davis wouldn’t have to commandeer the microphone from Joe Rogan and cut post-fight promos like WWE superstars in order to gain a modicum of recognition and an opportunity to challenge for the world title.
In sports, winning moves you up the standings, on to the next round, and provides you with a chance to win a championship.
Davis has 12 victories set against one loss, and that defeat came against a former world champion who fought for the title in his very next appearance. He’s won three consecutive contests heading into this weekend, which includes a victory over a different former titleholder, and yet all people want to focus on is the distinct lack of superfluous trash talk and inflammatory comments that can be attributed to him.
As the president of the fastest growing sports organization in the world — one bent on "World @&$#ing Domination" — when it comes to Davis, White sure seems to be far too concerned with a whole lot of decidedly non-sporting nonsense.
In regards to Davis not making his ambitions clear or readiness to face all comers painfully obvious, the truth of the matter is that he laid it at his boss’ feet more than two years ago when he said, "I’m Dana White’s hitman — if your name is on his list, you’re next."
It seems everyone forgot about that, except of course, for "Mr. Wonderful."