SAN JOSE, Calif. – Phil Davis is not going to pretend like a rematch Liam McGeary was anywhere on his agenda.
After all, the first time they fought, at Bellator 163, Davis took a unanimous decision to claim the Bellator light heavyweight championship from McGeary, and the fight wasn’t particularly close.
But still, when Bellator brass came calling to see if he’d accept the fight, “Mr. Wonderful” didn’t hesitate.
“I didn’t know he was interested in a rematch,” Davis told MMA Junkie at Thursday’s Bellator 220 media day. “Listen, I don’t turn down fights and i didn’t think twice about this one. I’m all about this fight.”
Besides, with current Bellator heavyweight and light heavyweight kingpin Ryan Bader expected to defend the 265-pound belt first, and with both Davis (19-5 MMA, 6-2 BMMA) and McGeary (13-3 MMA, 10-3 BMMA)
suffering losses to Vadim Nemkov, this fight makes sense in terms of getting the winner back into the title picture.
“I guess it makes sense since we both have a loss to Nemkov and we’re both looking to see who’s the next guy to move forward,” Davis said. “So, I guess from that standpoint it makes sense. But I didn’t see a minute in the first fight where he won, so I didn’t see why he would ask for it. But hey, I’m ready.”
McGeary garnered some attention Thursday by flipping Davis off during their media day faceoff, but McGeary was looking to make this a grudge match, Davis isn’t buying in.
“You know what, I like guys like him, there’s no part of me that thinks ‘aww, he’s going to take it easy on me,” Davis said. “We’re two guys who love to compete. Neither one of us is going to give an inch. Both of us are going to draw blood, there’s no reason for me to take this sport to a level where it can be confused with actual violence. That’s me, I’ve agreed to fight you. I will fight you, I will elbow you, I will cut your face, but I genuinely want to shake your hand and give you a good fight. And I respect the guys in the sport who welcome that.”
Perhaps by agreeing to this rematch, Davis will be in good standing to ask for another Bader fight should he win. They’ve fought twice, once in Bellator and once in the UFC, with Bader taking split decisions on both occasions.
That indicates the fights were quite close. What will Davis do differently if he gets a third fight?
“I have to sit down with my team about that exactly,” he said. “I definitely gave him more pressure in second fight than in I had the first. We need to think about more tactful strategy to get exactly what we want. We want to take him to ground sooner, we want to score more points standing, we want to engage him in more close exchanges.”
Bellator 220 takes place Saturday at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. The main card streams on DAZN following prelims on MMA Junkie.
For more on Bellator 220, check out the Rumors section of the site.
