Phil Davis had two keys when running through competition in the collegiate wrestling circuit: Take down every opponent as often as possible, and learn something from every loss.
There is certainly plenty Davis can learn after Saturday night’s unanimous decision loss to Rashad Evans with a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight title on the line, in which Evans took him down time after time. Evans will now fight Jon “Bones” Jones in April for the title.
The fight was heavily hyped after a knee injury suffered by Davis forced the bout back to the second UFC on FOX, but the bout was slow pace, and Davis looked lethargic at times, a theme of most of the night’s fights.
“He’s a good fighter,” Davis said in his post-match press conference on FOX. “I just couldn’t score the points I needed to in clutch positions.”
Davis graduated from Penn State and won an individual NCAA national championship in 2008.
Evans won the first round and won all four that followed. Right before the first period ended, Evans countered a Davis kick attempt and took him down, working to side control and a mounted crucifix in a dominating fashion that helped him land multiple blows to the defenseless Davis before the horn sounded.
‘I fought at a pretty high pace but I wanted to put him away,’ Evans said on FOX. ‘I didn’t get a chance to land the big punches. When you’re fighting a guy as tough as Phil Davis that can happen.’
Evans landed 3-of-4 takedown attempts, while Davis’s much-heralded long reach was not a factor, as he succeeded on just 2-of-9 shots, while landing a woeful 61-of-208 punches.
But one thing is for sure; the first loss of Davis’s career will teach him much more than the nine wins that came before it, and maybe that’s the only thing that really matters.
