Unhappy with Last Performance, Davis Hopes to End Year Strongly

It’s been a good year for Phil Davis.

The light heavyweight prospect began 2010 by debuting in the UFC, and on Saturday he’ll look to finish up an impressive 4-0 in the Octagon. Standing in his way is Tim Boetsch, who fights Davis in a UFC 123 main card bout.

“It’s hard to prepare for Tim Boetsch,” Davis said during a recent “Jordan Breen Show” interview on the Sherdog Radio Network. “You don’t know what look he’s going to give you. I was looking at some of his videos, and he has a couple of different looks, kind of like myself.”

Boetsch has had mixed success in the UFC. He ragdolled David Heath in his UFC debut and also stopped Michael Patt. His losses came to Matt Hamill and Jason Brilz, both bouts in which Boetsch seemed to run out of gas. Overall, he’s proven to be a brawler who is strong and can wrestle.

“He doesn’t do a whole lot, as far as variety, but he’s pretty good at what he does,” Davis said. “He’s what I call a typical Pennsylvania fighter, and that is, he’s strong, he won’t quit and he’s powerful.”

On paper, Davis appears superior to Boetsch in all realms of combat. That doesn’t mean he’s taking the matchup lightly, though.

“It’s the X factor,” Davis answered when asked what about Boetsch gives him pause. “Where’s he going to make up ground? I always try to look at it from the other guy’s perspective. What are Tim Boetsch’s coaches saying to him? They’re saying something, and it’s positive. They’re probably like, ‘This guy thinks he’s good. He thinks he can outwrestle you. He can’t.’”

Although Boetsch wrestled in college at Lock Haven University, Davis won a national championship at Penn State in 2008. That same year he began fighting professionally, and he’s climbed quickly.

Most recently Davis dominated Rodney Wallace to win a unanimous decision in August. Despite showing a variety of skills, Davis was not happy with his performance.

“I would characterize it as a bad sparring session,” he said. “It was an off-night for me. Everything worked, but nothing was good. I landed three head kicks, but usually when you land three head kicks, somebody gets dizzy.”

Davis was also disappointed that he failed to finish when he mounted Wallace.

“You should really, really be finishing guys from mount,” Davis said. “A lot of guys don’t like mount just because it’s a little bit unstable unless you’re really, really good there. I didn’t do enough damage from mount. I was in mount a lot, but mostly because I was getting back to mount. I shouldn’t have been giving up mount so often, and I probably should have tried to diversify my submission game on him. I don’t why, sometimes I get fixated on one move. I really wanted a kimura on that guy.”

Of course, although Davis didn’t finish, he still advanced position and tried to put Wallace away. As far as becoming a well-rounded fighter goes, he’s progressing rapidly. For instance, he’s not content to sit in the guard. Passing is a major focus of his training.

“Once you decide that you want to be good at jiu-jitsu, passing is something you have to be good at,” Davis said. “A lot of guys aren’t big on passing. … My coaches constantly preach passing, punching, punching, passing and looking for your subs.”

Ultimately, Davis was upset with the Wallace bout because he believes it didn’t give him a chance to grow. That’s likely the result of Wallace fighting to survive. Boetsch, on the other hand, is expected to move forward. He might be a tougher matchup, but his pressure could give Davis the opening he needs to end a solid year on a decisive note.

Listen to the full interview (beginning at 1:35:35) with Davis, who also discussed the worst films of all time.