Marcus Davis vs. Nate Diaz Agreed for UFC 118
The possible Welterweight match up between Marcus Davis and Nate Diaz at UFC 118 has been verbally agreed upon and will become official once signed. This according to Davis’s manager Joe Cavallaro who told MMAValor today that the fight has been agreed upon and Davis is very excited to be fighting Diaz. Davis (17-6) recently snapped a two fight losing streak be defeating Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113 by TKO in the 2nd round. Since competing in season two of the Ultimate Fighter Davis has compiled a 9-3 record but is only 3-3 in his last six fights. Known mostly for his impressive and fundamental boxing skills, Davis does trains BJJ under Jorge Gurgel and has 8 submissions to 6 TKO in his 17 wins. Diaz (12-5) made his Welterweight debut in his last fight against Rory Markham at UFC 111. The fight was actually fought though at a Catchweight because Markham missed weight be 7 pounds. The added weight didn’t seem to bother Diaz though as he showed off a much stronger stand up game in defeating Markham by TKO in the first round. Diaz won season 5 of the Ultimate Fighter as a lightweight and won his first 5 UFC fights before losing 3 of his last four before deciding the move up in weight. Known mostly for that trademark Diaz brother attitude and his Cesar Gracie trained Jiu-Jitsu game that has recorded 8 submissions in 17 fights, adding power at welterweight will make fighters respect his stand up more, making Diaz’s Jiu-Jitsu that much more dangerous.
The one thing looming over this fight is the decision from the Tennessee Athletics Commission regarding the brawl at Strikeforce: Nashville. The Commission is currently investigating the altercation following the main event and has yet to conclude. Strikeforce fighters have recently been held out of the next few scheduled events anticipating some form of punishment to be handed out by the commission. Nate Diaz was a part of that brawl and the possibility of him being suspended is real so when asked about a back up plan in place Cavallaro said “Davis is training to fight at UFC 118 and will fight whomever the UFC puts him in there with, but there is no back up plan”. Assuming there is no suspension the match up should be very intriguing but if a suspension is handed out Davis will be ready to someone else.
