UFC 118 preview: Nate Diaz vs Marcus Davis
With UFC 118 taking place in Boston for the first time ever on Saturday, the UFC was always bound to include a few Boston-area fighters on the card. Perennial lightweight contender Kenny Florian is one of them, and he’ll be taking on Gray Maynard on the main card. But before that, the card will open up with a battle between Nate Diaz and Marcus Davis, who began his career as a boxer, often fighting in Boston.
Recent form
Marcus Davis is a longtime UFC fighter who had compiled an impressive 9-4 record in the promotion, but has fallen on hard times recently. He was on a two-fight win streak until he ran into Dan Hardy, getting upset by the British fighter after suffering a brutal knee, although he survived to lose a close split decision. After that he fell further with a loss to Ben Saunders, throwing his UFC career in jeopardy.
At UFC 113 in Montreal though he won his last fight via a second-round TKO to Jonathan Goulet. At 37 years old though his time as a fighter is running out.
Nate Diaz on the other hand is only 25 and still has plenty of potential. He’s been fighting at lightweight for a lengthy period of time, including winning The Ultimate Fighter season five lightweight tournament. After winning his first five fights in the UFC, he seemed to be on route for a title shot, before dropping two straight fights. He bounced back with a victory over Melvin Guillard, and then took on Maynard, a fight he lost by a controversial split decision.
After that he moved up to welterweight, and won his 170lb UFC debut against Rory Markham in March, putting on an impressive first round TKO.
Style
Davis is a boxer, and he’ll be trying to stick to his strengths against Diaz. Davis, a true welterweight, should have something of a weight and size advantage against Diaz, and will attempt to use that advantage to keep things on the feet and use his proven power to knock out Diaz.
Diaz on the other hand can also box, but further boasts a terrific Brazilian jiu-jitsu game. While Davis is also capable on the ground, Diaz comes from the vaunted Cesar Gracie camp and has several very impressive submissions on his resume, notably against Guillard and Kurt Pellegrino. If he can somehow get Davis to the ground, he’ll have a great chance of submitting him, but other than that, he can rely on his three-inch height advantage (Diaz is 6ft tall) to attempt to outpoint Davis.
Betting advice
Diaz comes into this fight as a 5/3 favourite, and he seems to be the better bet here. While Davis did win his last fight against Goulet, he didn’t look good in the process. Goulet was not a UFC-quality fighter but was simply there because the fight was happening in his home country of Canada. Despite that, he managed to control the fight and only succumbed to a punch from Davis because of his legendarily weak chin. Davis won’t have that luxury this time, and will probably lose as a result.
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