Menu
Professionally Physical
Mixed martial arts, commonly known among its fans as MMA, have been gaining a foothold in the sports landscape, particularly over the last few years. Many people feel MMA has, at the very least, equaled the popularity of professional boxing. The numbers, especially when it comes to pay-per-view revenue, show that it has even surpassed pro boxing in popularity.
MMA is a full-contact combat sport in which a wide variety of fighting techniques are used. Fighters may strike opponents, as in boxing or conventional martial arts, such as karate or judo. They may also grapple with them, as in the many forms of amateur wrestling.
A strong amateur wrestling background has helped Fort Scott native L.C. Davis in rising through the ranks of professional MMA.
"I think it helps a lot," Davis said recently in a phone interview about his wrestling background. "It's the backbone for how I got to where I'm at. I competed against a high calibre of wrestler in college and I think wrestlers train harder than boxers or martial artists. It really helped because training for MMA is ridiculous because you have to train in so many different things. I train like two or three times a day."
Davis is currently under contract with one of the professional organizations, the International Fight League (IFL), matches of which can ocassionally be seen on Fox Sports Net or on HDNet, a high-definition channel. The IFL, a 2 1/2-year-old organization, is perhaps the second-leading MMA circuit behind Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
There have been forms of fighting since the era of the Greek Olympians. But, boxing and wrestling were long recognized in the mainstream, while other forms were either considered recreational (such as karate or judo) more so than competitive or extremely violent. But MMA has been slowly gaining acceptance since the mid-1990's and has seen growth in an era where boxing is now seen as corrupt and in a low period and wrestling has settled into its position as "sports entertainment." The current era of MMA may perhaps be the beginning of its golden age. It seems to be the wrestling and martial arts aspects of the sport that have won fans over more so than the boxing elements.
Just before the new year began, Davis competed in what was the biggest match of his career at the time. In an event televised on HDNet, Davis suffered the first loss of his career at any level of MMA fighting, amateur or pro, to Wagnney Fabiano, who himself has only one professional loss.
Since then, Davis has had what he called his "bounce-back" match and won.
"I just had a fight in New Jersey, in the arena where the New Jersey Nets play," Davis said. "I fought a similar opponent to (Fabiano, who) was my first loss as a pro or amateur. That guy was a Brazilian with a third-degree black belt.
"In my bounce-back fight, the IFL gave me another guy like the one I lost to. I took it as another chance to show what I can do. I was able to shut down his game and get a KO in the third round."
Davis doesn't know yet when his next fight will be.
"I'm thinking it's going to be in June or July," he said. "I'm not sure yet. I'm waiting for my manager and the IFL to set it up."
MMA fighters don't usually need as much rest between fights, particularly if more wrestling was used in their last match because the body and head take fewer blows.
"It depends. I've actually done two fights in one week," Davis said. "If your body is healthy and you make enough money, you don't have to fight a lot. If you're needing some extra money, you might fight more often."
Davis wrestled for Fort Scott High School, then went on to Labette Community College in Parsons, Kan., and to Missouri Valley College. He was acting as an assistant coach for a newly-created junior college program in Pratt, Kan., before he decided to give MMA a chance, although his curiosity was piqued even before then.
"I was wrestling in college, finishing up there," Davis said. "One of my friends knew a guy from my team who was doing it. I told him I'd like to try it. The first couple of fights, I was (experimenting) and seeing if I wanted to do it. After the first fight, I was hooked. I didn't know if this was something I wanted to do for a little bit or for a living. But now, I know and I'm doing this for a living."
Davis left Pratt for Iowa City, Iowa, to train at Pat Miletich's Mixed Martial School. He fights for Miletich Fighting Systems in the IFL in what the league calls a "camp."
According to the IFL website, www.ifl.tv, Davis is 2-1 in IFL-sanctioned bouts and 9-1 overall.