By KOTC Staff (from 07/28/2010)
Garett Davis hasn’t been shy about the fact that he wants a crack at the King of the Cage Canadian Welterweight Championship, and after stopping Shannon Ritch in May to run his 2010 record to 2-0, the Vancouver veteran has gotten his wish.
“Getting this fight with Ryan Chiappe is pretty huge for me,” said Davis (13-10), who will fight the KOTC Canadian middleweight champ July 30th for the Canadian welterweight title. “I’ve been asking King of the Cage for a shot at the belt for a long time. It was supposed to happen a few years ago; I had won a couple of fights, but for whatever reason that didn’t go ahead. Then I noticed that Gary Wright hadn’t been fighting a lot so I had been calling out for a fight with Gary; I want to fight the best guys you know?”
“I found out that Gary was vacating the title and that my next fight would be for the belt,” Davis added, who will meet Chiappe Friday at Edmonton’s famous Rexall Place. “When they popped Ryan in front of me, the King of the Cage 185lb. champ, I was very excited. Getting the title fight finally is great, and getting the title fight against the middleweight champ coming down to 170 is a pretty serious fight. This is the biggest fight of my life.”
If you’ve followed the career of Davis you will immediately understand why the 9 year plus vet is so excited about Friday’s tilt, as the bout is a golden opportunity for the welterweight to demonstrate that he is indeed ‘back.’ After going undefeated throughout 2005 and 2006, Davis managed just one win in his next 5 fights. Despite the fact that the losses came against notable opposition like Thomas Schulte, Carlo Prater and Mark Bocek, Davis decided it was time to take a break. The 33 year-old-fighter went throughout 2009 without competing, before deciding that it was time to make another run, earlier this year.
“I went on a pretty big winning streak there for a few years but in 2008 things really went downhill for me,” said Davis. “ I feel like I completely dropped off the face of the Earth, the whole MMA scene, but I got back to it earlier this year and won both of my fights. Winning those fights was huge for me and getting this belt would be a huge comeback for me, for sure. I had pretty much said ‘I quit’ to the fight game but now here I am, fighting for the title.”
In terms of strategy, the accomplished grappler had little to say about how he expects the fight to unfold stating:
“Standing, clinch or on the ground, I'm good to go.”
And when Davis was asked about who has been helping him prepare for the fight, the former training partner of Denis Kang responded with “top secret.” Where Davis once again opened up was when he was asked for his thoughts on fighting at Rexall Place.
“Huge Oilers fan,” said Davis who originally hails from Newfoundland. “I can't wait to fight in Northland’s Coliseum” (Rexall Place’s original name). “Thanks to Ken (Kupsch) , Orest (Zmyndak) and King of the Cage for giving me this opportunity!””
Friday’s “Lock Down” card is scheduled to feature over 15 fights, several of which includes Dan Severn vs. Chad Olmstead, Tim Chemelli vs. Tony Lopez, Brad Stewart vs. Elmer Waterhen, Mukai Maromo vs. Carlos Espinosa and Trent Thorne vs. Lino Santoro.