At UFC on FOX 2, it was proven that Phil Davis wasn’t on the same level as Rashad Evans. But this doesn’t mean that Davis was pushed too far, too fast.
In truth, the timing was just right.
Davis had beaten gatekeepers, he had beaten journeymen and he had beat a fringe contender in Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (a.k.a. “Little Nog”).
Thus, the next logical step was putting Davis in against a legit contender, which just happened to be Rashad Evans.
As it turned out, Evans was better than Davis in every department of MMA. Even Davis’ vaunted Penn State wrestling background couldn’t stop him from being beaten down.
But this doesn’t mean he was “rushed.”
For example, look at UFC middleweight Chris Weidman who also fought on FOX.
Weidman has less fights than Davis, took his fight against a contender—Demian Maia—on short notice and still came out on top!
There is no excuse for Davis; he simply got beat and wasn’t good enough. If he doesn’t work to build up his overall MMA game, he’ll never be.
Davis is fighting from a different era, an era where you could excel at wrestling and just be proficient in the other disciplines and have great success.
That doesn’t pass in modern MMA anymore—fighters must be great at everything.
Rashad Evans was great at everything on FOX, Davis wasn’t and that’s why he lost.
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