The “Irish Hand Grenade” Marcus Davis (17-8) was another victim of the UFC chopping block on Thursday as news of his release broke in the early afternoon.
MMAWeekly.com confirmed the fighters release with Davis’ manager Joe Cavallaro.
“With this last fight with Jeremy Stephens, he said ‘I made a mistake, and I paid for it, and you’ve got to give it to Jeremy Stephens.’ (Stephens) won, we’ve got nothing but respect for him, and (Marcus) is looking forward to getting back in there and working his way back to the UFC. Marcus is very appreciative of the time with the UFC, and the time he spent there. He said ‘I’ll be back. It’s not the first time it’s happened.”
Davis had dropped to lightweight for his last fight after a career of fighting at 170 lbs in the UFC. He was paired up with Jeremy Stephens for last weekends UFC 125 event, looking like a rejuvenated fighter till he was caught in the third round by a solid punch from Stephens sending him to the mat to end the fight and his bid to stay in the UFC.
Davis started his career with the UFC as a contestant on the second season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” he was defeated at the events Finale by Melvin Guillard back in November of 2005 and was released from the promotion. Almost a year later, he’d make his return, this time to to stay, rattling off six consecutive wins in two years. It wasn’t until 2009 and 2010 that Davis started having trouble winning in the octagon.
His loss to Dan Hardy at UFC 99 in June of 09 started the downward spiral for Davis, which saw him go 1-4 in that two year stretch before it saw him released by the UFC. After the loss to Hardy, Davis would go on to lose to Ben Saunders at UFC 106, earn a win over Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113, then get choked out by Nate Diaz at UFC 118, and finally saw him knocked out by Stephens at UFC 125.