Photo by Donald Miralle/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Marcus ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ Davis has a comeback fight booked for October.
Premier Fighting Championships, an outfit based in Holyoke, Mass., recently announced UFC veteran Marcus Davis, 46, would be competing on their upcoming show Premier FC 31. The event is booked for October 3rd at the Mass Mutual Center in Springfield, Mass.
‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ hasn’t fought since he was TKO’d by Ryan Sanders at NEF: Fight Night 12 back in February 2014. At PFC 13 Davis is scheduled to face Nick Alley, a 29-year-old with a 6-3 record, at welterweight.
Davis’ career record stands at 22-11 (1). After a pro-boxing career that spanned between 1993 and 2000, Davis joined the cast of The Ultimate Fighter 2: Team Hughes vs. Team Franklin.
On the show Davis was drafted by coach Rich Franklin, alongside Jorge Gurgel, Melvin Guillard, Keith Jardine and Rashad Evans. During that competition’s welterweight bracket he lost his opening round bout to eventual series winner Joe Stevenson.
After the reality show taping had wrapped Davis fought Guillard on the live finale. He lost that bout due to a cut and was then cut from the promotion, but he still went on to have a long and active UFC career.
After the Guillard fight Davis put together a five-fight winning streak in the New England fight scene. That lead to him being re-signed by ZUFFA in 2006, to fight Forrest Petz at UFC: The Final Chapter.
Davis beat Petz by first round guillotine choke. He then won his next five UFC bouts, decision-ing Shonie Carter and then stopping Pete Spratt (achilles lock), Jason Tan (punches), Paul Taylor (armbar) and Jess Liaudin (punches).
That streak set Davis up for a bout with fellow TUF-vet Mike Swick. Davis lost to Swick, but rebounded with wins over Paul Kelly and Chris Lytle (which won Fight of the Night).
Next came a fight with Dan Hardy that featured a vicious war of words between both competitors (and included Davis tweeting that he wished Hardy would die from AIDS). The back-and-forth fight ended in a split decision victory for Hardy. Davis then wound up on the wrong end of a brutal KO thanks to the knees of Ben Saunders.
After beating Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113, Davis took back-to-back losses to Nate Diaz (technical submission) and Jeremy Stephens (KO). In 2011, soon after the Stephens loss, Davis was cut from the promotion.
Over the following two years Davis toiled mostly on the regional circuit. In 2013 he had two appearances for Bellator MMA before announcing his (temporary) retirement from the sport.