Marcus Davis will represent Maine in style as his bout with Nate Diaz will kick-off the main card for UFC 118 in Boston this Saturday night, the promotions first ever event in New England.

Marcus Davis (17-6-0) vs. Nate Diaz (12-5-0)

  The Bangor native is coming off a second-round TKO victory over Jonathan Goulet at UFC 113 last May. Diaz also comes in on the heels of an important win, a first-round TKO over Rory Markham in his first bout after moving up in weight class from 155 to 170. Diaz fancies himself a boxer as he often is content to keep the fight standing and rarely employs kicks or muay-thai knees. Davis, who brought in his old boxing coach from his professional boxing days for this camp, wouldn't mind rolling the dice on a stand-up war.

  On the ground it get a little more interesting. Both fighters have eight submission wins against one submission loss. Diaz has some of the slickest ground instincts you'll see, and a lanky frame makes his triangle-choke particularly threatening. Davis tends to find the guillotine choke or the armbar, but also has more rare submissions to his credit like the achilles lock and neck crank. His training camp included ground gurus like Dustin Hazelett and Jorge Gurgel, so it would seem that he's covered all the bases. The event kicks off with two prelim bouts on SPIKE (TimeWarner Ch60) at 9 p.m. followed by the pay-per-view main card at 10 p.m.

About this Blog

Jay is in his eleventh year working in the sports department at the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. A former All-State track athlete for Old Orchard Beach, football and volleyball player at the University of East Anglia, and cheerleader for the University of Maine Black Bears, Jay has dabbled in a variety sports over the years. In 2001 he had the pleasure to begin training in mixed martial arts with Master Seung Choi, the late founder of the Choi Institute of Martial Arts and Science. Though Jay has turned his attention to road racing since the master passed away in 2005, his interest and enthusiasm in MMA has remained. He recently finished the MDI Marathon and is looking forward to exploring Greece with his wife Erin in the spring.

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