They walked to the cage, Bruce Buffer announced their names, stats were read, the bell rung and they began fighting. 88 seconds later Wagner Prado was accidentally poked in the eye by Phil Davis and told the ref he couldn’t see. While the crowd jeered, the fight was called off and declared a no contest in the best interest of the young Brazilian. Later, at the UFC on FOX 4 press conference, UFC President Dana White said the organization would reschedule the fight as soon as possible and stayed true to his word. With the fight a few days out, Davis is now fighting Prado in his home country of Brazil an d knows exactly what he is getting into.
Davis told MMAWeekly about being in this situation before while he wrestled at Penn State University, explaining, “When you’re on somebody else’s home turf, whether you want to or not, you become the bad guy. There’s no good guys at an away meet. You’re the bad guy. So you just get to go out and show up and if you’re flashy, you’re flashy. Nobody says, ‘Oh, he’s being flashy.’ No, he’s an away guy, he sucks either way.”
Davis also said rematching Prado wasn’t that big of a focus after the eye poke incident.
“Did I want to go back and fight Wagner and get the ‘W’? Sure. But I really don’t care. At the end of the day, I’m about winning fights and getting to the belt. I don’t really care about faces and names,” stated Davis, declaring he doesn’t make those calls. “That’s for the fans, Dana White and Joe Silva to worry about. My job is to keep winning.”
This will be the fifth time the Octagon will be on Brazilian soil, and the one thing thats easy to pick up is that the crowd will be cheering for their countrymen. There is no doubt about it, “Mr. Wonderful” is walking into enemy territory. Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s concerned, admitting, “I get up for that; I enjoy feeling that energy in the arena.”
UFC 153 goes down this Saturday night at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Preliminary bouts will air on Facebook and FX with the main card being made available via pay per view.
PHOTO CREDIT – UFC
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