UFC
Phil Davis to Dana White: "I'm going to break apart anybody you put in front of me until I am the UFC champion"
Apr 18, 2014 - 7:45:23 PM Phil Davis to Dana White: "I'm going to break apart anybody you put in front of me until I am the UFC champion"

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Earlier this week, Dana White gave some comments about where he thought Phil Davis was in the UFC's light heavyweight division, and he said he didn't feel Davis had aspirations to truly move up the ladder.

"I like Phil, and I don't want to throw Phil under the bus, but Phil needs to get over that mental hump, and he needs to get on the Internet and f***ing check the rankings and see where he's ranked," White said (via MMAJunkie.com). "He's one of the best light heavyweights in the world, but he doesn't come off to me like I've got guys (who are) breathing down my f***ing neck for fights: 'I want this fight. I want this, I want that. Phil Davis is like, 'Eh, I'll hang out around No. 4 here.' He's not that guy that comes across to me like, 'I f***ing want it. I want to be the champ. I want to be the best in the world.' He's just sort of, 'Eh.'"

Davis takes exception to that characterization, and said if that's how White thinks, he'll make it clear to the UFC President just where he stands.

"I find it to be very interesting," Davis said in response in a separate interview. "I'm not sure how he came upon this faulty information, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that the right message gets across, that not only am I ready to be the champion, I am ready to break apart anybody who stands between me and UFC gold. I thought I said that already – that's crazy, ha-ha. I'm going to say it again right now: Anybody who stands between me and UFC gold will get broke apart. I thought I said that already, but apparently, that didn't get to the right people.

"Let me tell you one thing about Dana," Davis continued. "He's an extremely busy man. He runs one of the biggest and best fight promotions in the entire world. The fact that he doesn't know what's going on in my little interviews doesn't surprise me. So, I'll tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to talk to Dana and let him know, 'Hey Dana, I'm going to break apart anybody you put in front of me until I am the UFC champion.' Simple as that. We just had a misunderstanding. That's all. People talk. You ever play telephone when you were a kid? Of course. You start out saying one thing, and next thing you know, the message is all screwed up and everybody's laughing. Ha-ha. Isn't that funny? Phil Davis don't want to be a champion. Ha-ha. That's funny. OK."

"First thing I'm going to do is beat the crap out of Anthony Johnson. Second thing I'm going to do, I'm going to say, 'Dana, put somebody else in front of me – I'm going to beat them up.' Put me in front of Jon 'Bones' Jones, and I will break him in two... Apparently, I need to say these things directly to [White]. I have no problem doing that. That can be arranged. Not a problem. We just had a miscommunication when you really get down to the bottom of these things, it's kind of funny. We can all sit around and laugh and then we can get back to reality. I will beat the crap out of anybody that gets in the Octagon. That's the truth of the matter."

Penick's Analysis: Given what Davis has been saying in the last couple of months, I think it's clear that it just didn't make its way to White. Davis has been quite vocal about wanting to get to that title fight, but obviously he's not been vocal in the right spots in front of the right people. Perhaps this is the response he needs to give, but he'll need to take his issues straight to White in order to make his intentions as clear as they can possibly be. Add in a dominant win over Anthony Johnson and perhaps that message will get through.

[Phil Davis art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]