“Mr. Wonderful”, quite an unusual nickname for one of the most dangerous prospects in the UFC. What’s with the moniker anyway? Well Phil Davis explains its origin in an interview with UFC.com:
Then-Penn State University undergraduate and wrestler, Phil Davis, learned these life-changing lessons, and the surprise teacher was this curious silver cat, aptly named “Mr. Wonderful.”
“I’m allergic to cats and my roommate came home with a cat that he got from the ASPCA and I was like, ‘why did you do that?’” said Davis. “He was like, ‘well I just wanted a cat.’ So I told him ‘well I’m allergic to cats’ but he wouldn’t get rid of the cat because it was a stray and he said, ‘you can’t abandon a stray twice.’ So we basically ended up keeping the cat and his name was Mr. Wonderful; the cat was cool. Me and my roommate split after the next year and the next place he lived he couldn’t have any animals so he gave him to me and we lived together for another year. I had another roommate and he let him out and I’ve never seen him again so when I started fighting, people said I should name myself after the cat, Mr. Wonderful.”
“It was kind of one of those things where I’m fighting for Mr. Wonderful because I don’t know where he’s at and I want him back. It was a joke but it fit so it kind of worked. It’s one of those things where if you just stay around the animal long enough you just get used to it; either my body got used to it or I got used to a stuffy nose.”
After the jump, “Mr. Wonderful” talks about his UFC 123 opponent, “The Barbarian” Tim Boetsch.
“Tim Boetsch has veteran experience. He’s been in the UFC, he’s been back out the UFC and back in the UFC. So he comes in with the mindset of I’ve been there and done that, I know how to take care of business, and I’m just going to do what I got to do. That always makes for not only a tough fight but just an interesting fight because you can’t intimidate this guy; saying Phil Davis don’t send shivers up and down his spine, he doesn’t care. He’s a wrestler and I think that makes him typically more durable and he just has that hard headed tough barbarian guy thing about him, that’s him – he’s The Barbarian, isn’t that his nickname? I’m not expecting an easy fight like oh go in there and do a little trick move and tap him out in the first 45 seconds, not even. I’m preparing for a 15-minute fight, a long hard grind. That’s what I expect from this fight and I know he’s preparing for the same thing. That’s what makes him dangerous because he can go for all 15-minutes and he throws heat.”
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