UFC veteran Marcus Davis claims fight purse withheld by promotion after investor’s alleged ‘ties to terrorism’

In November UFC veteran Marcus Davis returned to MMA action after a seven lay-off. His return was a triumphant one as he submitted Stephen…

By: Tim Bissell | 1 year ago
UFC veteran Marcus Davis claims fight purse withheld by promotion after investor’s alleged ‘ties to terrorism’
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

In November UFC veteran Marcus Davis returned to MMA action after a seven lay-off. His return was a triumphant one as he submitted Stephen Stengel by first round triangle choke. That event took place in Springfield, MA under the Premier FC banner.

Despite that bout being a few months ago, ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ has claimed he is yet to be paid by Premier FC. This week, on Facebook, he detailed the reasons he believed this was the case (ht Alan Murphy).

“They ghosted me for the past 25 days,” wrote Davis. “I reached out to them today to let them know I was going public. Only to have the CEO threaten me with an attorney if I spoke out. The claim is they took on an investor that after his check cleared the bank, the fed froze the account because the investor had ties to terrorism.”

Premier FC is headquartered in Holyoke, MA. It is owned by Karyn Wesch.

Bloody Elbow has reached out to Premier FC regarding Davis’ claims. At this time of writing no response has been returned.

The 48-year-old Davis fought for the UFC on 14 occasions. He entered in the promotion in 2006 off the back of The Ultimate Fighter season 2. He began his UFC career with six straight wins, including victories over Shonie Carter, Pete Spratt and Paul Taylor.

His first UFC loss was a unanimous decision defeat to Mike Swick at UFC 85 in 2008. Since that defeat he had notable contests with Dan Hardy, Jonathan Goulet, Nate Diaz and Jeremy Stephens.

After his release from the UFC in 2011 he appeared for the MFC promotion in Canada and later fought twice for Bellator. In 2014 Davis announced he was retiring from the sport.

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Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

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