Davis first felt like his confidence was shaken when he made his UFC debut on short notice against Gilbert Burns. Obviously, facing someone like Burns in your UFC debut is a tall task in and of itself, but the submission loss made Davis feel like he didn’t belong competing with the best in the world.
Back-to-back victories over Thomas Gifford and Mason Jones helped lift Davis’ spirits and showed him that he has what it takes to succeed in the UFC. But those victories weren’t all he needed; he needed that time off and so he took it.
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Over a year-and-a-half later, Davis is back and ready to rock in a fun lightweight matchup with Viacheslav Borshchev at UFC Fight Night: Dern vs Yan. He’s changed his mental approach to fighting and believes this new outlook sets him up perfectly to reach his true potential in MMA.
“I’m testing my skill set like I would at a video game tournament. I’ve played the game, I’ve learned all the skills and now I’m in a tournament. This is what it is,” Davis said. “I’ve been fighting once a year and that’s because of my mental stuff because I don’t want to be in the Octagon, because I don’t like fighting. With this new approach, this enjoyment of testing out my skill set rather than considering it like a brawl or a fight or something that requires a lot of aggression, I’m just having fun.”
