411mania Interview: Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis

Posted by John Curry on 05.01.2008

Coming off 11 straight wins in a row, Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis, sits down with 411mania’s John Curry to discuss his prefight life, the importance of family, and why being a great dad is more important to him than being a great fighter. Step inside and meet one of the top welterweight fighters in the UFC.

Marcus Davis is one of the most genuine, heartfelt fighters I know. I was a big mark for the "Irish Hand Grenade" before this interview but now I am more than a mark. I am someone who has come to respect Marcus Davis for who he is inside the cage, a dominant standup fighter and excellent ground fighter who is coming off 11 straight victories going into his fight at UFC 85 against Mike "Quick" Swick, but more importantly who he is outside of the cage, someone who trains nonstop and puts his emphasis on his 4 kids above anything else. More than anything in his life, Davis wants his kids to succeed in life. And from the sounds of it not only are they succeeding but he is succeeding at being everything he wants to be. A man who has beat alcoholism, a severe staph infection from his stint on the Ultimate Fighter, and being abused by the boxing world to become THE Marcus "the Irish Hand Grenade" Davis.




411Mania Mr. Davis, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join 411mania. Please tell our readers about your pre-mixed martial arts life?

Marcus Davis At the age of eight I started training in traditional karate. At the age of 13 I started training in boxing. At the age of 14 I had my first amateur fight. I finished fighting as an amateur with a 2-2 record. When I turned 18 in 1993, I turned Professional and moved to Massachusetts to train. One night I watched the first UFC pay-per-view and began to talk about whether it was real or if it was something staged like Pro Wrestling. I was really impressed with the BJJ, the next day I grabbed the phonebook and started looking up anything that said BJJ in it. I called everyone until I could find anywhere cheap enough I could afford. I started studying BJJ from then on. I have also studied Choi Shin Do under Grand Master Seung O. Choi where I am one of the 18 people to receive a black bet from him in 45 years. "

411Mania I understand that you were actually a top ranked boxer on the New England circuit? What about MMA drew you away from boxing and to the octagon?

MD "At one point I was ranked #1 on the Junior Middleweights. I was under a bad contract and abused by my management team so I really wasn't happy. I would spend 6 weeks training my ass off to just find out before a fight that it wasn't going to happen. I was just a lot of crap and abuse. One fight I had I took on short notice and the guy was 168lbs and it should have been a non contract fight. Early in the fight the guy intentionally head-butted me which opened a huge gash over my eye, when the doctor's checked it out they let the fight continue. I thought they should have stopped the fight as I was bleeding into my eyes. The fight continued and I had no choice but cover up and protect myself. The ref then stepped in and stopped the fight and declared me the loser by TKO. After that my passion for the sport of boxing just kind of fell off. When I started in MMA I came into it with the idea that I was going to be a striker only and not get into the whole sprawl and brawl type stuff or the submissions. Being on the TUF showed me that I have to incorporate those ideas and skills into my fights. "

411Mania I understand that you ran a bar at the same time as you opened a MMA school with one of your doormen as a student whom some of our readers might know as Tim Slyvia? How does it feel as a teacher to see someone like Tim succeed the way he has?

MD "It was awesome to go where was to where he is by overcoming his background, I don't tell other people's stories so I won't get into the specifics. When were working together we focused on his striking aspects. Most of the time we just trained at Gold's Gym or the Police Gym. One day Tim went up to the Miletich camp and came back and said they want me to come and train with them and left. We still keep in touch almost constantly. "

411Mania Can you tell us about your first MMA fight? What were you feeling before and after your 1st Round TKO of Shaun Gay?

MD "That wasn't my real first MMA fight. My first real MMA fight was against Chris Ray at 205. Ray was a 3 time All American wrestler and a Golden Gloves champion out of NJ. I took this fight on short notice because they couldn't get anyone to fight him I knew I was a better boxer than he was and that my wrestling skills were good, not great, but good. I ended up knocking him out in the 2nd Round. After that I thought it was going to be easy and I was just going to walk through every fight easily. At first when I lost I made excuses. I lost my first fight to Thiago Alves by split decision. I thought it was bullshit until I watched it back and realized he scored some good leg kicks pretty consistently. After that I realized I had to learn to defend leg kicks and incorporate them into my fight game. The second fight I lost to was Nuri Shakir, who is a total shithead, you can put that in the interview word for word. That guy is a douchebag. I was at a fight with Dana White like 4 years after I lost to Nuri. That guy called me out in front of Dana White; I mean you couldn't understand a word he was saying it was like MushMouth. He was just saying that he could beat anybody who has beaten me and all that. What pisses me off about it is this kid doesn't shut up about a fight that happened years ago. I mean his record is like 14-15. He's a freaking bum who's trying to make a name for him because he can't win any fights."



"Nuri Shakir, who is a total shithead, you can put that in word for word."


411Mania You train with Miletich Fighting Systems which includes fighters such as Jens Pulver, Tim Slyvia, Spencer Fisher, Josh Neer, Ben Rothwell and others. What made you decide to join up with them and what is the best benefit you believe you receive by training there?

MD "I went out there and to try out for a team but I didn't want to move my family out there. I chose to go out there because Pat is my hero. I mean he had all of the background experience in almost all aspects of the MMA fighting world. He was the first, in my opinion, to be the full rounded MMA fighter and the guy who had first team based fighting system."

411Mania My family is from Dublin, Ireland and yours is from Waterford, Ireland so this question is from one Irishman to another. Do you ever have anyone harassing you about your kilt?

MD "All the time. I get people calling me a traitor and everything. The whole thing about I am an American and not an Irishman. I know I am American. I am proud to be an American but I am also proud to show my respect to my ancestors who came from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. One guy called me a traitor one time for being "The Irish Hand Grenade". I was like it's a freaking moniker. I'm not literally a grenade you know. *laughs* You can pull a pin and throw me. I have worn Scottish kilts to the fights before and Irish kilts more often as I relate to my Irish heritage more. My mom raised me as my dad was not a part of my life growing up. He was an in and out kind of father you know. I mean I haven't spoken to him in over seven years. My mom's side of the family is Irish so I feel closer to them. I wear my kilts as my way of saying this is who I am. In the day of the MTV generation and all of these kids trying to be someone else like 50cent, this is my way of saying respect the ancestors who sacrificed to get you here. I mean 50cent didn't do shit to get you here."

411Mania We all know you have hands of steel but I have to ask what submission do you love to use the most? Which one is the most painful you have ever had put on you in either training or fighting?

MD "My favorites to use, hmmmm…I like my neck crank, guillotine and I really like leg locks like I used on Pete Spratt. I really try not to use submissions as I worry about being on my back. I mean why would I give up being on top and being able to knock them out? *laughs* The most painful to me is the kimura or keylock because I have a bad shoulder from when I was dropped on my shoulder which separated my clavicle on TUF."

411Mania On June 7th in London, England at UFC 85 you will be facing Mike "Quick" Swick. How are you preparing for this fight? Any predictions on the fight?

MD "I am putting more into this fight, I always train hard, but this time I actually started earlier. My goal is to get up to 187 lbs of pure muscle. We go over and over the plan with Mark (DellaGrottii). I hope it just calls for a lot of punches. Swick is a tough opponent though. He has beat Joe Riggs and David Loiseau. Swick is an unbelievable competitor and he's fast in the cage. This is going to be the toughest MMA fight I've had yet. My prediction is if if I can get close to him and land some punches he'll go to sleep, everyone I hit goes to sleep. I haven't seen a lot of grappling from Swick but I don't have any plans of shooting in and taking this to the ground. If he stands with me he'll lose."

411Mania As the UFC globalizes do you find yourself gaining more fans to Team Irish? I tried to buy the Gray Team Irish shirt which is available at irishhandgrenade.com but it was sold out, which is a good thing. When can I expect to see the shirt available? Do you plan on expanding your clothing line?

MD" Yeah it's great because I can relate to both the US and UK fans. I love the UK, it's really awesome to see the people there who are very appreciative of you. They boo you in cheer you out. I look at it like it's my adopted country. There was an article on the front page that said "Britain adopts UFC fighter Marcus Davis" UK Sun. People over there recognize me more over there than in New England. Things are really good in my life. In regards to Team Irish clothing line, we are defiantly expanding our brand to long sleeves, short sleeves, fight wear, hoodies, and possibly kilts."

411Mania I got to ask you who designed your Irish Hand Grenade logo?

MD "That was designed by a friend of mine's buddy. He is one of the artists who works on the Batman Comic"

The Irish Hand Grenades Art

411Mania Because I know our readers want me to ask this question, you recently worked with Samoa Joe and TNA, tell us about that experience?

MD *LAUGHS* I was out in LA doing a shoot for the new UFC game from THQ and Real Fighter Magazine, and some of the guys from TNA happened to be there. They just wanted me to say some stuff about professional wrestling. A little later they called me up and asked me if wanted to do some mock stuff with Samoa Joe and I was like okay. It was just me and Joe there for 5 weeks. I got a call from Stephen Hawk about participating in the TNA event and I was there and I got to hang out with the guys and hand the belt out. All of the guys were awesome. Joe and Angle are best friends. All of the workers are like a family. When the guys are out there wrestling, the girls are in the back crying about them taking too many risks, and when the girls are out there wrestling the guys are in the back worrying about them getting hurt. It was just an awesome experience."

411Mania Before I let you get back to sparring and training, what is the one thing you want our readers to know about Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis?

MD "I am a really dedicated fighter and more importantly I am a dedicated father. If I won the championship it wouldn't matter if my kids don't succeed in life more than I have. I thank my mom for instilling that in me."


A quick video on Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis

Quick Hits


411Mania Worst job you ever had?

MD "Worked at Bonanza as dishwasher."

411Mania Toughest sparring partner?

MD "Kenny Florian."

411Mania What is something no one would guess about you?

MD "I was an ecology fanatic growing up and wanted to become a herbologist. I think your readers will find it interesting that I was into something nerdy."

411Mania Who do you look up to and why?

MD "I look up to a lot of different people for a lot of different reason. The person that made the most impact on my life was Seung O. Choi. The man was like my father. I only got to spend 4 years with him but he really guided me in my martial arts and my boxing as well as in my life. I owe all of my hand stuff to him. If anyone out there wants to see how great of a guy he was they can check out www.seungochoi.com."

411Mania If you were deserted on a deserted island and had to chose who would be there with you, would you choose Dana White or Tim Sylvia?

MD "Dana White….he has a lot of pull. He'd be able to arrange some way to get off the island. If he couldn't he is a kick ass person. I hope people realize, that regardless of what you think of him personally the UFC wouldn't be where it is today if it wasn't for him."

411Mania Favorite Band?

MD "Elvis is my all time favorite but I listen to a lot of Ben Folds Five, Cake, Stevie Wonder, Stained, Phil Collins, House of Pain."

411Mania Favorite day off activity?

MD "Spending time with my kids. My daughter wants to get into scriptwriting so we make our own little sitcoms when we are at home. It's really funny *laughs*"

411Mania Favorite movie?

MD "Braveheart, Passion at Christ, Big Star Wars fan, Boondock Saints, Anchorman, Hot Rod was hilarious"

411Mania Mr. Davis I want to thank you for taking time to introduce yourself to our readers and we wish you the best of luck against Mike Swick and beyond. Before we go is there anyone you want to give a shout out to?

MD "I want to thank Eric Armington who was a genuine down to earth, funny, intelligent good guy. It is like a piece of the puzzle is missing from us now. We are going to miss him."