The gym had been buzzing for weeks about the imminent arrival of UFC star Marcus Davis. Some people had expressed reservations that it might not be the best seminar in the world as much of what Marcus is good at might be hard to pass on in a non-sparring environment. Okay, at the risk of being blown to bits by an Irish Hand Grenade, I was one of the doubters. My impression of Marcus prior to training with him was that he was phenomenal on the feet, and that while his ground and clinch were good, I didn’t think he would be able to pass on the majority of what he was good at without punching me in the face a lot to “learn” me. There was so much interest in meeting Marcus that I had pretty much written the seminar off as a celebrity meet and greet with some training thrown in. I have to admit I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Marcus is an affable, jovial guy and one of the most remarkably humble guys given his level of success. On the mat he is tremendously technical and is a natural instructor. He is able to convey the big picture in the context of the techniques he demonstrates, and he has as good a mind for detail as any BJJ black belt I have trained with. He is not a BJJ Black Belt of course, and though it is strange to note that, I do so on purpose because with Marcus this is undoubtedly his strength. He made reference to his different approach to the ground on more than one occasion, but had he not it would still have been difficult to ignore. His tactics on the floor are quite different from the standard ground game, everything he does is about creating a stable platform to deliver strikes and advance his position simultaneously.

There was no time for sparring this time around, but in answering questions he gave me a couple opportunities to experience his particular flavour of ground and it was impressive. In hindsight, and with context from speaking with Marcus, his ground game grew organically from necessity; a fighter learning the ground game while appearing on The Ultimate Fighter and attempting to start a UFC career had to have a very different approach, when compared to someone learning Jiu Jitsu for its own merit. Marcus was always looking at it from a focused goal of winning fights, no “maybe this will be useful later” or “if I learn this I will be more versatile”, his ground game is like a laser pointed at making his opponent’s night a bad one, that burns away anything even slightly irrelevant to that singular goal.

Marcus was a professional boxer and trains now with Sityodtong under Mark Delagrotti, and his striking instruction was just as detailed. Marcus’ good nature lasted well after he finished instructing as when the session ended he was beset with requests for autographs and pictures from almost every member at the gym and he was very happy to oblige each and every one. He made strong representation of his Irish heritage later that night; his country of birth may have been the United States, but he could drink with the very best of the Galwegians!