Canadian Alexis Davis took one more step towards her ultimate goal of becoming UFC women's bantamweight champion with a unanimous decision victory over former title challenger Liz Carmouche.
In her UFC debut, Davis admitted once it was all said and done that the infamous first time Octagon jitters got to her just seconds after she walked out into the arena. Davis was still able to get the win, but she settled into a much more comfortable performance with her second fight on Wednesday night.
Known best as a ground fighter, Davis decided that an aggressive stand up fight was her best way to throw Carmouche off her game and it worked to perfection. Davis continuously stalked forward as Carmouche could only circle, back away and try to counter when the fighters did engage.
Davis did have to battle through a second round punch that landed just over her left eyebrow, opening up a cut that started pouring blood down the side of her face. Luckily the flow of blood stayed on the side of her face and never affected Davis' vision. Later in the round, Davis even managed one of her best moves of the fight when she caught a kick from Carmouche and quickly kicked out her other leg, dropping the two of them to the mat. Davis ended up in side control where she began to pound away with elbows to secure the score in the round.
The third round saw more of Davis' control in the striking realm using good kicks to the legs and well timed punches to keep Carmouche out of rhythm. The final horn sounded and Davis stood proud as victor with 30-27, 30-27 and 29-28 scorecards from the judges.
Now 2-0 in the UFC and riding a four fight win streak overall, Davis positions herself in a prime spot to potentially battle for a title shot in her next fight depending on how things play out in the division for the rest of this year as well as waiting to hear when current top contender Cat Zingano will be able to return from a knee injury.
