Phil Davis dominates Glover Teixeira, calls out Anderson Silva
Phil Davis knocked off another Brazilian and has another one on his mind next -- and it's not who you would think.
Davis dominated Glover Teixeira by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27) in a complete effort Saturday night at UFC 179. Then, in his post-fight interview with Brian Stann, Davis called out Anderson Silva, the former UFC middleweight champion who was in attendance in Rio de Janeiro.
"Lately they've been calling me the Brazilian killer, but I really don't like that," Davis said. … "I have beat a lot of Brazilians and there's one Brazilian guy I'd like to face and that's Anderson Silva."
That was a pretty surprising challenge, considering Davis is ranked No. 6 among light heavyweight contenders and raised his stock even more by beating Teixeira. Silva, meanwhile, has fought most of his career at middleweight and is coming off a broken leg. He'll meet Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 183 on Jan. 31 in Las Vegas.
Davis (13-2, 1 NC) is 5-0 with a no contest in his career against Brazilians. Overall, he has just one loss in his last six fights and that came against Anthony Johnson at UFC 172 in April.
Davis, 30, has the ability to dominate with his wrestling -- he's a former All American at Penn State -- and he did just that against Teixeira from the very start. Teixeira, a powerful boxer, could never get into any kind of rhythm on the feet, because Davis kept busy and mixed his striking and wrestling well. That's basically how it went throughout the three-round fight.
Teixeira (22-4) was coming off a light heavyweight title loss to Jon Jones at UFC 172 in April. He came in ranked No. 4 among 205-pound contenders and will likely fall from that perch. Davis said before the fight that Teixeira, 34, had never fought a wrestler like him. Evidently, he was correct.
