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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Heading into next weekend's UFC 159 event, there hasn't been much respect expressed between light heavyweight competitors Phil Davis and Vinny Magalhaes. Both fighters remain completely confident in themselves, and in Davis' case, he's commented on a number of occasions that he doesn't believe Magalhaes is even on his level.
That's not a sentiment that concerns Magalhaes, who believes that he's superior to Davis in every facet of the game, regardless of their respective ranking in the division.
"Level is not about numbers, level is about skills," Magalhaes commented in a pre-fight interview for UFC.com. "And as far as skill goes, I think I'm way more skilled than him, and I think it becomes a mismatch once you're fighting each other. And not on his side, it becomes a mismatch from me to him."
Magalhaes continues to disparage the skill set of Davis, and says he wanted this fight specifically because he can prove that he's better all around against a well-known name.
"I want to fight a guy like Phil Davis who cannot grapple; he thinks he can because he's been fighting a bunch of cans that cannot grapple," Magalhaes said. "And he cannot strike, because every time people throw a punch he just folds and starts to shoot. He becomes like a NCAA wrestler during the fight."
"He don't want to fight… Wrestling, I would give that to Phil Davis, but who cares? He takes me down, he's going to be in my world. I know if I get in a situation where I put him on his back - or even if I'm on my back and he gets in my guard - I'm going to submit him. I'm not worried about Phil Davis. I'm not worried about what he says, I'm not worried about him trying to talk tough, because I know that's just tough. That's what it is."
Penick's Analysis: I have no doubt that Magalhaes has a superior submission game to Phil Davis, but Davis is a very good wrestler and might have enough defense on the ground to still win rounds with work from the top. That said, Magalhaes doesn't even have a hint of concern in him regarding this fight, and it does represent a chance for him to make a major statement in the UFC's light heavyweight division. We'll see which one of them is able to follow through on their comments next week, but I'd expect it to be a highly interesting fight once it hits the ground.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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