Lost in the storybook finish (at least for the supporters of the U.S. military and Tim Kennedy) of the main event at UFC Fight Night 31: Fight for the Troops 3 was another very impressive performance in the co-main event. Kennedy’s KO of Rafael Natal certainly deserves all of the recognition that it gets. Kennedy delivered exactly what everyone there was hoping for and he did it emphatically, so congratulations to him.
But the most impressive performance of that night to me was Alexis Davis’ win over Liz Carmouche. The three rounds of dominance she displayed were just as entertaining, if not more so, than Kennedy’s late-first round finish. Carmouche was favored to win that fight and Davis just walked right through her.
We haven’t seen Carmouche look that outmatched in a long time. Even when she fought champ Ronda Rousey, she threatened with a submission and almost shocked the world that night. She did no such thing against Alexis Davis, being content to stay on the feet and eat an assortment of inside leg kicks and punches on the breaks. Whether by design or not, Carmouche didn’t even shoot for her vaunted takedowns as expected, especially when the fight wasn’t going her way. It was strange to see. She did clip Davis a few times with some nice shots, but Davis has shown she can take a punch with the best of them already. Make no mistake, Davis didn’t get lucky against Carmouche. She is a tough fighter.
Whether Carmouche was just off in that fight or not, Davis wasn’t intimidated one bit and took the fight to her from beginning to end. There were shades of Nick Diaz and Diego Sanchez there, a fighter who just keeps moving forward, relentless, avoiding enough damage or just absorbing shots to dish out an overwhelming amount of punishment that the opponent just can’t deal with.
She only has two fights in the UFC, so comparisons to other fighters are understandable, but if she keeps fighting and winning like that, people aren’t going to be comparing her to other fighters. They’re going to be saying other fighters look like Alexis Davis.
Keep an eye on her, she just sent the rest of the bantamweight division a huge warning to watch out for her with that dominant win over Carmouche. She’s going to make some more noise in the division and could definitely find herself fighting for the title in the near future.
