Phil Davis: Liam McGeary ‘knows who’s next,’ is ‘trembling in fear’

Bellator MMA light heavyweight contender Phil Davis gained No. 1 contender status last year when he won the four-man, one-night 205-pound tournament with a pair of stoppage wins over Francis Carmont and Emanuel Newton at Bellator 142: Dynamite 1. The winner of the tournament was initially supposed to receive a title shot against champ Liam McGeary, but that ended up not being the case because McGeary was sidelined with an injury.

“All I know, by winning the (tournament) belt at Dynamite 1, I secured my No. 1 contender spot and I was supposed to fight the champion,” said Davis, who fights Muhammed Lawal in the main event of Bellator 154 this weekend, told BloodyElbow.com’s The MMA Circus. “And the champion was unable to continue, he wasn’t able to continue on with the fight so we had to explore some other options. And that’s how more names got tossed into the hat.”

Davis is completely fine with fighting King Mo, who he was originally slated to face in the tournament finals but did not when Lawal suffered an injury in the opening round, despite the fact he earned a title shot last September.

“I know that this is the fight that the fans want to see,” he said. “This is for the fans. I’m going to beat Mo and then I’m going to fight for the title. Whoever is still around can fight me and I’ll defend the title against them. That’s how I feel about it. It doesn’t matter to me. Either way, I’m going to end up fighting Mo, for a title defense, or right now. It doesn’t matter to me – I’m going to win either time.”

One-night tournaments are rather rare in mixed martial arts because they’re quite difficult to plan and because they often fall apart due to …

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