PSU Wrestling Spotlight on former Penn State wrestler: Phil Davis

Phil Davis achieved All-American status four times during his tenure at Penn State, finishing seventh, second and fifth in the country during his first three years and then winning a National Championship as a senior at 197 pounds in 2008. He was the 4th four time All-American wrestler in Penn State wrestling history. Since graduating from Penn State with a degree in Kinesiology he has put his competitive spirit to work in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) and, at the time of the posting of this interview, is undefeated in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).

Phil, how did you get started in wrestling?

I just kind of fell into it. It wasn't the family sport or anything. A friend of mine asked me to stay after school with him for wrestling practice one day and that is how I got started. It wasn't anything that I had always wanted to do.

Was anybody especially influential for you as far as your high school wrestling career went?

I credit my success in high school to Jesse Rawls, the wrestling coach at Harrisburg High. He was great at working with young men and was a good leader in the community. He was just a real positive person.

In addition to being a wrestler in high school you also played tennis and ran cross country. Could you talk about your high school tennis and cross country careers?

Those were sort of the family sports. Everybody in my family loves to run. When I started running cross country I did it mostly to help me lose weight for wrestling. I used to play tennis on the weekends with my Dad, so that's how I got started in it.

Describe the process that culminated with you coming to Penn State.

Dave Hart started writing me hand written letters and I thought that was pretty cool that somebody took the time to write me a hand written letter. Everybody else was sending me standard letters with letterheads, but Dave's letters were all handwritten. Penn State was, in fact, always my number one pick for schools even before they contacted me.

What are your best memories from the years you spent as a Penn State wrestler?

There are so many. In high school my team didn't win a lot of matches. So the outcome of the match was usually started by the time I got to wrestle. Actually when I was at Penn State the outcome of the match was also usually decided by the time I got to wrestle. The match was usually won or lost before the match got to 197. So I often didn't get to be involved in determining the outcome of the team match. Although we always wanted to put as many team points on the scoreboard as possible, I never really felt the pressure of having to stick my guy except for my senior year when we were wrestling Oklahoma State and I pretty much had to pin my guy. I think his name was Craig Foster. He was a pretty tough guy and it was one of those matches where I could walk you though every step of the match even now. Right before I pinned him I had him on his back and I looked up and saw (Oklahoma State head coach) John Smith looking right at us yelling, 'No no no!'. And then I pinned him. That is a great memory.

What advice do you have for collegiate wrestlers today?

Number one, you don't know how your wrestling career is going to go so always keep your academics as your first priority. Number two, you are only in college once so you really have to maximize all of your potential while you are there. You don't want to be the guy about whom people say 'he really should have won Nationals but didn't'. You have to tell yourself 'I have one chance to do this and that is right now'. So you have to get it done.

When you are out in San Diego training do you miss anything about the central Pennsylvania environment?

I tell people all the time if there is one thing I don't like about San Diego its that the weather is almost too consistent. You don't have to look at the weather online or tv and then get dressed. You can just get dressed and at the worst maybe you will get a little fog or drizzle. I miss the snow a lot. I love snow. I love snowball fights. I wish San Diego had a winter season. Then it would be perfect.

San Diego has some famous beaches. Do you get any beach time in when you aren't training?

I do. Before I was never a beach person because I didn't grow up near a beach. I really am finding that I like the beach now.

How did you get started in MMA?

I really wasn't interested in MMA until the end of my junior year in college. At that point I started thinking that it might be a real option for me. I decided to try and it and see what it was like and I loved it.

How is your strength and conditioning training now different than what it was for wrestling at Penn State?

Penn State really laid down the ground work for a lot of things for me. It is hard to say that my strength and conditioning is harder now. Because of my training at Penn State I know how hard I can push myself. My training now is just the next step in my evolution as an athlete.

A number of former college wrestlers have met with success in MMA. Do you think their success is a function of the skills they learned as wrestlers such as takedowns, balance and the ability to apply leverage, or do you think that the training regime that they brought with them from college is what translated into success for them in MMA?

For different people it's different things, but overall I think it's the training regime and the attitude they bring with them. Wrestlers know how to train.

What's the toughest aspect of transitioning from collegiate wrestling to MMA?

For me it was this: once I got good at wrestling I wanted to be great at wrestling. Ultimately it was hard for me to leave the sport of wrestling and go to a sport (MMA) where I was not great. I was not even good at it. I was not even average. Just going to a new sport which I was horrible at and trying to compete at it was very difficult. It was a very frustrating experience. In wrestling I had a lot of confidence because I knew all the moves and their counters. And I knew the counters for the counters and so on. And it's really hard to move to a sport where you are not good and don't at first know the moves.

When you are preparing for a bout how much of your preparation is mental and how much is physical?

I'd say leading up to the bout about 90% is physical. Once you get to the point where you are about to weigh in it's all mental.

What's your theory on how often the average UFC fighter should fight?

Maybe 4-5 times a year.

Do you have any advice for collegiate wrestlers looking to get into MMA?

The best thing they can do is in the summertime, in addition to their wrestling practices, stop by a MMA gym and learn some jiu jitsu and some standup. This doesn't need to be a hard core thing like 5 or 6 times a week. They could just learn the basics and when they are ready to dedicate more of their time, after their collegiate wrestling careers are over, they can go straight to step 2.

Phil, I realize you are just getting into a new career now in MMA but what are your long term goals in life after UFC?

I leave that open ended. There are definitely some things I want to do after MMA. Everything I do in my life I feel is a step toward the next thing I want to accomplish. So I focus on accomplishing one goal at a time. After I'm done with MMA the door will be open to me to succeed at something else.

Have you ever thought about a career as a collegiate wrestling coach?

I have. And I would love to be a coach. But as of right now I have too much competitive drive in me to not be competing. And I don't think it's a good idea to be coaching and competing at the same time.

What makes wrestling a great sport?

If you put two babies in a crib they wrestle. Wrestling is such a natural thing to do. Maybe it's because I'm such a competitive person but I just love the sport of wrestling because it's pure competition-one guy against another. Success in the sport is strictly a function of natural selection, strategy, hard work and good coaching.