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Exclusive: Ben Davis Talks BKFC Debut vs. McGregor Reporter

From BJJ to boxing to Karate Combat, Ben "The Bane" Davis previews his next stop in BKFC, where he fights Oscar Willis in Spain this Saturday.

Christopher De Santiago

Karate Combat, Ben Davis

A multi-sport commentator is checking off all the boxes in combat sports.

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Ben "The Bane" Davis, a 24-year-old out of Phoenix, Arizona, is taking off the gloves for the grittiest fight of his young career this weekend. After competing in BJJ, boxing and Karate Combat, Davis is set for his BKFC debut against another MMA media member, Oscar Willis, the face of Conor McGregor's news outlet 'The Mac Life'.

The two are set for a bare-knuckle battle on Saturday, which takes place from inside a bullfighting arena in Marbella, Spain - live on DAZN for a company first. Davis is no stranger to being on the broadcast, commentating MMA, boxing, bowling and even sumo wrestling when he's not taking a gamble inside the ring.

How The Media Fight Came Together

So, what made Davis step away from his busy work schedule as a commentator to fly overseas to fight bare-knuckle? Just a phone call from a friend in the industry, as it so turns out, an offer he couldn't refuse.

"About two months ago, [Oscar Willis] gave me a call and threw this on my table, and thankfully, the scheduling lined up where we were able to make it work," Davis told MMA Knockout on Wednesday, shortly after arriving to Spain.

Ben 'The Bane' Davis
Ben Davis

"BKFC was super accommodating. I was thinking, like, man, you know, it would be fun to get one more in after the Karate Combat fight. And then this fell in my lap and I was, like, a little bit more extreme than I had in mind. But me, man, I hate saying no to things and as the ultimate opportunist, this was just something I had to take advantage of."

Davis is fresh off his first win in combat sports, winning his Karate Combat debut by decision in June after coming up short against a black belt in jiu-jitsu in CFFC and a KO loss to Anderson Silva's son in Misfits Boxing last year.

The BKFC couldn't be more different, with no gloves and close-quarter combat that has some former UFC stars Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz not wanting to fight in the promotion. But, despite his lack of experience, "The Bane" has never been one to shy away from a challenge even as brutal as this one.

"It's intense, and I try not to think about it. I think I'll have second thoughts about doing this afterwards," Davis said of fighting in bare-knuckle. "I've tried to mentally steal and grab myself to be able to just focus on the objective and get it done. I totally think that there's a lot of offensive and defensive nuances that within gloved fighting are just non-existent. Even when we were training for this, I kind of thought to myself a lot, man, this would be nice if I had ten-ounce gloves on, this would be great if I had some gloves, but that's of course just not the case."

Davis continued.

"I get people's hesitation. I myself have had internal— I don't say conflict about it necessarily, but that dialogue with myself, like, this is going to be pretty painful. Is that something that I can do? Yeah, I think the mentality is picking it up a notch and meeting the brutality with our own level of energy."

Training between events that he's on the call for, Davis says he's in "the best shape ever" ahead of his BKFC debut against Willis. Harder rounds, two-a-days, Davis says he's excited to display a "pretty competent version" of himself for the world to see on Oct. 12.

Meet The Mac Life's Oscar Willis

Davis' opponent, Oscar Willis, hasn't competed in nearly two years with his one and only MMA fight coming on the regional scene, a scrappy unanimous win against Jeremiah Benavidez on Tuff-N-Uff in Nov. 2022. Like Davis, it's been an equally-busy schedule for Willis since then, covering UFC events (and more) around the world as part of Conor McGregor's media outlet.

"That's the beauty of it, man. There's not much to go on," Davis said of preparation for Willis. "We've avoided extrapolating too much from his Tuff-N-Uff fight because it's irrelevant. That was two years ago, and it was within mixed martial arts, an entirely different rule set. I think it would be irresponsible of us to think that that's the same guy that we're going to see on Saturday night.

"Are there a couple habits that could pop up? For sure. You know, I don't know how much Oscar's trained since that fight. He's got a hectic travel schedule, as do I, and it's hard for me to make time when I'm not in a fight camp. So, I don't know what he's been doing training wise, but who knows? Maybe he's been boxing for the last two years and I go get my a*s beat..."

Dana White Will Be Watching (Apparently)

Fighting in front of thousands of fans in Marbella, Spain and much more on DAZN, Willis vs. Davis has caught the attention of one Dana White, being asked about it at the Contender Series press conference, with the UFC CEO saying he'll be tuning in on Saturday.

"It doesn't [raise the stakes]," Davis reacted to White's comments. "I wish I could say, oh, yeah, the boss man's tuning in now.... we've got to do X, Y and Z. It doesn't, man. I think I'd be lying if I said that really changed anything. That's cool. Hope that we put on a fun show, and I hope he enjoyed it, as does everyone else that's watching. But I don't care who's watching. I don't give a f*** who's tuning in or who's not tuning in. I have a job to do, and that rests on me, exclusively me. So, I mean, f***, you could have Joe Biden tuning in and it wouldn't change anything."

Davis On Fighting Future

Win, lose or draw this weekend; it will have been four fights across four different sports for Ben "The Bane" Davis, all before his 25th birthday. While Davis acknowledges this upcoming fight could be his last, the MMA media personality says an MMA debut might be in the cards for him sometime in the future.

"That's always been the goal, I think. My journey as a competitor has evolved, right as it's kind of been playing out. I didn't anticipate when I made the walk for CFFC last year that I'd have an Anderson Silva son fight or a Karate Combat fight or obviously this. Those weren't things that I had planned on or expected.

"I'd love an MMA debut," Davis continued. "I think that'd be the final way to cap this off, and it'd be the full realization of me testing every discipline and then putting it all together. To me, that makes sense. I think that's a great story and a really, really fun chapter to have in my career.

"But who knows, man? I mean, this could be it, right? That's the reality of these things, is it's not easy to go through these fight camps and juggling what I do and my obligations, setting things aside, how it affects my personal life, the stress involved with it. There's a lot of things where I sort of would be fine when I get this win on Saturday going, yeah, that might be it. But, if I do an MMA debut, to me that makes the most sense and is the culmination of what I've been up to the last two years."

Catch BKFC on DAZN this Saturday (11AM PT, 2PM ET) live from Marbella, Spain, an 11-fight card headlined by three title fights.

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Christopher De Santiago
CHRISTOPHER DE SANTIAGO

Christopher De Santiago is a 22 year-old journalist from Gainesville, Texas with years of experience covering MMA.

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