Back to School
There’s a story on Yahoo.com from 2015 that describes one of the best MMA fights of that year.
“On paper,” the story says, “the last weekend of March looked to be a ho-hum affair, with no UFC event and a pair of what seemed to be filler cards from the sport’s Nos. 2 and 3 companies. Instead, it turned into a reminder that great fights can happen at any event.”
It was a description of a fight between LC Davis and Hideo Tokoro, two veteran bantamweights at the time. A cool video about the fight is on the BellatorMMA YouTube Channel.
Spoiler alert: Davis won, barely, and he did so with a broken jaw and most of his bottom teeth knocked out.
“It’s like the old gladiator days,” Davis, a Fort Scott native, said earlier this month. “The strongest men one on one.”
“I don’t need to prove myself to anyone anymore.”
Today, Davis is most often found either coaching at Pittsburg High School wrestling practice or providing boxing lessons at Alpha Fitness. His professional fighting days ended in 2016.
“I’m a father now, a wrestling coach,” he said. “I had more than 30 professional fights. I was ranked top 10 in the world at one time. I don’t need to prove myself to anyone anymore.”
After stints in Vegas, Iowa, Kansas City, and several other places across the country, Davis returned to Southeast Kansas to raise his family and help support the community through coaching and training.
“You know, when I was younger, I thought I’d never come back to SEK,” he said. “Now that I’m a dad, I’m a little older, it’s really nice to be back. And honestly, there’s no place in SEK I’d rather live than in Pittsburg. We have pretty much everything here, and it’s a great place to raise kids.”
As a freshman at Fort Scott High School, Davis qualified for the state wrestling tournament after winning the regional tourney at PHS. From there, he wrestled at Labette Community College. Then he went to watch a friend of his compete in an MMA fight.
“Three weeks later, I was fighting,” he said. “I had three amatuer fights, then went pro in 2006.”
“I’m all about helping the community be active and healthy.”
Today, he’s back at PHS as the head wrestling coach.
“When I got back to Pitt, I still had that passion for boxing and MMA,” he said. “Alpha Fitness lets me use their gym to provide boxing and other lessons. It’s a great cardio workout, burns a lot of calories, and it’s fun. Everyone likes punching something every now and then.
“Fitness is everything,” he said. “If you don’t use it, you’re gonna lose it. I’m all about helping the community be active and healthy.”
When he’s not coaching or training, Davis said he likes to enjoy the various restaurants and amenities Pittsburg has to offer.
“Pittsburg’s a cool place,” he said. “It’s like this small city, but a big town. You have everything you need, but it also still has that small town vibe. I like that. And you’re really close to other places like KC and Tulsa, Lake of the Ozarks. I love being here.”