I'm sitting in Boston and it's about 2am.. I'm doing something that I haven't yet done before so I hope that my memory serves it's purpose. I'm really lucky because I have photos to help remind me of the events as they happened because I document just about everything that I see. I'm not feeling too tired because it's only 11pm where I'm from.
This tale starts back in July. The 18th to be exact. I remember showing up for weigh ins and walking in with James Irvin and his team. I had met them at the Palms Place spa and walked over to the ballrooms with them. James had a tough time cutting weight and ended up not making 205. He had to go cut more and weigh in again. I recall walking into the room and having an extensive conversation with Joe Silva before running into Marcus "The Irish Hand Grenade" Davis.
Now, I didn't really know Marcus. Oh, I had met him a number of times and taken his photo on more than one occasion. I had seen him and talked to him a few times in passing in London before and after his fight against Mike Swick. But to say I knew the guy or much about him than his fight record would be impossible for me. I had never spent anytime around him. Well little did I know, that was about to change.
Our conversation that Friday in July started the same as any with small talk about the fight and the fighter that he was there cornering. I turned the conversation to the afterparty that I was involved in at Studio 54 the next night and invited him and his group to come out. He said that they would like to so we exchanged phone numbers as the weigh ins started. The weigh ins went by quickly except for the James Irvin reweigh which left me hanging around waiting. Marcus came over and we talked again. He mentioned that he was also in town for surgery.
"I'm having a surgery to remove the scar tissue from around my eyes and have the bone shaved down to reduce the amount of cutting I get in fights," He said. I responded,"Is Dr Frank Stile doing the surgery? Thats who Nick Diaz had his done through." Surprised, he said, "Yes, it is Frank Stile. I have an appointment tuesday morning, and then the surgery is on Wednesday." We finished off the conversation about the party and he left to attend to his fighter.
I wrote an entire Blog about that particular weekend. That was the same weekend that the Affliction fight was going on in Anaheim. You can find the blog here: http://www.combatlifestyle.com/words/gdetail.php?id=81
My next run in with Marcus was at the afterparty @ Studio 54. Brandon Vera, Shannon Gugerty and Brodie Farber were having their afterparty there, and I threw my own unofficial afterparty there as well. I had set up tables for a number of the fighters and Dan Henderson had set one up for Jesse Taylor there that night. Over half the fight card showed up! We pretty much took over the entire VIP with our group of over 250 people. Shit, for the hell of it, here are all the pics from that night:
Marcus and his group had shown up to the club and once they recognized him, they gave him a table in our VIP section. Big ups to Dan at Studio 54; he gave tables to all the fighters in our group. I didn't even know that Marcus was down there at first but after I walked through the section taking photos, I found him with five girls at his table; he had a bottle that they were drinking from, but he was drinking water. I ended up talking to him for a bit and he mentioned that he had stopped drinking quite some time ago. Apparently he used to drink quite excessively and was quite the troublemaker. I was at the club until close to 4am; I was making sure that everyone that was super intoxicated had someone to take care of them and get them out of the club.
The next day, I headed to the pool at Green Valley Ranch as we often do on Sundays after fights. The guys at Denaro Sports Marketing throw them and often have fighter hosts at each one. This particular Sunday had overcast skies and was rather cold so not many people showed up to the pool. I was out there with Rara, Arianny and Chari hanging out with James Irvin and company. Marcus, Dale, and Travis showed up and hung out for a while after James left, and Dave Terrell and a few others made an appearance as well. Other than that, it was dead. I went to a friend's BBQ after that with Rara and weirdly ran into Arianny there. Rara was falling asleep on the couch so we headed back to my house.
I knew that Marcus was going to be in town for a few more days so I called him up to go to the movies. Brad Blackburn was still in town as well, so I headed to his hotel to pick him up as well. We went on a wild goose chase to go see Dark Knight (my second time that weekend) and at the end of the movie, the film burned. Yes, the film burned and we left the theater with disappointment in our hearts and vouchers in our hands. Good thing Marcus was wearing the shirt that he was because he and Brad were recognized as we left the theater. After signing autographs, we headed to the bar to meet Melissa to watch DREAM 5.
 |  |
Melissa and I had found a 24 hour bar in Las Vegas that had HD Net. I didn't know anyone else in Vegas that had it. So we showed up there at 12 am and she was already waiting. Turns out that I had messed up and the fights had started at 11. We got food, and enjoyed what was left of the fights although they took FOREVER with all the entrances and everything in between; We were there until almost 3am. Exhausted we gave up on seeing all the fights; I dropped each of the guys off at their hotels and went home to crash out.
I spent all day monday getting work done and then went to go get Marcus. He was staying at the Palace Station, really close to the UFC offices. We went and got sushi at Kaizen where Marcus talked about his four kids and life up in Portland, Maine and how much slower of a lifestyle it was there. Over the course of the 5 days I hung out with him, he continually made reference to how old he is; he has a daughter who is 18 and in college in New Hampshire. He started fighting somewhere around the age of 14 and has been fighting professionally for about 20 years. He owns a school called Team Irish MMA in Brewer, Maine close to where he lives and has a second one in Bitteford about 2 and a half hours away. He started his first school about five years ago.
We ended up having dinner with Keith Berry, the KO Kid. He had just moved to Vegas to train at Xtreme Couture and happened to walk in while we were there so joined us for dinner. We enjoyed yummy sushi from my favorite sushi spot in Las Vegas, and then we hit up the movies to use up the vouchers that we had from the day before. We picked Hell Boy becauase it got pretty good reviews. I can't say that either of us agreed with the reviews. The movie had incredible special effects but was so cheezy that Chester Cheetah should have been a part of the cast.
The next day, Marcus had a presurgery appointment with Dr Frank Stile. I picked him up at 7:30 am and we fought traffic to make it there by 8. The offices were located on the west side of Las Vegas, pretty close to my house. The offices were pretty new and were extremely impressive; during the early morning appointment, we learned that the surgery center was attached to the offices. Most places that you have surgery done, you have to go somewhere other than where the Dr's offices are located. The decor was much more than you would expect from a doctors office; the lobby walls were lined with wood and had vaulted ceilings painted with clouds on them. The exam rooms had ornate frames in them with expensive pieces of wood furniture as well.
I had met Dr. Stile more than a number of times; usually at the fights because he's a pretty big fight fan. I had also known of him because he was the Dr. to do Nick Diaz's surgery. Nick Diaz had fought two fights without getting any cuts on his face. Not to say that the surgery is fool proof, but it did reduce to possibility of cuts. And thats exactly what Marcus was looking to acheive with the same surgery from Dr. Stiles.
Dr. Stiles walked in and shook Marcus' hand and then was surprised to see me. He said, "You going to come shoot the surgery tomorrow?" as he shook my hand too. Surprised that I didn't even have to ask and that he wanted me there, I nodded yes. He was very enthusiastic about it and went into detail what he was going to do in the operating room the next day.
After the appointment with Dr. Stiles, we went to Walgreens near my house to drop off the prescriptions that he had received. We were right up the street from the Throwndown training facility so we stopped by to say hello to Justin and he took Marcus on a tour of the place. Then we headed to China Town for some Dim Sum (wikipedia, bitches!) and then went on a mission to find some belt buckles for Marcus' extensive collection. We were not successful in our mission and decided to save it for another day.
 |  |
We finished off our day with a dinner at PF changs where we ordered your traditional lettuce wraps. I ordered broccoli chicken and Marcus ordered a spicy chicken dish as well. Our conversation turned to his upcoming fight. He said, "Paul kelly is a tough guy but it's kinda like Muhammed Ali said. Don't ever match a bull against a master boxer. the bull is stronger but the matador is smarter. I think that paul kelly is tough, but everyone is the UFC is tough. I'm tough. But I also have more tools than him that I can use in this fight. I'm a better puncher, I'm a better kicker, a better grappler and I think I'm going to beat him in the transitions. I think he's going to try to do something and i'm going to be able to catch him along the way whether it's in a submission or in a punch." Conversation ended up back on his kids as we finished our meal. I get the feeling he doesn't like being away from them for extended periods of time.
After dinner we made a trip to yet another movie; this time to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was another movie that ended weirdly and for some reason oddly reminded me of the ending to Journey to the Center of the earth (except not in 3D). By this time, we had spent so much time together Marcus' manager Joe was asking when we were getting married, lol. Why is it that when a guy and girl hang out a bunch, all of a sudden they're more than friends?
Wednesday morning.. Surgery day for Marcus... I went to pick him up at his hotel at 5:30am; we had to be there at 6. He seemed pretty tired but wasn't really nervous like you might expect from someone who was about to go under the knife. We parked outside of the surgery center and went inside where we met with the nurse and she weighed Marcus and had him change into a hospital gown and hat. They handed me scrubs, a hat and booties and I went into one of the recovery rooms to change into my stylish outfit.
When I joined him in the prep room, the nurse was getting an IV started and then Dr. Stiles walked in. He started marking Marcus' eyes for where he was going to remove the scar tissue with a purple marker. He was very descriptive about what he was doing both for Marcus' benefit as well as mine. I think it was about 630 at this time.
After he was done marking up Marcus' face, the anesthesiologist came in and put a mixture into Marcus' IV. I can't tell you what it was but they were transporting him within minutes and he was trying to talk but became incoherent rather quickly. The moved him into the operating room right at 7am and transferred him on to the operating table.
He was given nitrous oxide when he arrived, and was under within moments. They put these eye shields into his eyes to keep things from falling into them. They looked extremely weird and creepy to me with these silver tabs poking out from his eyelids. The nurse prepped him with something to keep him from biting his tongue as well as a tube to help him receive oxygen. Then came the iodine that they painted over his entire face. It was almost like they were trying to make him into a clown. They covered his body and face with a sheet and wrapped a towel around his head. Soon the only thing that was showing was the area around his eyes.
It was at this point that Dr. Stiles walked in and the nurse helped him adjust his headgear. It was a complete assembly including glasses, magnifier and light. He looked down at his thumbs in front of him and she adjusted the light to fall directly on them. The anesthesiologist was monitoring his vitals throughout the surgery and a second doctor was assisting in the surgery. Including myself, there were 5 of us in the operating room.
Dr Stiles didn't hesitate as he made the first incision. He cut a crescent shaped piece of scar tissue from above Marcus' right eye. He followed the removal of the tissue with what looked like a tiny soldering iron; It singed the skin to stop it from bleeding. Once they had the skin pulled back from his skull and a small pocket created, Dr Stiles used the soldering iron as well as a chisel and a hammer to chip away at the sharp edge of the brow bone. It was a process that they did slowly and very carefully. Once he had the bone removed sufficiently (pulling out all the pieces that he had chipped away), he hydrated the incision with a clear liquid that possibly was even water. They measured the length of the incision at that point then turned to another table that had pieces of collagen soaking in a bowl. He cut a piece to fit and inserted it into the pocket he had created. He narrated everything he was doing for my benefit and explained that the piece would help to be a cushion against cuts.
After that, holding a pair of tweezers and forceps, he used a small, curved needle to sew an inner row of stitches using a blue thread. He finished it with an outer row of stitches using a thicker clear thread. It was an orchestrated song and dance that was very delicate and precise: I couldn't believe how easily he tied the knots using the equipment he did.
The left eye was an identical process that took kept us in the operating room up until 9:30am; two and a half hours! The time had gone by pretty quickly and soon they were wheeling him into the recovery area. It took minutes for him to start waking and if you've ever been around someone coming out of surgery, you know that the things they say can be rather funny. In this particular instance, the first thing Marcus said was, "Did the doctor take a crap in my mouth? Tracy, did you take a crap in my mouth?" He also mentioned wanting to wear the hat out later, wherever he went. Laughing, I sat there filming and taking pictures as the nurse saw to his comfort. I sent camera phone pictures throughout the whole process to Mark Dellagrotte and Mike and Kim Goldberg. We were out of there by 11am.
When we left the sugery center, I had been instructed to take him to get a smoothie so it was straight to the drive through at Starbucks for a frappuccino. Then I headed back towards his hotel, but we made a pitstop by the UFC offices to say hi to Donna as well as some of the rest of the UFC staff. We were back at the hotel by 1pm where he spent the rest of the afternoon taking it easy. But he wasn't one to take it easy too long and we ended up back at the 24 hour bar to rewatch the fights on HDnet. This time tons of stuff from the walkins was edited out and we got to see the meat and potatos of DREAM 5; the fights! I was thrilled because Urijah's guy, Joseph Benavidez, won that night.
The next day, Marcus had a post surgery meeting with Dr Stiles at 8:30am, so again I picked him up and took him over. Dr Stiles looked at the stitches, gave a few instructions, and told Marcus to come back in a week. He also told Marcus to take it easy. Instead, we went shopping for belt buckles again. We took off down to the strip like the site seers we are, and successfully fulfilled the mission. 2 belt clips and a money clip later (as well as a photo with a huge M&M) I took him back to the hotel to rest for the remainder of the afternoon.
Chad from Toe2Toe clothing was on his way into Vegas to go to some amateur fights and had called me up to go. I had a ton of stuff to get done before I left out of town so I agreed to dinner only and grabbed Marcus along the way. How easily I am talked into things? After a nice italian dinner with all the guys, I found myself en route to the Amateur fights located on the outskirts of Las Vegas.
Vegas fights, big or small typically draw local known fighters; This one was no different. When we arrived at the event, it turned out that it was being thrown by one of my friends who opened LA Boxing in Las Vegas. In the crowd I saw Richie Hightower, Rude Boy, Blas Avena, Steve Mazagatti and more! We stayed till the end of the fights and then I dropped Marcus (aka frankenstein) back at the Palace Station.
Ok, to squash the rumors in advance, Yes I hung out with Marcus for 5 days straight. No, I'm not dating him, lol.. It was really cool to get to know Marcus a little bit that particular week. He's so mellow that it's hard for me to believe that he was ever the person that he talked about from his drinking days. He's awesome to everyone he meets, fans, media, and friends alike. Ask him for a picture or an interview, he won't ever turn you down!
Tune in to Spike TV to watch his fight against Paul Kelly on October 18th in London as he starts his win streak anew. And oh yeah, tune in here to read the second installment of the Marcus Davis Chronicles! K, thats the end of my public service announements! I took off to LA for the groove cruise after that.. Yeah, the groove cruise.. What a figgin good time!!
