If someone takes more than two years off from any sport, eyebrows would justifiably be raised upon their return. In combat sports, the common term and concern is ring rust.
Tucked into a corner of the sprawling Metroflex Gym in Hawaiian Gardens, Antonio McKee sees no orangey-brown color near one-time MMA prospect Joey Davis. McKee is seeing red, but in a good way.
“Hey, Joey! Which pill did you take? The red one? The red one?” the Team Bodyshop coach says with a laugh, a common reference that his prized welterweight has spent the past several months holed up in the Matrix, a nod to the time- and space-bending Keanu Reeves sci-fi action franchise.
When Davis steps into the cage for the first time in more than 28 months against Jeff Creighton on Friday at Bellator 293, McKee isn’t joking about one outcome he hopes doesn’t come true at Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula.
“I’m hoping he doesn’t hurt this guy,” McKee said.
McKee reserves his highest praise for Davis, who is not only undefeated in eight Bellator fights, but before that was an undefeated four-time national championship wrestler.
“I ain’t never seen nothing like it. The kid’s in the Matrix or something. I don’t … I don’t understand it,” McKee said. “I’ve never dealt with an athlete or someone that is just so God-gifted and talented – and at their own pace. Just mixing stuff we do in here and no one can match it.”
After finishing 133-0 at Division II Notre Dame College in Euclid, Ohio, the Compton native was in a Bellator cage five months later making his pro debut.
In four years, Davis recorded three unanimous decisions and five knockouts, including two show-stopping finishes via spinning back kick and flying knee. Many began to take notice of the array of talent and whisper about title aspirations.
But after his unanimous-decision victory over Bobby Lee at Bellator 253 in November 2020, Davis decided it was time for him to step back.
“It was such a grueling long career for me in wrestling and MMA coming in right after,” the 29-year-old Davis said. “Whatever I needed to break, it just felt like, ‘OK, well, now I can really get better at everything I need to do.’”
The former Santa Fe High star football player and wrestler says he might not have been “in training” but he continued to train. He honed his boxing and jiu-jitsu – and McKee and his son, Bellator star and lightweight contender A.J. McKee, can attest to the latter.
“It’s … hell, man. He lays on top of me and whoops my (butt),” A.J. McKee said of his longtime friend. “It’s good though, you know? Sometimes it takes a little time off, a little bounceback. But it’s always the comeback that’s the story to make. And this is his comeback story. Yeah, it’s phenomenal.”
When Davis began submitting A.J. in training, Antonio stepped in. When Davis began submitting the self-proclaimed top dog, top-level Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners were brought in.
“He would tap them out seven, eight times. Yeah, they’d tap him out once or twice, but that’s not his expertise. He’s a wrestler. And he was laid off about a year and a half to come back,” Antonio McKee said. “And it’s like he went and sat in a tube in the Matrix, studying the Matrix technique, and came back and just applied it to everybody.”
Davis, reserved and thoughtful, cracks a smile hearing of the McKees’ praise of his jiu-jitsu game. But his focus is solely on elevating his skills and becoming elite.
“Just be something that the fans and Bellator haven’t seen before from a wrestler,” he said before making a rare admission about his fighting acumen.
“You know, a lot of wrestlers just don’t have the skills that I have.”
If Davis was seeking inspiration, he didn’t have to look far. Earlier this month, former UFC light heavyweight great Jon Jones, after three years off, returned and claimed the UFC heavyweight championship with a two-minute submission of Cyril Gane.
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“He was still the same guy from back in the day, and his confidence was really good. You know what I mean?” Davis said. “How comfortable he was in there. And that’s how I want to look. Go in there like I never left.”
A.J. McKee says the arsenal is close to becoming “foolproof.” His father says he just keeps adding to Davis’ toolbox, which was already considerably stocked.
But now? “He’s a certified mechanic in the Matrix. He’s a Matrix mechanic,” Antonio McKee said.
Bellator 293
When: Friday
Where: Pechanga Resort Casino, Temecula
How to watch: prelims (4 p.m., Bellator MMA YouTube, Showtime Sports YouTube, Pluto TV); main card (7 p.m., Showtime)