Lew Polley and Zach Davis Join MMAWeekly Radio as TUF 13 Correspondents

MMAWeekly.com and MMAWeekly Radio are proud to welcome its radio correspondents for the 13th season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” Zach Davis and, for the first time ever a coach from the show, Lew Polley will join us every Thursday to discuss what happened on the Spike TV reality show this season.

Lew Polley has made appearances on MMAWeekly Radio previously covering his own fighting career, but this year he will stop by every week to give his unique perspective as the wrestling coach for Junior Dos Santos’ team on the show.

Polley is a former collegiate wrestler who has worked with several top fight camps over the years including American Top Team and the Alliance Training Center. Currently, Polley is busy at work in Colorado alongside a slew of top fighters including Bellator champion and accomplished wrestler Joe Warren.

Polley has fought in many organizations during his career including the IFL and The Fight Club in Canada. He is still fighting for himself as well, but for six weeks in Las Vegas he helped the latest group of welterweights get ready for a shot to become “The Ultimate Fighter.”

Also joining MMAWeekly Radio this year will be Zach Davis, a competitor on the show, who trains out of a Lloyd Irvin school in Maryland.

Davis graduated from the University of Maryland, but when his time as a Terrapin was finished, he just wasn’t ready to go into the job market and sit behind a desk.

Training in wrestling and submission wrestling all the way from high school, Davis decided to take a trip and gain some life experience before putting on the suit and tie full time.

“I went on a trip out to Brazil just to be a jiu-jitsu bum, so I was there for two months and while I was there I was training every day. I loved it so much, maybe before I start getting into a real career, I’ll give this professional fighting thing a go,” Davis said.

After returning from Brazil, Davis did a few amateur fights before turning professional. He seemed like he was on his way to a bright future before a pre-fight medical brought it all crashing down around him.

Doctors discovered that Davis had a detached retina prior to one of his fights, and not only was he pulled from that bout, he was essentially told that his fighting career was over. Davis admits he was depressed and dejected when he got the news, but he wasn’t ready to give up his dream just yet.

Six months of healing time passed and Davis decided to go see a doctor again to find out if his eye was doing any better. Miraculously, the eye had healed and Davis was able to pursue his fighting dream once again. That’s when “The Ultimate Fighter” came calling.

See, Davis had tried out for the show previously, but something about the timing of Season 13 worked out perfectly.

“I fought again about a year later after the initial injury,” Davis explained. “I won and then I heard from ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ which I had tried about three times to get on. I tried initially on Season 7; I was an alternate. If anyone got injured or didn’t make weight, they would have let me slide in. I think they kept me in mind when I applied this last season.”

Davis had also tried out for Season 9, but didn’t make the final cut. On his third attempt during season 13, he made the show. Now Davis gets the chance to work alongside 13 other welterweights for a chance to become the next “Ultimate Fighter.”

“Third time was the charm,” Davis said.

Both Lew Polley and Zach Davis can be heard every Thursday night on the new MMAWeekly Radio talking about “The Ultimate Fighter.” For more information on either of them, follow them on Twitter @LewPolley and @ZachDavisMMA.

Tune in to MMAWeekly Radio every Thursday night beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT for Lew and Zach’s latest on TUF 13!