Ex-champ Liam McGeary trained 4 times daily prior to loss, but changed plan for Bellator 173

Former Bellator light heavyweight champion Liam McGeary spent a lot of time thinking after ceding his title to Phil Davis.

Davis had done what McGeary expected he would do during the fight. But he didn’t do what he expected to do, or what he thought he would do, and it didn’t take him long to figure out why.

He was exhausted.

“When I came back, I was training, but I crammed everything in,” McGeary (11-1 MMA, 8-1 BMMA), who today meets Brett McDermott (7-4 MMA, 0-0 BMMA) after a whirlwind of opponent switches at Bellator 173, told MMAjunkie Radio. “I was like, god, I’m coming up against Phil Davis – he’s a wrestler – so I was trying to do everything all on the same day. I’d do jiu-jitsu, and then I would go to striking, and then I’d do wrestling, and then I’d fit in strength and conditioning afterward.”

Bellator 173 takes place at SSE Arena Belfast in Northern Ireland. The main card airs tonight on Spike via tape delay in the U.S.

McGeary’s meeting with Davis (17-3 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) marked his first fight camp since a knee injury had kept him from defending his title for much of 2016. Davis had patiently waited, outpointing Muhammad “King Mo” Lawal during the layoff. McGeary figured he needed to be in top shape.

But now, he realizes he pushed things a little too far. Like, four sessions a day for 14 weeks too far.

“By the time I got to the fight, I was worn out,” McGeary said. “I completely spent everything I had in the fight camp, and when I got into the fight, and I was flat. I had combinations in my head, and all that would come out was a jab. It’s like, ‘Hh dear, here we go. It’s going to be a long night.'”

McGeary felt helpless to stop what he knew was coming, and after 25 minutes and several spells on his back, trying in vain to escape Davis’ smothering wrestling, he was no longer the Bellator light-heavyweight champion.

It goes to show that even when you hold the top position, you’re still a work in progress. McGeary is seven years into his pro-MMA career, and he just learned the lesson that overcompensating in the gym is a sure way to start losing.

“You forget what you used to do, and you just kind of cram it in,” he said, adding, “I was still trying to learn the game and trying to understand – although I’ve been doing it for a couple of years now, my fights, I got them in quick succession.”

It’s been only three months since that heartbreaking defeat, but McGeary is coming back to the cage very soon. He didn’t take a whole lot of time off from the gym. That might create impression that he’s doing the exact same thing that got him to his current position, but he said that’s not the case.

“Everything fell back into place,” he said. “I kind of remembered who I was, back in the day one year ago. I got back to enjoying it again instead of it being a mission. I couldn’t wait for the fight just so I could have a rest. It shouldn’t be that way. You should enjoy training and doing what you’re doing. You get punched in the face for a living, so you should enjoy some part of it.”

McGeary expects to get another chance at Davis sooner than later. When that happens, he said, he’ll fight a different kind of fight because he didn’t try to do everything at once in camp.

“This is big steps we’re making,” he said. “We try to succeed in life. We try to do better than we did last time. We hiccup along the way. You’ve just got to pick yourself back up and carry on. You see what you did wrong, you try and change that, and you just keep going forward.”

For more on Bellator 173, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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