Liam McGeary might well feel under-appreciated. He was the first MMA fighter from Europe to win a major belt in the USA. Before Conor McGregor. Before Michael Bisping. Yet there has been little praise in the UK media writ large for the man from Kings Lynn, in the far east of England. Doesn’t bother him, though…
Now aged 36, Hawaii-based and with an adoring partner and two beautiful children, his life is a far cry from the brick layer turned fighter who arrived in the USA with one professional fight under his belt a decade ago.
He worked his jiu jitsu under Renzo Gracie on the East Coast, and has now completed a couple of camps on the West Coast with Tiki Ghosn and Paul Herrera, and in outlook, physique and mentality, maturity exudes from the man.
“I think I’ve got about another six pounds to lose, nothing too crazy. It’s come off the last couple of weeks. It’s even got too low at some point,” McGeary told me earlier this week, with his voice like crushed coal.
“I pretty much do it all myself. I’ve been cooking all my own meals throughout camp and I’ve just halved what I’ve been eating. I’ve been eating a lot, too (laughing). I’ve been hungry after training. I cut down that way.”
In Hawaii in December, McGeary cleared rival Mo Lawal out pretty quick. A vicious finish. “It’s still the same team I was with for the last one. Tiki Ghosn and Paul Herrera. Training partners have varied. There’s a guy called Manuel, he’s been giving me a good look. Thiago, he’s very, very strong. We’ve got a couple of Russians guys coming through. It feels tough too.”
The Phil Davis fight is a rematch of McGeary’s unsuccessful defence of the Bellator light-heavyweight crown back in Connecticut in 2016, a title the Briton had claimed in February 2015 against Emanuel Newton, followed by a defence against Tito Ortiz.
Davis won by unanimous decision. The American is very comfortable in the cage; awkward to fight, and even harder to defeat.
“He plays a very safe game, very lofty,” explains McGeary. “I’ve got to pick my chances and play the right game. And not play the game I played last time. In all honesty, I haven’t got a clue how the detail of the fight went. It was two and a half years ago.”
“I didn’t watch the fight until four weeks ago, that was the first time I’d watched it. I’m a completely different person. I can take little bits and pieces from it. Phil hasn’t really changed his game greatly, but I look at it and can’t understand why I was doing what I was doing. I flicked it off. I didn’t need to see it. I’m a different animal now.”
“I will always be hunting and going for the kill, but look where it got me last time: laying on my back against Phil Davis. It did me no favours. It’s going to be an entertaining fight, but a cautious one. We’ve got to think about this one.”
The changes in lifestyle have been brought about by his partner, who is Hawaiian. “We enjoy going of the beach. The kids love it. We’ve got to keep them active. Something dropped…I don’t want to say it filled in the gaps, but we for together. I was missing a lot of things and they were what I was missing. Now I’m happy and everything is flowing in the right direction.”
Does he feel under-appreciated in the UK ? “The people who matter to me, my friends and family, that’s who I matter to. The rest of the people, yeah sound, but as long they’re good and proud of what I’m doing. I meet a lot of people around the world and a lot of people know me.”
McGeary, with his aggressive come-forward, fan-pleasing style and increasingly rounded game, would have been a fight for anyone in any era. “I’ve always known I could fight. If I’d started [in PRIDE days] I would have loved it. But if I hadn’t found professional fighting, I would have heard all the stories about promoters and ended up back on the building site.”
“I came into his sport at the very last point where it forced me into. I was touring with the unlicensed boxing stuff that was going on in London. The guy was putting on shows and needed money. It was when Jon Jones was flying up the ranks and I wanted to know how to get into it. I was in my head a lot to do it. So that’s when I took off to America after one pro fight.”
McGeary has carved a pretty decent career for himself, without the resonance of huge media coverage. He shrugs. “I’ve actually got a movie coming out in May. It’s called Blood Mixed. I’ve got a little part in that. It’s the first thing I’ve done, and I really enjoyed it actually…” The red carpet event is in New York in May, the night before Anthony Joshua, the British heavyweight boxer makes his USA debut at Madison Square Garden. McGeary might just slip into The Garden for a peek.
From one Brit to another, McGeary also offers his view on ‘MVP’ – Michael Venom Page – who meets former champion Douglas Lima in Rosemont Illinois in the semi-finals of the Bellator welterweight tournament on May 11. It is a huge night for Page.
“Lima is a savage. His legs are ferocious. He’s got wrestling as well. Jiu jitsu too,” says McGeary.
But as a fighter, he also sees the danger Page carries in hands and feet. Not to mention his knees. “I remember the sound it made against Cyborg. He wasn’t expecting to put a hole in the dude’s head.”
“It is a tough fight but I’m glad he’s fighting someone like Douglas Lima. He’s been fighting good people. Him and Paul Daley just fought, but that was not on the level of Lima. The 170lbs division is stacked, full of studs. It’s nice to see that Page can work his way up there. It is definitely time he stepped in with one of the top boys.”