Phil Davis returns to action this week while making his Professional Fighters League debut at 2025 PFL 4, in a light heavyweight main event opposite Rob Wilkinson.
Beyond Davis’s own fight, the Penn State alum and former Bellator light heavyweight champion was also asked about another wrestler from that storied collegiate program, Bo Nickal, during Tuesday’s media day.
“He’s still super green, so if you’re impressed with Bo right now, give him some time. Let the man cook, he’s getting better by the day,” exclaimed Davis, who is clearly on board with Nickal’s MMA career so far. “He’s still putting on incredibly impressive performances, and each day he’s just getting a little bit better.”
Calling Nickal “extremely brilliant as a competitor,” Davis added that he’s excited, hyped, and proud of the UFC star’s run so far. And he expects more to come. “In all honesty I think Penn State has kind of run away with wrestling, and we quite possibly could have some more guys in the MMA pipeline.”
Born in Pennsylvania, Phil Davis was a four-time Division I All-American with Penn State, and won the NCAA national title in 2008- so rest assured, “Mr. Wonderful” knows a thing or two about wrestling. As for his own upcoming fight, Davis revealed that he’s in a good place as far as training camp is concerned ahead of his fight with ex-PFL champ Rob Wilkinson.
“Training camp was pretty good, pretty solid, pretty solid training camp. I have great people around me,” stated Davis. “I’ve always had really great training partners, and over the years, I’m so fortunate to be able to be in this game for a number of years, and over time, those training partners move away, life happens, and they retire, just all sorts of things.”
“I’m in such a great spot now because I’m helping to bring up a really good group of MMA professionals. They’re definitely people that I’m excited for the media at large to get to know one day. In addition to learning skills, you also have to learn how to train as hard as you can without hurting your teammate.”
When Davis was still young in his career, he recalled, “Brandon Vera, he would beat the crap out of me, and he would do it in the sweetest way possible. He would never knock me out, he would just be “you okay? Alright.”
“I was learning as I was losing. And that is the most incredible thing you can do as a training partner, is jut help your partner to learn,” continued Davis. “And now I’m in that position where I’m able to hurt my training partner, but no one wins by being hurt. I’m able to really bring that lesson to life of beating my training partner, but allowing them to learn in the process. And ultimately, they’ve been able to push me. I’m just in such a great sport, I have such a good group of training partners right now because of that.”
Watch the full 2025 PFL 4 media day appearance by Phil Davis above.
