UFC: Phil Davis And His Pink Trunks Featured In October’s FIGHT! Magazine

Most Americans are probably aware that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, something especially evident in our sports culture. Notice a lot of your favorite NFL players wearing a bit more pink these days? It’s the league’s nod toward this high-visibility cause.

MMA has its own beacon of awareness in UFC light heavyweight Phil Davis. The world’s largest MMA organization didn’t tell Davis to wear pink trunks but rather it was Davis’ decision to don a color not exactly associated with a tough guy sport. He does so to honor his mom and his late aunt who battled cancer.

After getting a lead from my editor, I interviewed Davis for October’s FIGHT! Magazine (available on newsstands with Carlos Condit on the cover) about how he came to the decision, what cancer has done to his family and what’s going on with his career.

This was definitely a last-minute story idea, written over Labor Day weekend with the interview done in my car on the way up to Maine and the piece written the next day. This isn’t anything new for journalists/feature writers, but it’s still fun to take people behind the curtain.

Pick up the magazine, follow Phil on Twitter and if you like my writing, check out my WrestlingObserver MMA interview series with Bryan Alvarez, my weekly show with PJ Huot on WGAM/ESPN Radio NH or my work on Bloody Elbow.