In a rather shocking move, light heavyweight fighter Phil Davis has jumped ship from the UFC and is now part of the Bellator roster. On Tuesday afternoon Bellator officially announced that Davis had signed with the company. Davis is the first real good, young fighter to jump from the UFC. We have seen former stars leave for other organizations but that was usually because they were no longer desired by the UFC. At 30 years old and always in the mix of the title picture at 205lbs. Davis did not seem to be on the bad side of the UFC.

One of the items that president Scott Coker said when he took office at Bellator is that they would be in competition for every major free agent out there. Coker did release a statement saying as much and about the Davis signing, “Phil is a world class mixed martial artist, and we are very happy to be adding him to our roster of some of the best light heavyweights in the world. Coker also added that, “Bellator remains fully committed to building its world-class roster by signing top free agents like Davis, as well as grooming up-and-coming stars. We’ve got some amazing matchups in mind for ‘Mr. Wonderful’ that we will be announcing in the weeks to come.”

Davis is 13-3 in his career with loses coming to Ryan Bader, Anthony Johnson, and Rashad Evans but does own wins over Glover Teixeira, Lyoto Machida, Lil’ Nog, Alexander Gustafsson, and Brian Stann respectively. Despite wins over former champions and former title contenders, Davis could not really get over the hump when it came to title eliminator bouts. Maybe a change in scenery will do wonders for “Mr. Wonderful”.

“I can’t wait to be fighting in Bellator and wreck shop on everyone,” Davis said in a statement. “I am the absolute best and most dominant grappler to ever fight in MMA, and I’m excited to get in there and compete at my new home.”