Last week I met up with Marcus Davis; for most of you guys, you won't readily recognise his name but he is without doubt one of the UK's, if not Europe's finest ever players, and most successful team captains of all time.
Marcus was captain and the inspiration behind the Predators, a team who went on to dominate the UK, Europe and contested for the very top spots in World paintball in the mid to late nineties.
Marcus came from South London like myself, he was an amateur boxer like myself and Paintball became his life, like myself.
He was my nemesis, and I was his ... we were the worst of enemies at a time when paintball was extremely volatile ... but we never lost respect for each other ... It was inevitable we would clash and we clashed ohhh soo many times, on the field and off; someone once remarked that the struggle between myself and Marcus for dominance dragged UK Paintball up behind it ... I don't know whether this is true or not but I do know I wouldn't have been the same person or indeed been as successful without him and he has admitted the same to me ...
It was ironic though, if at any time he had gotten into trouble, he knew he could have relied upon me, as I him; it was a perculiar relationship but it had its roots deeply embedded in our competitive natures and mutual respect ... it led to some pretty dramatic events in our lives I can tell you.
When Marcus took his Preds to the States, he had those guys running for their lives.
And here I am talking about the top Yank teams at the time, the likes of Aftershock, Ironmen and the All Americans [Philly Americans] ... in their time, the Preds bashed them all up ... one by one he took their scalps and if it wasn't for some inter-team chicanery, the Preds would have been crowned world Champions on at least one occasion for sure and another not far behind.
When Marcus returned home from the US after those ill-fated attempts for the World Cup, he told me how he had been cheated out of first place because two of the teams colluded in fixing a result to ensure an American victory ... I have to say, I disbelieved him at the time, more I suppose because I didn't want to believe him but even so, it was a tough story to invest in.
A year or so later, I went over to play for the All Americans and Aftershock and spent five years playing as a pro on those two teams and it was there that I found out the truth of what went on.
One of the captains involved in the collusion that robbed Marcus and the Preds of their deserved victory admitted to me it had happened .... I am gonna ask Marcus about everything that went down in those times and trust me, it's gonna be an eye-opener for sure.
He's popping round my house hopefully this week and I'll do a vid of the interview for anybody who's interested to go see .....
At the very least, it'll give everybody a new perspective on what Brit success really is because Marcus and the Preds really did take it to the Yanks .. he not only took it but he rammed it up their ass .... I'll post the interview vid as soon as I can so watch out for it some time next week.
If any of you have any questions for Marcus, then please post them in this thread.
Marcus was captain and the inspiration behind the Predators, a team who went on to dominate the UK, Europe and contested for the very top spots in World paintball in the mid to late nineties.
Marcus came from South London like myself, he was an amateur boxer like myself and Paintball became his life, like myself.
He was my nemesis, and I was his ... we were the worst of enemies at a time when paintball was extremely volatile ... but we never lost respect for each other ... It was inevitable we would clash and we clashed ohhh soo many times, on the field and off; someone once remarked that the struggle between myself and Marcus for dominance dragged UK Paintball up behind it ... I don't know whether this is true or not but I do know I wouldn't have been the same person or indeed been as successful without him and he has admitted the same to me ...
It was ironic though, if at any time he had gotten into trouble, he knew he could have relied upon me, as I him; it was a perculiar relationship but it had its roots deeply embedded in our competitive natures and mutual respect ... it led to some pretty dramatic events in our lives I can tell you.
When Marcus took his Preds to the States, he had those guys running for their lives.
And here I am talking about the top Yank teams at the time, the likes of Aftershock, Ironmen and the All Americans [Philly Americans] ... in their time, the Preds bashed them all up ... one by one he took their scalps and if it wasn't for some inter-team chicanery, the Preds would have been crowned world Champions on at least one occasion for sure and another not far behind.
When Marcus returned home from the US after those ill-fated attempts for the World Cup, he told me how he had been cheated out of first place because two of the teams colluded in fixing a result to ensure an American victory ... I have to say, I disbelieved him at the time, more I suppose because I didn't want to believe him but even so, it was a tough story to invest in.
A year or so later, I went over to play for the All Americans and Aftershock and spent five years playing as a pro on those two teams and it was there that I found out the truth of what went on.
One of the captains involved in the collusion that robbed Marcus and the Preds of their deserved victory admitted to me it had happened .... I am gonna ask Marcus about everything that went down in those times and trust me, it's gonna be an eye-opener for sure.
He's popping round my house hopefully this week and I'll do a vid of the interview for anybody who's interested to go see .....
At the very least, it'll give everybody a new perspective on what Brit success really is because Marcus and the Preds really did take it to the Yanks .. he not only took it but he rammed it up their ass .... I'll post the interview vid as soon as I can so watch out for it some time next week.
If any of you have any questions for Marcus, then please post them in this thread.
