Looking to continue building on a steady amateur and pro career, Lajuan “The Alchemist” Davis takes on one of his biggest tests to date this weekend at Peak Fighting 51. On Saturday, in his second main event for Peak Fighting, Davis steps into the cage against former UFC fighter Markus Perez as he looks to defend his middleweight title for the third time and get himself on a big promotion’s radar.
Lajuan Davis began his amateur run at 19 years old back in May 2017 and kicked it off with a bang, as he finished his first opponent via KO/TKO in round one. He took that first fight with NFC and rode with them through the next year, building up his record to 4-0, with three first-round finishes. That fourth fight was the first time Davis fought somebody with a win on their record, and after the round one submission victory, he was given the opportunity to fight for 864 Fighting Championship’s amateur middleweight belt. In his first-ever title fight, he was matched up with another solid amateur prospect in 5-0 Bailey Cooper, but even with the best opponent he’d ever fought standing across from him, Davis was able to find the round two KO/TKO. After a successful title challenge in July of 2018, 864 called up Davis a few months later to defend the belt in September. He did just that, as he took Avery Evans all five rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory and subsequently closed out his amateur career at 6-0.
Just under a year after Davis’s final fight as an amateur, he started up his professional career back under the NFC banner in August 2019. Like his amateur debut, he was able to find a finish in his pro debut with a round two KO/TKO victory over Derek Wilson. His stay with NFC through 2021 would bring him to 3-0, as he won his next two fights via unanimous decision before making the move over to Fury FC. Davis was able to keep the momentum up, as he finished his first Fury FC opponent and then beat Zack Borrego, who had just gotten back in the win column after losing to Bo Nickal on Dana White’s Contender Series. Then, for the first time in his professional career, Davis fought twice in the same year after taking on Ryan Loder in the UFL just under 5 months later. This brought along the first, and so far only, loss Davis has suffered in his career. Loder dropped Davis very early on in the first round, but he handled the adversity and recovered fairly well. Davis had a great start to the third round, but ultimately it wasn’t enough, as Loder’s forward pressure and takedowns secured him the unanimous decision win.
MMA fans wouldn’t see Lajuan Davis back in the cage again until about a year later, on August 3rd, 2024, which happened to be five years to the day from his professional debut. This time around, Davis was fighting under the Peak Fighting banner just like he will be this weekend. He was thrown right into his first professional title fight, as he took on the undefeated 3-0 Bailey King. King was, and is still, one of Peak’s better prospects, but Davis was able to handle business, as he took home the belt via unanimous decision. While he didn’t get the finish he was very likely after, the win continues to look better and better for Davis because King has gotten back to winning ways since their fight. Back in the win column and with the Peak Fighting middleweight strap around his waist, Davis needed to start racking up finishes to really start getting noticed.
In his next two fights, Davis was able to KO/TKO both the undefeated Isaiah Sackey-El and 4-1 Daniel De La Cruz, as he added two title defenses to his resume. Now, at 28 years old, with a great Jackson Wink team around him and Markus Perez about to stand across from him, a finish over a former UFC fighter could definitely open doors for Lajuan Davis.