After winning a unanimous decision over Paul Taylor at UFC 89, Chris Lytle (26-16-5) called out Marcus Davis (15-4) in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.

"There’s a guy on the card tonight, I really like the way he fights. He’s a stand-up banger like me, Marcus Davis. I’d like for me and him to get it on after this. Maybe in Ireland in a couple months "The Irish Hand Grenade" responded, saying he wasn’t sure if Lytle "deserved" a shot against him, referring to "Lights Out" as a "gatekeeper" in the welterweight division.

Harsh words for two guys who say they are friendly with one another.

But Lytle got his wish. The UFC penned him in against Davis for UFC 93: "Franklin vs. Henderson" on Saturday, January 17, 2009. The event takes place at the O2 in Dublin, Ireland.

Both men are bangers. Both are former professional boxers. Both are no strangers to earning UFC’s bonus honors Knockout of the Night, Submission of the Night and Fight of the Night.

Truly this has all the makings of a must-see fight. Talk about getting 2009 off to a great start.

We caught up with Lytle before he crossed the pond for the big event to ask him how amped he was when he first learned he had gotten his wish to fight Davis in Ireland, how he sees the two fighters’ boxing styles measuring up, and to see what he has in store for the "Irish Hand Grenade."

Here we go:

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You last fought Paul Taylor at UFC 89 in Birmingham, England. First off, great fight.

Chris Lytle: Thank you.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): MMAmania.com recently named it one of the year’s best. It was a very close fight. Did you expect to win by unanimous decision?

Chris Lytle: Well, it was a tough one ‘cause I’ve had a lot of fights over in other countries. Usually when you’re fighting in someone else’s hometown, you lose a lot of close decisions. I had seen a guy I knew from — like I said, I fought in Japan a lot and lost some fights I thought I won there — and one of the guys I knew from (Japan), a guy named (Akihiro) Gono, fought on the same (UFC 89) card. I personally thought he won his fight, but he was fighting a British guy (Dan Hardy), and (Gono) lost the decision.*

* NOTE: Hardy defeated Gono via split decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-29)

So after the fight, I kinda thought it was going to be close. But I’ve learned from a lot of my fights to do some little things to try to win each round. Like for example, each round I tried to make sure I got at least one takedown and didn’t give up any takedowns. I tried to always be the aggressor, pushing him back, keeping his back against the fence. If he tried to spin me around, I’d spin him right back around, put him in the fence, be more aggressive and try to land the heavier shots.

I definitely felt like I did the little things to win the fight, but when it comes down to it, you’re looking at three other guys who are going to decide if you win. I really didn’t know.

It was a real close fight. He’s a lot tougher than I had anticipated. I knew he was going to be fast and quick, but, man, he was a tough guy, and I thought it was a great fight.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Absolutely, it was. After the fight, you called out Marcus Davis to fight in Dublin. How stoked were you to find out you had gotten your wish?

Chris Lytle: Ah, I was real excited. That’s the type of fight I’ve been wantin’ — stand-up guys, guys who just like to sit there and bang it out. Marcus and I have known each other for a while, just ‘cause we’ve both been in the UFC. Just knowing that’s his style and that’s what he likes to do, and that’s what I like to do, I think we both kinda thought that this would happen at some point, and it hasn’t. So now that it’s happening, I think we’re both pretty happy about it.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Yeah. So there wasn’t anything personal there ...

Chris Lytle: No, no, no. Right now, you know, some of the guys who I want to fight are guys who I’m actually friends with — not really friends, but who I’m friendly with. I really don’t have anything against most of the guys. I just think those are the types of fights I love.

Even like when I have guys come into town, and I’m sparring in the gym with them or whatever, just certain types of people, I don’t really care if there’s five people watching or 50,000 people watching. I really enjoy certain types of sparring or fighting. That’s what I’m looking for right now. That’s what motivates me — being involved in fights like this.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): So are you hoping for a stand-up battle, or do you expect this fight to be all over the cage?

Chris Lytle: I always plan for it to be a little bit of everything, but without a doubt, I’m wantin’ a stand-up battle. That’s kinda what we both like to do. I don’t foresee it going any other way.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You’ve never been finished in a fight. Davis has only been finished once in 19 fights. Do you see this fight going the distance?

Chris Lytle: You never really know in a fight, but it wouldn’t surprise me just in the fact that he’s been a pro boxer for a long time, as I’ve had pro boxing experience. When you’ve had probably 10,000 punches thrown at your face, you get pretty good at not taking direct shots — just glancing blows here, this and that there, etc. So it’s going to be a lot harder to land that devastating punch than I think a lot of people think.
But, that being said, everyone has that place where if you get hit the fight’s over. A lot of people talk about this guy has a great chin — it’s true — but anybody can be knocked out, myself included. So you really don’t know, it could go either way.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Speaking of the fact that both of you have boxed professionally, how do you see your boxing in comparison to his?

Chris Lytle: Well, we definitely have different styles, you know. He’s more of a calculated fighter — he’s gonna try to more or less out-box you. And I’m more … I’m just going to be in your face the whole time and try to overwhelm you. So we do have boxing, but we have contrasting styles, which I think makes (this fight) even neater.

If you have two guys who try to out-box each other, sometimes that can be a great fight to the fans who really appreciate the art and the sport of it. But to your common casual fan, they might not like it. So I think it’s good we have a couple different styles here. We’ll see who can impose their will on the other guy.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Both of you have faced Paul Taylor. Do you think watching tape against common opponents is a good way to judge what to expect from a fight?

Chris Lytle: It can be. But in this case I really don’t think it was, because really Paul Taylor was able to land a head-kick and knock (Davis) down pretty quick — maybe within a minute. So that was all the stand-up we got to see. The rest of the time was Paul Taylor trying to jump on top of him and finish him, and then Marcus reversing (Taylor) and using his submissions to finish him.

I don’t anticipate this necessarily being a battle of submissions, so I really don’t think (watching that tape) is going to help out too much. But it’s pretty interesting though.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You fought in Birmingham and are now fighting in Dublin. What’s it mean to be fighting overseas? Do you like that?

Chris Lytle: Yeah, I really do. I’ve fought overseas a lot. To be honest with you, personally I kinda like getting away. It helps me focus a little bit. If I’m somewhere around here, it seems like I have friends or family or whatever. People are in town.

I just like it when I feel like I’m away. I don’t have any distractions. I don’t have anything to think about besides the fight. So personally, I like it. I enjoy going to other countries and checking things out there. Kinda helps you appreciate what you have here.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): How’s your conditioning?

Chris Lytle: I feel great. I know a lot of people last time … Last time I felt great. But I think I just threw such hard punches the whole time that I kinda wore myself out at the end. I definitely wouldn’t say I might have over-trained, but I was doing a lot of different plyometrics and spreads, and just a lot of stuff that, after a couple of days of training, I would just be totally worn out everyday.

I think I’ve been a little smarter this time. I’m feeling better than last time, better than my last fight. But you know, I felt like I was in great shape then too, so who knows (laughs).

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): You’ve won honors in at least four of your UFC fights — you’ve earned all three: Submission, Fight and KO of the Night. Davis has won each of these honors as well. Does that make this fight any sweeter, knowing that there’s a chance to earn some extra scratch?

Chris Lytle: Oh yeah, without a doubt. Don’t get me wrong, I love fighting, but money is an important factor as well (laughs). I’ve won the Submission of the Night award back in the day when you didn’t win any money, you just got a little plaque for it. And it was still a great honor to me.

That’s one of my goals right now. I want to be in lots of fights. I want everybody when they think of my fight that they want to get the pay per view, you know? "Well I’ll get it if he’s fightin’." That’s kinda my goal for everybody to really be excited about seeing me fight.

Adam Wagner (MMAmania.com): Well again, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Would you like to thank any sponsors or do you have any parting words for your fans?

Chris Lytle: For my fans I’ll say 2009 is going to be my year. I think you guys are really going to see what I bring to the table. I’m coming to bring it, and people are going to love it. I just want to thank my guys at MMAagents and TapouT for always sticking by my side.