Acclaimed British knockout artist Paul Daley is
planning on taking one final Bellator
MMA fight before he says goodbye to the sport.
On Thursday, Daley (41-17-2) posted an announcement on Instagram that his
next fight will be his final bout, and that it will take place at a
175-pound catchweight. There is no date, location or opponent
currently scheduled for the retirement match. Daley was originally
booked to headline
Bellator 247 on Oct. 1 in Milan, Italy, against Derek
Anderson. On fight week, the boisterous Brit was
hospitalized due to a bad weight cut.
“Forever a samurai,” Daley wrote on Instagram. “But soon
we will put the blade to rest. After discussions and careful
consideration with my family, it has been decided that my next
fight @bellatormma will be my last. To be fought at a catch weight
of 175lbs. Opponent and location to be confirmed. Health before
Wealth, and NEVER COMPROMISE YOURSELF.”
Daley’s career has been littered with examples where the
welterweight could not hit the 171-pound limit, or 170 pounds for
championship affairs. Bouts in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship, Bellator, BAMMA and
even Shark
Fights were scuttled or changed due to Daley’s inability to
make weight. Against Anderson alone, the two were initially
scheduled to meet at Bellator 163 in 2016, but an illness related
to the weight cut knocked Daley out of that bout. A troublingly
similar situation arose on Wednesday.
Daley posted a video that has since been deleted claiming he could
still fight at Bellator 247, but the promotion shut the fight down.
The commission official overseeing international Bellator events,
Mike Mazzulli,
took issue with Daley’s troubled weight history.
“What he’s doing right now is not good for his body, plain and
simple, and he needs to understand that he shouldn’t be doing
this,” Mazzulli told
MMA Fighting on Wednesday. “He’s going to have to go up in
weight. It amazes me that he thinks it’s OK what he’s doing with
his body at his age.”
The 37-year-old striker began his professional MMA career in 2003,
where he racked up 33 knockout wins across his 41 victories –
amassing a knockout rate of 80 percent. Daley has not pulled off a
submission in his career. The polarizing figure took three bouts in
the UFC from 2009 to 2010, and the last of which came in a decision
loss to Josh
Koscheck at UFC 113. After dropping a decision, well after the
fight had ended, Daley punched Koscheck in the eye and was
subsequently banned from the UFC.
After leaving the UFC, “Semtex” went to Strikeforce,
where he recorded a knockout of Scott Smith
and went on to go toe-to-toe with Nick Diaz for
nearly five minutes in one of the greatest one-round bouts in MMA
history. Daley eventually found his way to Bellator, where he
racked up a few more knockouts and competed in the welterweight
grand prix, only to come up short to bitter rival Michael
Page in the quarterfinals. Daley’s last bout was also a
175-pound catchweight contest, and he finished Saad Awad in
the second round in October 2019.