If all goes as planned, Paul Daley
will be hanging up the four-ounce gloves after one final bout at
Bellator London.
Daley revealed during an appearance on “The MMA Hour”
Monday that he plans on retiring following the May 13 event. The
soon-to-be 39-year-old Englishman doesn’t yet have an opponent for
Bellator London, which takes place at the SSE Arena and is
headlined by a welterweight title tilt between Yaroslav
Amosov and Michael
Page.
“May 13 will be last one,” Daley said. “It will be my retirement
fight after many years in the game – the hours on the road,
the hours in the gym have caught up with me. And now every day, I
wake up with a bad back and I’m just tired. Most definitely (I’ll
retire). I’ve put a lot of time in the sport, and I’m in a position
to retire, fortunately. … I don’t want to be one of those fighters
who’s getting knocked out all the time by the younger guys. I want
to be the guy that goes out when I want to go out.”
Daley has competed exclusively in Bellator since 2015, winning
seven of 12 appearances. “Semtex” was also victorious during a
one-bout stint with the California-based promotion in 2012. Daley
says he initially planned to retire sooner but wanted the
opportunity to call it a career on home soil.
“I’ve been planning for it for a long time,” Daley said. “I’ve had
a lot of fights. Bellator has treated me well while I’ve been
there, and I always knew it was going to be my last promotion. I’ve
put things in place so that when I do call it a day, I can do so
comfortably.
“[Sabah] Homasi was going to be my last fight, but Bellator put it
in America and I don’t think the U.K. at the time was allowing
shows … Then they offered Jason
Jackson with title implications, so I took that fight and that
didn’t go my way. I owe it to my fans and my family to have this
last fight over here in the U.K.”
Daley last fought at Bellator 260, falling to Jackson via unanimous
decision on June 11. He has compiled a 42-18-2 record over the
course of a professional tenure that began in 2003. He has fought
for numerous organizations over the course of his career including
the UFC, Strikeforce, Cage Warriors, EliteXC, and British
Association of Mixed Martial Arts. His ledger includes wins over
notable names such as Lorenz
Larkin, Jorge
Masvidal, Martin
Kampmann, Duane Ludwig
and Daniel
Weichel, to name a few.