Paul Daley is a unique character in modern MMA. A fighter whose career has been marked by large stretches of success and singular (and sometimes highly memorable losses). Unusually for a high octane knockout artist like Daley, he's never really found a long-term, consistent home in the upper tier of MMA. His year-and-a-half stint in Strikeforce was interspersed with regular fights for BAMMA and ended on a split decision loss to Kazuo Misaki, after which the promotion would hold only four more events before becoming part of the UFC.
And of course, there was his UFC run. A successful 2-0 start, derailed utterly by a punch after the bell in an ugly loss to Josh Koscheck. Daley is a fighter who has found success wherever he's gone and somehow still managed not to stay anywhere for too long. Now he's with Bellator, and it sounds like it's a place he's looking to stay. At least for as long as he stays in MMA. It also just happens to be where Josh Koscheck ended up after his long UFC tenure came to a close.
Paul Daley sat down to talk with Bloody Elbow about his career plans and goals for the future, starting with his Bellator 148 bout, this Friday, January 29th, against Andy Uhrich.
"Oh shit no. Hell no," Daley chuckled when asked if he'd still be fighting in his 40s. "I definitely won't fight for the next decade, no. I do have a plan as far as stepping away from the international sport of Mixed Martial Arts, but it's... I have a plan. I probably won't be fighting when I'm 40 though, or 38. It doesn't go too much past the age of 35, and I'm 33 this year."
And with a set deadline in place, "Semtex" has a pretty good idea of how he wants the next year to go:
"I'm gonna win all my fights and I'm going to end as champion, given the opportunity," said Daley of his 2016 plans. "But, most importantly, just to keep enjoying the sport, keep enjoying the preparation, keep enjoying beating people up, and keep winning. If I keep winning then everything else is possible. My main focus is on making sure I'm in the best position possible to do that and everything should just launch straight off of that."
For many it's a little surprising that the first fight planned for Daley this year wasn't a bout against the newly signed Josh Koscheck. But, to hear Daley tell it, that's not a fight he's sure Koscheck deserves given his recent record:
"It doesn't matter having my opponent changed for me too much," Daley responded when asked if he was happy that he hadn't been booked against Koscheck, given the fighter withdrawing due to injury. "But, as far as Koscheck being the first fight, I just feel like... Koscheck is an established name, granted, he's a great fighter, I think he's been losing. And I'm like, 'You know what, this fucking idiot, he's such an idiot, why am I giving him the opportunity to fight me?' I'm not one to build up things like a 'super-mega-awesome-fight,' but this is probably the biggest fight Koscheck could get right now; the most attention that he could build up for a fight. So, why the fuck am I giving this guy the opportunity, straight off the back of five losses, when I'm on a really good winning streak in kickboxing and MMA. I don't really need the Koscheck fight. I'm in a position to fight whoever Bellator give me. And I feel like I can beat whoever Bellator give me. Saying that, the Koscheck fight is a big money fight, it would have the potential to bring me a hell of a lot of money. So, who knows? Right now I'm just glad... The guy pulled out of a fight in his home town. I'm not relying on anything apart from being told [my fight is] going to be on January 29th."
As far as that January 29th fight, the goal is a lot like Daley's goal in most of his fights:
"I'd love to get a really good faceplant knockout, that'd be awesome. I'd also like to get the rounds in, show my versatility and show that I am improving and I'm still enjoying improving. That's the main thing. Some kinds of people say I have weaknesses that continue to be exposed, but I'm kinda happy that the fight I had with Andre Santos was a real tough fight where I could dig down. I wasn't prepared for such a fight, but I showed that I can handle myself in a position where a tough wily Brazilian, who had more fights than me, champion in Brazil, came after me with submissions. And I went two rounds with this guy. I was in his guard, I was in his half guard. Man, I was in all these positions and I came out and won the fight.
"People that have just seen me standing, banging, knocking people out, or defending a takedown or whatever, but I was working in these positions and I was successful in a lot of these positions, even landing a takedown in the first round against Santos. So, sometimes I feel like I want that knockout and sometimes I'm just like, 'I don't give a fuck what happens, because I know I'm gonna win anyways.' So it doesn't matter. I'm quite happy to show people the old Semtex, leave people laid out, flat on their face, needing oxygen. But, I also want to show the other portion of the fans that I am a tough fighter and I can survive so called 'bad positions' where my fans are biting their nails. I look for opportunities to show that."
And after Uhrich, Daley would love to find his way into a big tournament, either on RIZIN or Dynamite, and hopefully one that leads to the welterweight title:
"I'd love to be part of a Rizin card, and just any cool event," Daley said of the possibility of fighting for the Japanese promotion. "The Dynamite card was sort of the same thing. Scott Coker does fantastic things with Bellator. The previous Bellator, when Bjorn was in charge, the thing I was attracted to was the tournament format. It's much better the way it is now, nothing against Scott. I don't even know why I'm having to justify saying that. I'm just like... I like tournaments. It doesn't have to be a tournament every show, it doesn't have to be Japan, but before I'm done in the sport I would love to be part of a big tournament, you know?
"Someone just asked me about 'What's happening with Koreshkov?' He has gone a bit quiet on the whole Bellator/MMA scene, as far as promoting him as a champion. Whether he's having contract difficulties or visa difficulties, I'm just gonna put this out there to Scott: If something were to happen, if the belt is vacant, lets do a welterweight tournament for the belt. Let's do that. Doesn't have to be in Japan, let's just put on another Dynamite card and make the tournament for the welterweight belt.
"Fuck yeah, put Koscheck in there as well, Brennan Ward is a great character, Michael Page is extremely entertaining. I think that's an awesome 4-man tournament right there. Just putting that out there, Scott."
And while Bellator's Dynamite and Sakakibara's RIZIN have opportunities for kickboxing bouts, it sounds like Daley is looking to get the most out of his MMA career in the immediate future:
"I think the Bellator contract has a little bit of flexibility where Bellator are involved," Daley responded, when asked about the possibility of seeing him continue kickboxing in the near future. "I don't think they'll just let me go and fight for Glory, let me go and fight for another big kickboxing promotion, K-1 or such. If they're involved... There has to be some sort of Bellator tie in. And I appreciate that Scott is, through the Dynamite show, keeping kickboxing in Bellator. In that case, yeah I'd love to keep doing the kickboxing thing. But, I think for me there's longevity left in my kickboxing career moreso than my MMA career. You may see... In the next 18 months or so, you may see me step away from MMA, but continue kickboxing or visa-versa. I'm still a baby in kickboxing much more than MMA. I'm really a baby in kickboxing, despite having some years in and despite having over 20 kickboxing fights. We'll see, we'll see what happens. I have a plan in my head and I have faith in my plans, so we'll just see what happens.
"I just want to fight straight up kickboxing. It's appealing to me, because I haven't got to worry about the takedowns. I feel that kickboxing... Sometimes in an MMA fight you can feel like you're not really in a fight. You know you are, everybody is super skilled. Wrestling is dangerous and striking introduced with wrestling is dangerous. But, sometimes you come out of an MMA fight and it's been a bit of a wrestling-fest, you don't really you've been in a fight. I like to feel... In kickboxing you're in a fight. You know you've been in a kickboxing fight. Your legs are sore, your eyes are swollen, your nose hurts, you've been hit with punches, kicked in the ribs. I like that. I like to know I've been in a fight."
As for the MMA fights he's been in, Daley says his bouts stand out more to him as highlights he can revisit, rather than moments he really enjoyed at the time:
"I've had a lot of fights, you know?" Daley said, talking about his favorite fight in his career. "None of them have really been enjoyable win or lose. Yeah, I've had some great ones to look back on and say, 'That was a pretty cool knockout.' But no, when I'm in there and punching, there's not much emotion there; anger or happiness or fun. I like the knockouts, you know I've had a lot of knockouts. All the knockouts are always good to look back on, when you're winning. The Scott Smith one is one that stands out to me. That was just a fantastic punch and I think the effect it had on him and the finish... I thought the commentary was fantastic, it was just great. I think Scott Smith is one I might look back on and think, 'That was a pretty cool punch.'"
With a long career already behind him and an end goal for MMA in sight, perhaps it's not too surprising that Semtex is a big fan of seeing Nick Diaz's NAC suspension get reduced, from 5 years to 1.5. If nothing else, it means there's slim chance of Daley vs. Diaz 2... If Diaz can just get himself out of that UFC contract:
"Yeah, yeah, that's good," Daley said, speaking to the news of Nick Diaz's deal with the NAC. "I'm all for that. I was kind of hoping that his sentence getting reduced was something that would get him out of the UFC contract, because that's another big big rematch that I'd be happy to make. I'm a big fan of Nick Diaz. Our fight was a 1-round, crazy fight that the fans loved, but I hated because I lost it, because I veered so far away from my coaches' gameplan it's unbelievable. If that fight could happen, that's definitely a fight that I would drop everything for. It would pay extremely well, because everyone would want to see that rematch and Nick's a cool character. I'm happy he got his sentence reduced and I'm interested in seeing who they put in front of him. Hopefully he can do something to get out of his UFC contract and we can put that fight on before I step away from MMA. Before I step away I'd like that rematch. I know he's on good terms with Scott Coker as well, the whole Strikeforce thing.
"It wasn't one of my favorite fights, because I fought completely the wrong fight, but it's definitely one of the fans' favorite fights. I know a lot of people expect me to say it was a great fight, but one: it's not fun losing. And two: it's a shame when you have a gameplan in your head that you know would have been effective, or more effective than just going out there and slugging it out with a very durable fighter. It's good that people mention it to me all the time and I'm happy that I've got that place in MMA history of being in one of the most entertaining one-rounds contested.
"And that's why we should get Nick Diaz out of his UFC contract, so he can fight in Bellator and we can get loads of viewers and I'll make a big bunch of money. That's the reason why."