You can always depend on Paul Daley to bring a special sort of violence to the cage or ring. Whether it be kickboxing or MMA, Daley’s fists are made of lead, and his chin adamantium. The former UFC and Strikeforce fighter is currently undefeated in Bellator at 4-0 with three vicious knockouts, and has gold within his reach if he can get past former champ Douglas Lima at Bellator 158.
Even with the promise of a title shot on the table, business is unfinished. Daley was supposed to rematch UFC veteran Josh Koscheck at Bellator 158 to finally put their feud to rest until the veteran pulled out with an injury. But like everything Daley does, he’ll be rolling with the punches and promising a knockout in return when he heads home to put on a show in England.
How disappointed are you to not be rematching Josh Koscheck?
Not really disappointed too much. I never thought he’d show up for the fight anyway, he looked pretty nervous, a little scared. But he just seemed a little too comfortable in where his life was at to be fighting a guy like me. And in all honesty, I’m more motivated, I think douglas Lima is a far, far more interesting fight and I think the fans can look forward to enjoying this one more than the Koscheck fight.
Why do you think they’ll enjoy it more?
I think that if you look at Lima’s past fights and then you look at Koscheck’s past fights, I think that Lima brings a little bit more excitement. He’s a bit more brash, exciting, aggressive, athletically gifted, forward fighting, constantly looking for the finish. Whereas Koscheck, against a guy like I just described, a guy similar to myself, in Lima will look to grind out a fight where Lima’s not really a grinder. If he’s in there fighting, he’s looking to finish within the distance, and I think that when you’ve got two guys like that in there, it makes for a much more exciting fight.
He’s an ex-champ and very dangerous, are you saying he’ll stand with you whereas Koscheck wouldn’t?
I don’t know if he’ll stand with me, but I know he will be looking to finish the fight wherever it is. He doesn’t have fantastic wrestling, but he has a blackbelt in jiu jitsu. So, you know, if he doesn’t feel like standing, he may look to try to take the fight down to the ground. But either way, he’ll be looking to finish the fight and I think that that’s what makes it an exciting fight. The fact that both of us, you know, we’re not really decision fighters, if we’re in there, we’re looking to put someone to sleep.
How are you feeling on the ground these days?
I’m feeling very, very confident and very strong. You know, again, this is something that is… people think my ground game is terrible. I’ve been grinded out before, but BJJ blackbelts get grinded out. The last time I was submitted was against Jake Shields back in 2007, who’s also a guy who holds submission victories over guys like Dan Henderson (Ed: Jake Shield brought Hendo to a decision in 2010), who’s gonna be challenging again for the UFC Middleweight title, who has held numerous titles in Pride and Strikeforce. Again, the same with the weight thing and other issues, people always refer to these things, but if you look closely, it’s something it’s a lot different to what people think.
Has Bisping’s win elevated the confidence of British fighters everywhere?
Well, yeah, a little. Bisping, more so than him being British, I think what I commend Bisping on is something that I admired myself — he never gives up. He never gave up. He had numerous number one contender fights and fights on the cusp of challenging for the title and he lost them, and a lot of them in devastating fashion. But he never gave up and he kept coming back and taking what opportunities he could, and British or not, what Michael’s shown me is something everyone can learn, so more credit to him. Forget his country and his nationality, his character and his consistency should be lessons for everybody.
How far are you from Bellator gold?
Just a knockout of Douglas Lima and I’m right up there, the next fight will be for a title. Just switch this Brazilian off and take a little holiday and wait for the phone call from Scott (Coker) and make the Koreshkov fight happen.
Kimbo Slice was supposed to be on this card and it’s very sad what happened. Do you have any thoughts on that, did you ever have a relationship with Kimbo?
Yeah, I met Kimbo on numerous occasions. Out fight paths always crossed except for when he went to boxing. Elite XC, Kimbo was there, obviously, the marquee name there. So we spent a lot of time together in changing rooms and press tours. When I was in the UFC, same thing, we spent a lot of time together in UFC changing rooms. And then in Bellator, we were in together again. The only fight promoter that we didn’t share was Strikeforce and that was when he was away boxing, but a lot of time with him over the years. We spoke a lot, he was one of the guys who when we were standing around waiting, I was talking to him. He was a nice guy and it was a massive, massive shock to me. We weren’t the best of friends, but when you spend a lot of time with someone in changing rooms and press tours, you do become familiar with them and it was a massive shock to me.
Even though you were on the losing end, your fight with Nick Diaz is one of my favorite fights ever, just ahead of Nate vs. Conor. What do you think it is about the Diaz brothers that makes their fights so exciting?
I think, away from their mentality and physical ambition, I think they must train hard. And I don’t mean train hard as in they put loads of hours in the gym, I mean their sparring must be hard. I think that when they’re doing their live stuff, live in terms of wrestling, live jiu jitsu, live kickboxing, I think that they’re probably in a position during those sparring sessions, especially with the elite sparring partners they have, where they are in trouble and their angle is to try and keep their wits about them and suck it up. You know, be cut in sparring, continue. Be rocked, beat up, taking eight counts in sparring and continue. I think that as martial artists we can sometimes get away from hard, gritty sparring the way that boxers do and I think that the Diaz brothers do that, so when they are in an MMA fight and they’re getting hit with these big shots, they’re able to keep their composure, able to suck it up, able to find a way to avoid taking that final finishing blow. I think they have that toughness, they’re just tough guys. I’m saying this, you know, I had Nick in a lot of trouble, he had me in trouble ten seconds from the end and I think that I should’ve been allowed to continue, I was defending, I was kicking away, but Big John McCarthy saw it fit to stop the fight, it’s his job to do that. But yeah, they’re extremely tough, tough characters and I think that is what gets them through a lot of the scrapes that they have.
Could you pick a winner for the rematch between Conor and Nate?
I think Nate’s gonna beat him again, most definitely. I think in that fight he took the best of what Conor has. Conor was extremely confident. You’ve gotta think, Conor’s confidence was at an all-time high for that fight. He saw no way of losing to Nate, he was hitting him with those extremely confident, powerful shots when they were landing. Granted, a few of them were missing, but now his confidence is gonna be a little low, he’s lost, he got rocked, he shot for a takedown, he got choked out. So now, the confidence that you had in throwing those big shots, they’re not gonna big as big, they’re not gonna be as heavy as they were landing even in the first fight, and I think that Nate is gonna take him out in a similar fashion. Suck up whatever does land, because he’s taken the best already, and I’ve gotta think he’s gonna bring as much, start landing those peppering shots on Conor, rocking him, having him gassed out and on wobbly legs and either get a TKO stoppage or a submission victory again. The only thing I see that Conor can do differently, which he didn’t do, which surprised me, was attack the legs of Nate, pretty much the way Josh Thomson did. I was surprised because Conor can kick, he has great kicks, and he sort of abandoned that and thought he could out-box a very tough and very sharp boxer. I think if he comes out with a different gameplan and he kicks, then the fight will be a lot different. I still see Nate winning it. I’m not really a McGregor fan, but I’m not really gonna hate on him, he’s a great fighter and he talks very well. But I’m a fighter’s fighter and I call a fight how I see it, not picking any sides, but I think Nate’s a better fighter.
You won a gold-plated iPhone in Dubai FC. What did you do with that?
That is a mystery and I shall keep it a mystery. But it was an awesome gift from one of the sheiks. It was a 24 karat gold iPhone. It wasn’t as rare as I thought it was, and there was a few of them knocking around, but still, it was a fantastic gift and I checked the value of it and maybe I kept it, but it wasn’t as rare as I thought it was, I’ll say that.
If you could do it all over again, would you still have thrown that punch after the bell at Koscheck at UFC 113?
Everything happens for a reason, you shouldn’t regret too much. You should try and look at things and try to see how things could’ve gone differently had you not done what you did. Things have worked out great for me after the whole thing, so everything happens for a reason. I’m happy I’m here, I’m happy where I’m at. I’ve said this in an interview before, had I not thrown the punch, had I gone on to fight a few more times in the UFC, would I still have the name that I have now? I would say probably not. Guys of my era, the guys that I’ve fought like Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck is probably the only one who still has a solid name behind him, being on the TUF series, and even guys who were fighting at the same time, very few of them are still able to main event cards, co-main event cards like I am. So who knows what would’ve happened had I stayed in the UFC. My name probably wouldn’t have as much value as it does now following the incident, so everything happens for a reason.
What does it feel like when you knock someone out clean?
(Laughs) It’s a great feeling. I don’t know how to describe it. Now it’s like I’m showing off, like a peacock. Like, “I told you so.” I told you I was gonna knock him out. I told you I knock guys out. It’s like I’m so sure of my punching power now, so sure of my ability to put myself in a position where I can land shots that it’s almost like I’ve proven to everybody something every time I knock somebody out. Like, I told you. All the little doubters and all the people saying stuff, it’s almost like sticking a finger up to all the doubters and the haters. That’s why I love to do it and I will continue to do it.
The moment that you land that shot, do you know they’re out? What’s going through your head?
Yeah, pretty much. I know once the shot’s landed, it may take a split second for it to register, but I can normally tell by the way they’re… not by the reaction in their body, you know when someone’s on steady legs and you know when someone’s eyes have gone. It takes a split second for me to have the confidence to be able to walk away. That’s why you see I have some of these walk away knock outs, you just need that split second to analyze after the shot and then confidently walk back and know this guy’s not gonna throw another shot for the rest of this fight. It just takes that split second.
