Paul Daley’s relationship with Bellator was not in a good place prior to his recent outing at Bellator 199. That’s putting things mildly. But, rather surprisingly, Daley’s anger toward Bellator appears to have noticeably softened since his decision loss to Jon Fitch.
So what changed?
“You know what it was? Fight week, I managed to spend a little bit of time with Scott Coker,” Daley revealed Monday on The MMA Hour. “It was a little bit awkward, and it seemed like it was very awkward for him to do what he did, but it got my respect in that he went around the room and I could see he was like, ‘Should I approach Paul? Is he going to do something crazy or not?’ But in the end, he came over and we exchanged some words.
“We’re going to be meeting at Bellator London next week. We’re going to have a sit-down and we’re going to hash things out, see exactly what can be done to keep ‘Semtex’ happy.”
That change of tone represents a massive shift from where Daley’s relationship with Bellator was prior to Bellator 199.
The 35-year-old Englishman has loudly and publicly feuded with the promotion since his September 2017 knockout win over Lorenz Larkin. In various interviews and social media posts, Daley said he felt undervalued and expressed disappointment with what he perceived to be a lack of a promotional push he was given after the Larkin fight. He vowed to leave the organization after the competition of his current contract, at one point spelling out his frustration in simpler terms on Facebook: “F*CK Bellator.”
But much of that animosity appears to have faded after Daley’s week in San Jose earlier this month, and “Semtex” said his current standing with the Bellator brass is now promising.
“Very promising,” Daley said. “Just the fact — like I said to you when I spoke to you last time, I’d never spoken to Scott on a personal level apart from pre- and post-fight press conferences. So for him to make time, come over and say, ‘Look Paul, I’ve heard what you’ve been saying, I do want to sit down and have a chat with you’ — he wanted to do it there and then. I’m like, ‘I’m cutting weight right now. Can we do it maybe some time in the future?’ So we set the date for Friday at Bellator 200.”
Full story here:
Paul Daley softens stance on Bellator, has meeting with Scott Coker planned for this week
