Daley: I get why UFC didn’t fire McGregor
Paul Daley: “The UFC was in a different place then and it’s in a different place now, and a lot of where they are now is down to Conor McGregor.”
At UFC 113 in 2010, Paul Daley lost his temper and threw a late shot at Josh Koscheck, missed, and was fired by the company forever. Conor McGregor flew across the Atlantic on a jet with a gaggle of dimwitted hangers-on, and threw a hand truck at a bus full of fighters, injuring two so severely they couldn’t fight the next day. The league plans to wait for the criminal charges against McGregor to play out before deciding what to do.
Justice isn’t supposed to depend on how rich you are. Many fans see stark hypocrisy in the differing treatment. However, during a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Daley said he gets it.
I’ve seen all the comparisons, and yeah, the whole situation, it was very similar, and Dana could come across as being a little hypocritical,” said Daley, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. “But for me, it’s a different ballgame. The UFC was in a different place then and it’s in a different place now, and a lot of where they are now is down to Conor McGregor. So if you’ve got someone bringing in money, and is raising the sport and your promotion to greater heights, then you can’t ban him for life because business is going to go bad for you. So I understand.
Yeah, really, he should be treated the same as I was. He should be banned for life. What he did as a guy with his profile in the sport and for the company of the UFC, he should be banned for life, if, for what I did, I got banned for life. But business is business and they need him, and I like Conor McGregor and I respect him, and I respect Dana’s choice. It’s a smart move.
I never really had bad feelings towards Dana. Because I will make my way in this sport anyway, regardless of what barriers people put up for me, because I am an entertaining fighter. People want to see me fight. I feel like that’s something that I have up on some other guys who wouldn’t really get away with *** that I say, because I entertain. I knock people out. I talk the talk and I walk the walk. I always put it on the line. So if Dana came to me with a proposition, I would probably take it because I feel there’s some big fights that could really elevate my financial situations to a whole other level.
A rematch with Nick Diaz, I’m sure, it’ll be a great event to promote and it would do good numbers and maybe I could make a big chunk off a pay-per-view like that. I’ve fought a lot of the guys there that are highly-ranked guys. Tyron Woodley, the current champion, I went three rounds with in a close fight. So I feel there’s fights there for me. Am I looking to go to the UFC? No. I’m just looking to fight out the fights that I have with Bellator and then just assess the playing field and just see what I want to do, what’s best for me and my family.
Daley, now 35, fights Jon Fitch at Bellator 199: Bader vs. King Mo on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. With one more fight on his Bellator MMA contract, Daley has indicated he will head elsewhere. The UFC would be nice.