Paul Daley: Dana White dislikes me and it’s personal
When the UFC bought Strikeforce, Paul Daley’s new boss was Dana White. White was also the old boss who less…
When the UFC bought Strikeforce, Paul Daley’s new boss was Dana White. White was also the old boss who less than a year ago fired him for life for an after the bell punch Josh Koscheck at UFC 113:
Daley responded by publicly questioning whether he would back out of the scheduled welterweight title fight with Nick Diaz. Below, Daley expains his reasoning.
“What we were trying to do is assure we had security away from the Zuffa people prior to the fight. But the truth be told, when I am the Strikeforce champion, I’ll have even more bargaining power, and it will be even more of a kick to the teeth of the guys that don’t like me in the organization. To negotiate before the fight would show a lack of confidence in myself, and I’m very confident I’m going to beat Nick Diaz. Once a champion, I have more power to negotiate.”
“I don’t particularly know why (Dana White) has dislike for me, but it’s obvious he does have dislike for me. If no explanation or reason is given for disliking me, I’m generally going to dislike someone in return. If Dana gives me an honest opinion — aside from hitting Koscheck after the bell — as to why he genuinely dislikes me, then at least I’d get some explanation. But there’s too many incidents in the history of the UFC that prove it’s more personal. Many of the UFC fighters have done a lot worse things to bring the company into disrepute, and they’re still there. So it must be personal.”
“The fact that I’m winning away from the UFC is enough redemption for me. I’m winning in front of fans, I’m making decent money. That’s enough for me. I have redemption already, from every fight since the UFC.
“Getting ‘Knockout of the Year,’ which is something all the real fans in MMA were talking about in 2010, that was enough redemption. That was the icing on the cake for 2010. I think Dana definitely saw that and I guarantee he didn’t like for that knockout not to be in the UFC.”
And how does Daley intend to win? By knockout of course, within three rounds.
“I think the staredown will be very interesting. But I think Nick knows that this is the hardest fight for a long time. I truly believe that. And if he doesn’t believe that, I think Cesar Gracie, his coach and trainer, and his teammates, Melendez and Shields, know this is his hardest fight for a long time. So, I think either way he’s training his ass off just the same as I’m doing.”
“I’ve always had a strong left and I’ve just been developing it through training and conditioning. It just seems to be paying off for me really well. You know, it’s my killer move, it’s my go to move.”
“Most definitely. Diaz will come at me and take me down. Not because he wants to but because I believe Cesar Gracie will instruct him to. I think they know how good my standup is and when something so big is on the line, I think the sensible thing for Diaz to do is try and take me down. Koscheck said he was going to stand with me, didn’t end up happening because of the risk of The Ultimate Fighter show, and it’s pretty much the same here. This is the welterweight title, so I think his management will tell him to try and take me down.”
I would say (the Grand Prix winner) is between Barnett, Werdum, and Overeem. Its hard ot pick between those guys.
“I’m going to knock him out within three rounds. I think he’s going to have difficulty clinching me, going to have difficulty taking me down, shooting from the outside. And he’s going to have difficulty dealing with my power and speed, whether it be punches, or kicks or elbows or whatever.”
