Paul Daley had made it clear his Bellator 281 fight against Wendell Giacomo would be the final fight of his career.
Daley, a legend of the sport and one of the top British fighters ever, got the chance to end his career back at home in London at Bellator 281. Early on, the fight was not going his way as Giacomo was wrestling him but in typical Daley fashion, he landed heavy shots and then got the KO.
It was the perfect way for Daley to go, yet Bellator president Scott Coker doesn’t think Daley is actually retired.
“Let’s see what happens here,” Coker said after Bellator 281. “I was expecting him to leave his gloves in the cage. I didn’t see it. My matchmaker, some of our fight team are saying he’s already texting us, trying to negotiate some deals. So we’ll see what happens.”
If this is the end of Paul Daley’s career, he ends his career with a record of 44-18-2 and was always in exciting fights. His one-round fight against Nick Diaz is still one of the best ever and for Coker, he says he enjoyed working with Daley throughout his career.
“When I think about Paul, it’s such a special relationship for me,” Coker said. “There’s good times; there’s bad times. He’s a fighter, I’m a promoter, we’re sometimes at odds, but I really feel like in the history of martial arts fighting, MMA, he has delivered over and over and over, and I have so much respect for him. I went into the locker room after, and I said, ‘It’s been such a pleasure promoting you over all these years.’ To me, he had one of the greatest fights in the history of MMA. It might be, to me, my favorite fight of all time, and that’s him and Nick Diaz fighting in Strikeforce, my old company.”
