Cathal Pendred wants a piece of Paul Daley….
For those of you that follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet last week where I declared that I would love to fight UFC veteran Paul Daley. Many people seemed to think this was because I don’t like the guy and I want to kick his ass. That’s not exactly true. I do want to kick his ass, but it’s not because I don’t like him, it’s strictly business!
I would LOVE to fight Paul Daley! Who wants to see it?
— Cathal Pendred (@PendredMMA) July 31, 2013
For anyone that’s not familiar with Daley, let me give you a quick rundown on who he is. Paul Daley is an English fighter known for his explosive stand up, hence his nick name ‘Semtex’. He has proved himself on the biggest stages of MMA to be one of the best welterweights in the world. He is also known somewhat for the trouble he has caused outside of the ring… and after the bell.
Daley was infamously cut from the UFC in 2010 after he sucker punched Josh Koscheck after the final bell of their bout. Daley ultimately lost the fight by judge’s decision after being out wrestled by Koscheck for thre rounds. Despite being one of the UFC’s biggest rising stars, this scumbag move cost Daley his job with the world’s biggest promotion.
Regardless of being cut from the UFC, Daley has still maintained his reputation as one of the best welterweight fighters in the world. That’s where I come in. I fight because I want to become the best in the world. That means constantly climbing the ladder and making sure each opponent is better than the next. I’m at point now where I have beaten pretty much all the elite welterweights around Europe that aren’t signed by the UFC. All but Daley. He was signed to another American organisation called Bellator, but they have since released him due to the fact he was unable to obtain a visa.
To become the best in the world, I have to beat the guys in the UFC. Right now I’m not with the UFC, but that’s out of my control. So I have to beat the best of the rest, to prove I belong with the elite. That leaves me with Daley.
Like I said at the beginning, this is strictly business. Daley has rubbed as lot of people up the wrong way because of his antics outside of the ring. Because of this, people thought that my wanting to fight him was something to do with me not liking the guy. It’s not. What he does in his own time is his own business, he’s just on my radar because he’s in my weight class and because of what he’s done inside the ring.
I don’t know him personally. I don’t want to know him. I just want to fight him. I want to fight him because it will improve my reputation as one of the best welterweights in the world, and because I know I can beat him.
Since I wrote this blog, Daley has signed with another UK promotion, not the promotion I’m champion of, Cage Warriors. Is this because he doesn’t want to fight me? Possibly. I know I can beat him, and maybe he knows that too. I’m pretty disappointed that this fight doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now. It would have been a MASSIVE fight, it would definitely have been the biggest MMA fight to take place in Europe that wasn’t UFC related.
It might be too late, but hopefully Daley reads this and realizes how big of an opportunity this could be for both of us…
