Paul Daley In Talks With UFC, Eyes Nick Diaz, Matt Brown & Tyron Woodley

(If only bums liked eating left hooks, Daley might get ‘humanitarian of the year’)

Ex-UFC welterweight Paul Daley was cast-off by the promotion back in 2010, following a rather controversial incident after his UFC 113 bout with Josh Koscheck. The heavy-handed Brit attempted a sucker punch on his foes after losing convincingly over three rounds, and Dana White was quick to announce that ‘Semtex’ would never fight for the promotion again.

Daley has since racked up a 10-4 MMA record, and won four straight by knockout in the revival of his kickboxing career. While in exile from the promotion, ‘Semtex’ has beaten Scott Smith, Daniel Acacio, and Jorge Masvidal to name a few. Then, UFC President Dana White slightly changed his stance on Daley. It appears that there is also more going on behind the scenes, as ‘Semtex’ revealed to MMAJunkie.com:

“I don’t want to say too much because I’ve gotten more feedback behind the scenes, and I know there’s still certain stuff that I have to do first before going back to the UFC, or before we can take any further (steps),” Daley said. “Those are things I’m going to concentrate on first.”

The British knockout artist had signed for Bellator MMA for a short time, before visa issues meant that he was unable to compete on U.S. soil. The ‘further steps’ that Daley speaks of likely include getting cleared to fight in America again, as he wouldn’t be much use to the promotion otherwise. ‘Semtex’ continued:

“I know with the right legal team that I could get back into the U.S. pretty quick,” he said. “It’s whether the UFC wants to spend their time. I have one (contract) with K-1, but they’re pretty cool to deal with and I’m sure they’d allow me to fight for the UFC if we can come to some kind of agreement, and also with FFC, which is run by Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ (Filipovic)’s former management,” he said. “I’m sure they would let me out of a contract if something could be worked out.”

So Daley is confident he can be released from his kickboxing contracts, and could get back in to the USA. Dana White’s stance on the English pugilist seems to have softened, and as Daley said, he seems to be making headway in negotiations with the UFC. ‘Semtex’ then mused on the topic of who he could fight upon his return:

“I’m seeing so many opportunities, and guys are getting a lot of hype,” Daley said. “I think I stand a great chance with them [to] knock them out. Matt Brown – great fighter, great standup fighter, always putting on a great fight. Seems like a nice guy. But put him in there with me, and I think I take him out pretty easily. Tyron Woodley, I feel that my game’s developed a lot. I still feel Tyron’s conditioning is lacking. He still has that right hand that he hit me with in the opening stages (of our fight in Strikeforce), but I don’t see his chances are any better given a second opportunity, Nick Diaz, You can see I’ve been thinking about this,” he said. “There’s so many big fights as a fighter and as a fight fan that people would love to see.”

Those fights would be huge draws, there is no doubt in my mind at least, and its looking as though the controversial incident at UFC 113 is slowly being forgotten by Dana White and co… How do you feel about this situation, is Daley’s new found maturity and impressive record away from the UFC enough, or was his assault on ‘Kos’ after the bell unforgivable?