Home Categories Miscellaneous Paul “Semtex” Daley Has Still Yet to Prove Himself a True Contender at 170lbs
Paul “Semtex” Daley Has Still Yet to Prove Himself a True Contender at 170lbs
Written by Jack Barrington   
Monday, 04 January 2010 16:29
His contest with Dustin Hazelett at UFC 108 marked Paul Daley’s 33rd professional MMA fight, and his second outing in the UFC’s welterweight division; it also gave him his second win in the UFC, with yet another knockout in the very first round. With the fighters exchanging kicks early and Hazelett appearing to be comfortable standing with the Brit, Daley landed the first telling blow of the night; a crushing left hook (his favourite shot) that sent the submission specialist crashing to the canvas. What followed was a series of blows from inside of Hazelett’s guard that left him stiff and brought on an excellent stoppage from the referee, Herb Dean.

With two imposing performances in the UFC thus far, and Daley looking as though he is improving with each fight, it seems that several media outlets, his legions of fans, and the UFC as well, are getting slightly carried away with Daley’s potential impact on the welterweight title picture. Yes, he has had two dominating victories. Yes, they were both against UFC top 10 welterweights (going by FightLockdown.com’s rankings prior to the fights), and yes he has some of the best stand-up in MMA. That still doesn’t draw attention from the fact, however, that Daley’s glaring weakness just happens to be the strength of several of the top 170lb fighters in the UFC’s growing stable; his grappling.



While Daley’s opening two fights in the UFC have come against fighters with a significant grappling advantage over him, particularly Hazelett, they were both clearly lacking a necessary skill to beat the Englishman; strong wrestling. Not to neglect the fact that they both unwisely felt confident standing with “Semtex”. Despite knowing that he was the superior striker both Kampmann and Hazelett sensed the urge to test their mettle, and both paid a heavy price for it. Until Daley faces a somewhat strong wrestler and proves that he can either defend the takedown successfully, or defend himself and scramble to his feet should the fight hit the mat, then I will remain justifiably coy regarding his status as a top welterweight inside of the UFC.

With many potential fights being discussed by the UFC matchmakers right now, the same names are being mentioned by the promotion, and MMA fans alike. From the rumors that we have to go on at this stage, it is increasingly likely that Daley’s next opponent will be one of the following fighters: Carlos Condit, Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, or Jon Fitch.

Carlos Condit was of course set to be Daley’s opponent at UFC 108; a reported hand injury, however, kept Condit out of the fight and has left him sidelined since then. Given the similarities between Condit, and Daley’s first UFC win, Martin Kampmann, I have little hope that this fight would tells us any more about the holes in Daley’s game (and the lengths he has gone to fill them) than what we already know.

Thiago Alves is currently pencilled in for a rematch with Jon Fitch at UFC 111. A fight between possibly the UFC’s two best strikers at 170lbs is undoubtedly a mouth-watering prospect for fans of both fighters, as both men would be perceptibly looking for the bragging rights to that crown, and a push-up the welterweight rankings. While it is certainly a fight I would be interested in seeing purely from a spectator’s outlook, it is still a fight that would only showcase Daley’s strengths (should Alves choose to stand), still leaving us in the dark with regard to his grappling advancement, or lack thereof. 

Josh Koscheck is currently without an opponent and will certainly be looking to get back into the action, following his recent injury that forced him of out of a rematch with Paulo Thiago on the upcoming UFC 109 card. I am hesitant when discussing this match-up, not only because we are still unsure of when Koscheck's return will be, but also due to his propensity to stand with fighters he should – and most definitely could – take down. Even if Koscheck plays the wrester against Daley, I doubt very much whether it would give us a fair picture of where Paul’s wrestling is right now. Aside from Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves (an opponent Koscheck took on with two weeks notice), the former NCAA Division 1 Champion has found very little difficulty when putting his opponents on their backs. A fight with Koscheck would most likely tell us something we are already well aware of; that Josh Koscheck is a better wrestler than Paul Daley – and most of the division. It is not a fair test of Daley’s takedown defense, neither is it a worthwhile match-up in terms of the title picture.


That leaves us with Jon Fitch, who happens to be my favored opponent for Daley’s next fight. While he is an accomplished wrestler in his own right, Fitch has neither the explosiveness, nor the wrestling pedigree of Koscheck, and his “takedowns + control = win” fighting mentality, would certainly force Daley to showcase his takedown defense and scrambling skills. It's also important to note that Fitch is very tough to put away, so even if Daley dominates this fight standing as he has his previous two, Fitch’s durability (which easily surpasses that of Kampmann or Hazelett) would show us a little more of what Daley is like later in the fight.

I am aware, of course, that all of the aforementioned fighters are exceedingly strong opponents for somebody’s third fight in the UFC, but if the UFC and MMA fans continue to hype Daley up as "the next big contender at 170lbs", then sooner or later he will, or at least should, have to face the other top fighters in the division. Considering that the current champion, Georges St. Pierre not only appears to be the best wrestler in MMA right now, but is also unlikely to be deposed from his reign in the near future, then facing a top fighter who also happens to be a strong wrestler should be at the top of Daley’s to do list, en route to proving himself as a legitimate challenger.

Perhaps I am expecting too much here, and Daley should instead be facing the Chris Lytles and Marcus Davises of the division as opposed to the Thiago Alves and Jon Fitchs, but if Daley continues his rapid ascent in the UFC, then it is only a matter of time before a contest with a top contender materializes. A good compromise right now would be Anthony Johnson, coming off a loss to Josh Koscheck, Johnson has both competent striking and wrestling and would be both an interesting and challenging opponent for Daley at this stage in his UFC career.

This is not intended to criticize Daley, it is merely proposing that we, as fans, take a step back and look at his success objectively. An exciting striker is exactly what the UFC’s welterweight division is in need of right now, however, there is no use thrilling the fans with your stand-up skills if the fight hits the floor every time your opponent is able to close the distance. Knowing the nature of MMA scoring in North America and the sheer amount of strong wrestlers on the UFC’s 170lb roster, there is no doubt in my mind that Daley will be working diligently on his wrestling, and if he has taken similar strides to those of his teammate and compatriot, Dan Hardy, then he has a very bright future ahead of him in the UFC. For now though, we should wait for him to prove that to us, rather than getting ahead of ourselves, allowing his frankly overwhelming striking skill and knockout power, to blind us when looking at his decidedly underwhelming grappling abilities.

We can only speculate, and ultimately, it is in the hands of the UFC matchmakers to give Paul the platform upon which he may prove that his takedown defense and grappling skills have improved enough to make a title run – a run that his natural ability indicates he has the potential to make. In the meantime, I think I’ll go and watch that stunning knockout of Hazelett again, and appreciate what Daley is giving us right now, without getting too carried away by thoughts of his potential future successes.



Discuss this article