Paul Daley will return to the United States and Bellator for the first time since the summer of 2012 tomorrow night when he meets submission specialist Andre Santos on the main card of Bellator 134.
Daley (35-13-2) has gone 5-1 since defeating Rudy Bears at Bellator 72 and all of those wins have come in the first or second round by TKO/KO.
Initially, Daley was scheduled to be in the main event of tomorrow’s card and be challenging Douglas Lima for the Bellator welterweight title. However, an injury forced Lima to pull out and Daley is glad that Bellator was able to find him a new opponent.
“I am happy to be fighting and that is my job,” Daley told The MMA Report. “That is what I get paid to do. I am happy that I am on the card and I would be pissed if I wasn’t. It’s a good job that I am on the card and fighting. Lima’s time will come and I just have to focus on Andre Santos.”
When the injury by Lima was made official by Bellator, Daley was questioning the extent of the injury. When asked about Lima’s injury, Daley stated that he believes the knee injury was a convenient way for Lima to get more time to prepare for him.
“I have heard some things and he previously had a knee injury. I also know that he struggles with the weight and he was very heavy prior to the fight. He had a good Christmas or whatever. I personally think he needed more time to prepare for a fight like me and the knee injury was a convenient way to get himself more time to train more and get his weight down.”
Before the title fight with Lima can happen, Daley has to get through Santos tomorrow night. Santos has twenty-two career wins by submission and won his Bellator debut last year. Daley is planning to win by knockout and knows that Santos is going to want to get the fight to the ground.
“That is what people do when they fight me and it works out pretty bad for them nine times out of ten. That is what I expect, that is what I prepare for. They assume that it’s going to be easy to get me to the ground and they assume it’s going to be easy for them once they get me there. I know differently and I just have to go in there and knock him out.