Paul Daley was signed by Bellator MMA last year but has only been inside the Bellator cage once which came last summer when he defeated Rudy Bears at Bellator 72.
Bellator was planning to have Daley be one of the eight fighters in the season eight welterweight tournament but legal issues in the United Kingdom does not allow the fighter to travel to the United States.
Daley recently vented his frustations towards Bellator on Facebook and said the organization has turned down several opponents for him to face outside of Bellator. Bellator has allowed him to take a fight at Cage Warriors 57 in July but he will not be able to fight in Bellator until his legal situation is taken care of.
There has not been many details about Daley’s legal situation made public besides that he is not allowed to come into the United States. Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney told TheMMAReport.com that he understands that Daley is going through a tough time and he could go to prison for the charges he is facing.
“Paul is having a very tough time and I understand that he is having a tough time, Rebney said. “Paul is waiting for what could likely be a sentence for him to go to prison. It’s not a good situation for him. He is under a lot of stress. We signed him to a contract, gave him a signing bonus and we have allowed him to fight I think four times outside the contract or three and the fourth one has now been contracted.”
“We are been very liberal and flexible with allowing him to fight out of contract. We will have to see what happens in the terms of his future. If the conviction comes down and he ends up going back to prison, he will probably not be able to ever return to the U.S. in which case, its horrible for him. I feel bad for him and his family but there is nothing we can do about it. We have let him fight out of contract and I understand he is under a lot of pressure and stress, unfortunately self imposed. It is what it is and I feel bad for him and I can understand he is lashing out and that does not come as a shock.”
Some people have wondered why Bellator has decided to keep Daley under contract and not cut ties with him. Rebney did state that ending their relationship with the fighter has been considered but they did not have real data on the legal situation Daley is facing until recently.
“We have given it some consideration. Of late, we really did not know what that situation was going to be. It was only recently, literally within the last week and a half or two weeks that we started to got real data about what his chances look like and how likely it looked that things might go terribly wrong for him. We will access the situation as we see what exactly happens.”
“He is a talented fighter, he is an exciting guy to watch fight and if things were to go right as unexpected as that might be but if things were to go right, we would probably want to keep him under contract and have him fight here. If things go wrong or we have indication that things are going to go wrong as some indications have been, then we would probably just release him and its an unfortunate situation all around.”
At this time, it’s unknown the exact charges that Daley is facing and what the maximum punishment is if he is found guilty. Once this legal situation is resolve, Bellator will have to make a decision on what to do with one of their better welterweight fighters.