BRISTOL, Conn.— MMA star Paul Daley told Breitbart Sports that British culture fosters a physical combat that gives an edge to UK fighters who pursue their passion professionally.
“We like to fight,” Daley reports, in “schoolyards,” in the “stands” at football matches, “outside your local kebab shop, your fish-and-chips shop,” and, yes, in cages for pay. But one surmises from Daley’s pugilistic patriotism that promoters could get away with sparing the expense of a paycheck to subsidize what amounts to, in Daley’s view, a national duty. “It’s just part of our culture.”
In his ode to late-night kebab-truck brawls and lunchtime battle royals in the schoolyard, Daley stopped short of saying “we shall fight on the beaches.” But the positively Churchillian tribute to the fighting spirit of the British Isles surely reflected a sentiment popular among UK fighters that their heritage commands them to punch rather than run.
The 35-13 Daley takes on the 37-9 Andre Santos on Bellator MMA’s February 27 card at Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut. Friday night’s fights, which air live in the U.S. on Spike TV at 9 p.m. Eastern, figure to make their way to British television sets in April once Viacom launches the network in the UK.
The Bellator MMA card (featuring fellow UK products Liam McGeary and Linton Vassell), dubbed the “British Invasion,” hypes the idea of an English mixed-martial artist—a fight-in-a-phone-booth bruiser eager to throw and unafraid to take. Seeing a lost-looking Paul Daley, as much the embodiment of the “British fighter” stereotype as anyone, Breitbart Sports inquired whether the tag represented promotional ballyhoo or a real genus of mixed-martial artist.
“We just love to fight,” Daley matter-of-factly maintains. “It’s in our culture.”
Daley loves to fight so much that he infamously punched a taunting Josh Koscheck after the bell ended the sanctioned part of their 2010 title-eliminator bout. Daley received a lifetime ban from the UFC five years ago. But yesterday the dapperly-dressed Daley looked the part of a gentleman incapable of offending the Marquess of Queensberry, let alone UFC honcho Dana White.
Daley owns notable knockouts of Scott Smith, Martin Kampmann, and Duane Ludwig. He finishes nearly three-fourths of his victories by way of technical and true knockouts.
Are Englishmen tougher than their allies across the Atlantic?
“We most definitely like to fight more than Americans,” Daley measures. “That’s for sure. Americans seem to see everything more as a sport. We take offense to it. If you want to fight us, then you have to be prepared to really fight.”