If you want to fight, do it inside the cage or out on the street, but you can't do both.
That's the message coming from Bellator MMA, who released welterweight striker Paul Daley and middleweight mangler Maiquel Falcao earlier this week for their legal troubles overseas.
MMA Fighting has a statement from the promotion's Director of Communications, Anthony Mazzuca:
"We examine each situation on a case by case basis and in these two instances, the violent nature of both situations has led to our decision to release both fighters from the organization. We recently received and reviewed the real documents in Daley's situation, which made clear that he was not in fact cleared, but was actually convicted of both assault by beating and obstructing an officer. And, in Maiquel's situation the video speaks for itself. Maiquel was nothing but a professional during his time with Bellator, but these recent developments have prevented us from keeping Maiquel with the organization. Both fighters are now able to fight wherever they wish and for whoever they wish. We have retained no matching rights to either fighter. We wish them the best in their future endeavors."
That has to be good news for Daley (kinda).
"Semtex" -- who previously went on record to call the assault charges "100-percent fake" -- went public with claims that Bellator held him hostage during his visa issues, charging exorbitant "booking fees" to compete for regional promoters.
He's now free to fight for whoever he chooses, though I don't expect any phone calls from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) matchmaker Joe Silva.
The same can be said for Falcao, who was already cut by UFC back in 2011 for allegedly assaulting a woman in Brazil. And you know what they say about history repeating itself. Just watch the video to see it unfold, if you have the stomach for that kind of thing.
Bellator, apparently, does not.
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