Raymond Daniels: Sparring partner Georges St-Pierre is 'awesome athlete, awesome person'

ST. LOUIS--Raymond Daniels (25-3-6) added another highlight-reel victory to his resume last Friday (June 24, 2016) after dispatching of Stefano Bruno (23-2-1) in the opening round at Bellator Kickoxing: St. Louis.

You could say the win was a "Rush," as "Real Deal" had former UFC welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre, in his corner for the fight.

Daniels, 36, revealed at the post-fight press conference that St-Pierre was also a main fixture in his training camp this time around and he put in extensive work with the former champ.

"Georges is an awesome athlete, he's an awesome person," Daniels told MMAmania.com. "I had an opportunity to go up to Tri-Star and train with Rory MacDonald, train with Firas [Zahabi] and I trained with GSP. He was actually my main sparring partner for this entire camp, so I probably had the most sparring that I ever had. I came into this fight feeling really comfortable and confident having a world champion, world-class athlete that you get to spar with day in and day out a couple times a day. I came in on such a different high this time. It was an awesome experience as well as working at home with Classic Fight Team and Espada Boxing as well."

.@RD_GOAT back at it again with that spinning heel kick! #BellatorKB2 pic.twitter.com/smgFdLhIf4

— Bellator Kickboxing (@BellatorKB) June 25, 2016

We are not even in the arena yet and @Rd_goat's warm-up has already started https://t.co/gb7W37XfYV

— Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) June 25, 2016

Now 2-0 in Bellator Kickboxing, Daniels finished Bruno off at the 1:45 mark of the opening round in the same exact fashion he took out Francesco Moricca at Bellator 152 in Torino, Italy, back in April. The path to victory took over a minute longer than his last fight, which lasted a mere 30 seconds. So what took him so long to get the knockout this time around?

"I did try my best to make the fight a little bit longer," Daniels said with a smile, before breaking down his fight-ending technique and why he has used it twice in a row now.

"I think with the big gloves everybody feels it puts up a really great shield and stuff. Whenever someone has their guard up it's kind of like swiss cheese, there is alway a hole. If you find the hole all you have to do is poke it. There is always a hole in someone's guard. That happens to be the hole that a lot of times people leave because they are trying to check legs and keep their hands up high so I just poke there every time and it seems to work. I"m going to keep using it until someone stops it."