Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White has gone on record saying the promotion plans on punishing Conor McGregor for tearing up a bus and injuring fighters during his media day rampage in Brooklyn, New York, just a few weeks back.
Click here for a refresher course.
Just don’t expect it to be as severe as the lifetime ban from the Octagon, like the one handed down to Paul Daley when he punched Josh Koscheck after the bell in their fight way back in 2010.
And that’s okay, says Daley, who doesn’t think banning “Notorious” for life is the smart business move.
“I’ve seen all the comparisons, and yeah, the whole situation, it was very similar, and Dana could come across as being a little hypocritical,” Daley said on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour (via MMA Fighting). “But for me, it’s a different ballgame,” he added.
“The UFC was in a different place then and it’s in a different place now, and a lot of where they are now is down to Conor McGregor. So if you’ve got someone bringing in money, and is raising the sport and your promotion to greater heights, then you can’t ban him for life because business is going to go bad for you. So I understand.”
McGregor is without a doubt the biggest money maker UFC has ever had, so letting him go — though it was teased for a while — to help another promotion make money simply doesn’t seem to be in the cards.
“Yeah, really, he should be treated the same as I was,” he continued. “He should be banned for life. What he did as a guy with his profile in the sport and for the company of the UFC, he should be banned for life, if, for what I did, I got banned for life. But business is business and they need him, and I like Conor McGregor and I respect him, and I respect Dana’s choice. It’s a smart move.”
As far as Daley -- who is currently under contract with Bellator MMA — he wouldn’t turn the other cheek if UFC and White came knocking at his door to settle their differences.
“I never really had bad feelings towards Dana, because I will make my way in this sport anyway, regardless of what barriers people put up for me because I am an entertaining fighter. People want to see me fight,” Daley said. “I feel like that’s something that I have up on some other guys who wouldn’t really get away with sh-t that I say because I entertain. I knock people out. I talk the talk and I walk the walk. I always put it on the line,” he added.
“So if Dana came to me with a proposition, I would probably take it because I feel there’s some big fights that could really elevate my financial situation to a whole other level.”
And since “Semtex” currently isn’t in the best of places with Bellator MMA, perhaps Dana White and Co. would reconsider bringing back the power-punching pugilist back to the Octagon.
For now, Daley is set to return to action at Bellator 199 on May 12, 2018 against UFC castaway Jon Fitch.