One of the most anticipated fights in Bellator history took place in February when Paul Daley and Michael Venom Page (MVP) finally settle their grudge match, with MVP earning the unanimous decision. Though the tagline may be that the grudge between the two was settled after the heated back-and-forth exchanges and the social media bickering between the two, Paul Daley continues to insist that there was no grudge:
“If you look at the whole buildup to the event, they basically built the fight around Michael Page,” Daley told MMA Junkie. “Because I was invited to the grudge match. Like I said, there was no grudge for me. I’m a professional fighter, and I was just there to fight.”
In retrospect, Paul Daley believes that Bellator was showing some favoritism towards MVP and even stated after the fight that he believes MVP was gifted the decision so that Bellator could protect their investment. When asked what gave him the impression that MVP was promoted more heavily leading into the fight, Daley resisted getting into specifics:
“Again, I don’t want to dwell on it,” Daley said. “But there were certain aspects, such as a T-shirt, there was a snake, you could barely see it, it was supposed to represent me as Semtex, you know? There were a lot of different things in the buildup, he did a lot of extra interviews that I didn’t do, stupid things like that, but it’s not something I want to dwell on.”
As for the fight itself, Paul Daley has walked back some of his rhetoric about being robbed and Page being gifted the decision, but he still believes that the fight was close enough to warrant a rematch down the line:
“It was a close fight. I’ve watched it 10 times,” Daley told MMA Junkie. “I score it differently each time so for that instance, then yeah, I would like the rematch. I would like the victory to be more clear, so yeah, definitely a fight I would look to get back.”
“The fight happened, he’s going forward to face Douglas Lima, I’m here and hopefully will get a rematch,” Daley said. “I think I’m deserving of a rematch.”
Paul Daley will next face Erick Silva on June 22 in London, England.
Would you be interested in seeing a rematch between Paul Daley and MVP?
