Raymond Daniels hoping to re-sign with Bellator following win at Bellator 257
Raymond Daniels is coming off of a Unanimous Decision win over Peter Stanonik at Bellator 257. The kickboxer turned MMA fighter closed off the rivalry with Stanonik in dominant fashion.
The fight marks his third with Bellator since debuting in May 2019 and winning with a highlight reel spinning punch. The victory brings him to 3-0-1(NC) with the California promotion.
His fight against Stanonik on Friday was the last fight on his current Bellator deal. The veteran kickboxer is now without a contract and looking to secure his next deal, preferably with Bellator.
“This was actually my last contracted fight with Bellator,” Daniels told MyMMANews. “That being said I went into my last fight and [now] I don’t have any more fights with them. I hope that Bellator and Showtime sees my value and would like to keep me around. It will be interesting to see what happens or what they come back at me with as far as my new contract. My goal is to climb that list. I’m very happy at Bellator. I consider it my home. Scott Coker does an amazing job. I really like the staff and everybody there. I would really like to stay there, that’s [what] I’m comfortable with. If that doesn’t work out then that’s unfortunate and I have to continue to take my talents where they’re valued or wanted.”
Daniels notes it was important to let it be known that his contract is up. Now people will be following along to see what happens.
“I have to let the world know at the same time,” Daniels said. “I have to let people know like ‘uh-oh, okay, what are they going to do?'”
A lot of times fighters tend to let it go unknown and do things out of the public eye. For Daniels, it’s important for people to know his situation so he can put himself in the best position possible career-wise.
“I think it’s very important,” Daniels said of announcing he’s a free agent. “Sometimes it goes unspoken and you’re like ‘oh! This person’s a free agent and I never heard about it’ because these were things that happened behind the scenes and stuff like that when there were maybe people that would have reached out to them if they had said something.”
Following the interview, Daniels management said: “Bellator has an exclusive negotiation period and if a deal isn’t reached in that time frame, he will be able to explore but Bellator will have a right to match.”
