Image Credit: Bellator
The Career of Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley
The 64-fight career of Paul ‘Semtex’ Daley has certainly been one to watch, as he quickly became one of the most vicious knockout artists in the entire sport for well over a decade.
Debuting in 2003, Daley would go 1-2 through his first three bouts, prior to going 5-0-2 through his next seven.
This included two title fights, one for Cage Warriors, the other for Cage Rage, both of which resulted in draws.
Daley would go 5-2 over his next seven contests, ending with a capture of the Cage Rage welterweight championship. A 7-2 streak would follow, showing him defend his title three times, and he also captured the FX3 welterweight championship in this time.
Going into his Elite XC welterweight title clash against Jake Shields, Daley would get submitted and go 3-1 over his next four en route to a three-fight stint with the UFC.
This stint showed him go 2-1 in the promotion, picking up vicious knockout wins over Martin Kampann and Dustin Hazelett, only losing a decision to top contender Josh Koscheck in a title eliminator bout. However, he’d throw and land a hard punch to Koshcheck once the fight was over, and he was released from the promotion considering.
Daley went 4-0 over the next several months, and would’ve won the BAMMA welterweight championship (same title Leon Edwards once held), but he missed weight for the contest.
But, that fourth win did grant him a shot at the Strikeforce welterweight championship against Nick Diaz, and to this day, Diaz is the only man to ever finish Daley via strikes, in mixed martial arts or kickboxing.
Daley would go 2-2 over his next four, every bout ending in a decision, before he went on another four-fight knockout streak. A decision defeat would follow to future UFC prospect Alexander Yakovlev, before winning his next five-straight, making it 9-1 in his last ten with eight knockouts (3-0 in Bellator).
‘Semtex’ had perhaps the toughest streak of his career following this however, going 2-4 over his next six outings. But, those two wins he did pick up over Brennan Ward and Lorenz Larkin, wow. Absolutely vicious.
Larkin has since won his last six-straight following his defeat to the Englishman.
Daley would win his next three bouts, before losing to top Bellator welterweight contender Jason Jackson, and ended his career in the fight following, where he knocked out Wendell Giacomo.
This was a fight that saw him being handily out-wrestled by the Brazilian, but he was able to get up toward the end of the second round and land a thunderous combination, KO’ing Giacomo on the spot.
Not only was ‘Semtex’ a feared striker in MMA, but he also had a very successful kickboxing career, initially starting out with a 14-3 record over the coarse of six years or so. But, he returned to the sport in 2014 to go 7-0 before 2015 ended, improving his record in the sport to 21-3. He also secured five knockouts in those latter seven victories.
Paul Daley finished off his mixed martial arts career with a record of 44-18-2, boasting 35 knockouts to his credit.
What’s more, not a single one of those wins came via submission, the other nine he was awarded the judges decision.
That means every single fight he won, he used his striking. And, that doesn’t even mention, 17 of those 35 knockouts came via KO, with 15 TKO’s. Paul Daley is perhaps the hardest hitting 170 lb mixed martial artist to ever walk the earth, and he boasted perhaps the most vicious left hook any of us have seen in the sport.
Daley did state that he’d return to action for two rematches, against Nick Diaz or Jorge Masvidal.
In a rematch with Diaz, he could avenge his only knockout loss; and in a rematch with Masvidal, not only would he have the chance at making a load of money with Masvidal being a massive star at this point, but he’d have a chance at finishing him this time around as well.
Notable wins:
- Daniel Weichel (KO – knee)
- Duane Ludwig (KO – punches)
- John Alessio (KO – punches)
- Martin Kampmann (TKO – punches)
- Dustin Hazelett (KO – punches)
- Jorge Masvidal (UD)
- Scott Smith (KO – punch)
- Jordan Radev (UD)
- Andre Santos (UD)
- Brennan Ward (KO – flying knee)
- Lorenz Larkin (KO – punches)
- Erick Silva (UD)
- Saad Awad (TKO – punches)
- Sobah Homasi (TKO – punches)
- Wendell Giacomo (KO – punches)
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