Longtime MMA veteran Paul Daley revealed he plans on retiring from the sport following his expected fight on Bellator's return to London, England on May 13.
Daley made the announcement on the latest edition of journalist Ariel Helwani's show The MMA Hour and simply said he's just tired from the year he's put into the sport. The 38-year old British MMA legend is 43-18-2 as a pro mixed martial artist and competed for Bellator, Cage Warriors, EliteXC, and Strikeforce during his run while also winning the Cage Rage welterweight title back in July 2006. He fought the likes of Douglas Lima, Jake Shields, Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Jorge Masvidal, Kazuo Misaki, Nick Diaz, Nick Thompson, Martin Kampmann, Michael "Venom" Page, Rory MacDonald, and Tyron Woodley over the course of his career.
“It will be my retirement fight,” Daley said (h/t MMA Fighting). “After many years in the game, the hours on the road, hours in the gym, the years have caught up with me and now every morning I wake up with a bad back, and I’m just tired. I’ve put in a lot of time in the sport and I’m in a position to retire, fortunately. So yeah, I’m going to retire. I don’t want to be one of those fighters who’s getting knocked out all the time by the younger guys. I want to be a guy who goes out when I want to go out. I’ve been planning for [retirement] for a long time. I’ve had a lot of fights. Bellator has treated me well while I’ve been there. So I put things in place so that when I do call it a day, I can do so comfortably.”
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