Paul Daley Thinks the Strikeforce Belt Could Be His Ticket Back into the UFC

With Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce came many questions. One of which was if Strikeforce and the UFC were to merge, would UFC president Dana White go back on his word when he vowed to never let Paul Daley fight in the Octagon again?

At UFC 113, Daley threw a sucker punch at Josh Koscheck after the bell during their fight. He was deducted a point for his blatant disregard of sportsmanship.

Well Daley found what he thinks is his ticket back into the UFC and to fight once again for White—the Strikeforce welterweight title.

"What we were trying to do is assure we had security away from the Zuffa people prior to the fight," Daley said in an interview with MMA Fighting. "But the truth be told, when I am the Strikeforce champion, I'll have even more bargaining power, and it will be even more of a kick to the teeth of the guys that don't like me in the organization. To negotiate before the fight would show a lack of confidence in myself, and I'm very confident I'm going to beat Nick Diaz. Once a champion, I have more power to negotiate."

Daley will be fighting Nick Diaz for the Strikeforce welterweight title on April 9. Daley doesn't understand why White dislikes him so much outside of his sucker punching Josh Koscheck.

"I don't particularly know why he has dislike for me, but it's obvious he does have dislike for me," Daley said. "If no explanation or reason is given for disliking me, I'm generally going to dislike someone in return. If Dana gives me an honest opinion—aside from hitting Koscheck after the bell—as to why he genuinely dislikes me, then at least I'd get some explanation. But there's too many incidents in the history of the UFC that prove it's more personal. Many of the UFC fighters have done a lot worse things to bring the company into disrepute, and they're still there. So it must be personal."

Daley is 27-9-2 in his MMA career and since the night of his now infamous sucker punch, Daley is a perfect 4-0 and one win away from the Strikeforce belt.

Daley has had a good life since his departure from the UFC. Not only is he about to claim a title, but also claimed "Knockout of the Year" for his Strikeforce debut against Scott Smith.

"The fact that I'm winning away from the UFC is enough redemption for me," Daley said. "I'm winning in front of fans, I'm making decent money. That's enough for me. I have redemption already, from every fight since the UFC. Getting 'Knockout of the Year,' which is something all the real fans in MMA were talking about in 2010, that was enough redemption. That was the icing on the cake for 2010. I think Dana definitely saw that and I guarantee he didn't like for that knockout not to be in the UFC."

Daley feels he could have a major bargaining chip by winning the Strikeforce title, and that could be much to the chagrin of White.