If all goes well, two of Bellator’s newest signed sluggers are going to square off against each other later this year.
Bellator president Scott Coker revealed on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that if Paul Daley and Melvin Manhoef can get through their upcoming respective bouts unscathed, the promotion is eyeing a match-up between the two welterweights for late-2014.
“Paul, pending his September 12th fight in London, if he’s okay, we’re going to be fighting him in November here in America,” Coker said. “I can tell you the fight I’d like to put together. We had a conversation with Melvin Manhoef about dropping down in weight, so I’d like to put Manhoef vs. Daley together.”
“So if [Manhoef] doesn’t get hurt, Paul doesn’t get hurt, we’ll put that fight together.”
Manhoef (28-11-1, 1 NC) is currently scheduled to fight Doug Marshall on September 19th at Bellator 125 in his promotional debut, while Daley (34-13-2) is expected to challenge Igor Fernandes on September 12 at BAMMA 16. That bout will fulfill the last fight of Daley’s BAMMA contract.
Both men possess extensive striking credentials, with nearly 100 combined mixed martial arts and kickboxing knockouts to their credit.
Manhoef won his only MMA fight thus far this year, stopping Evangelista Santos in just 46 seconds in April. Daley, meanwhile, trounced Artem Mironcev last week to run his kickboxing record to 5-0 in 2014, with all five contests ending via KO/TKO.