It looks as if Paul Daley will be entering the 10-man welterweight tournament, with Michael Page as his first opponent.
Much was made about the curious exclusion of Paul Daley during Tuesday’s announcement of the ten-man Bellator MMA welterweight tournament. As it turned out, Daley hadn’t actually signed a new contract yet, and now that’s been taken care of, paving the path for him to enter the Grand Prix.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto confirmed the news on Wednesday.
Paul Daley has signed a new deal with Bellator MMA. Scott Coker confirms via text. “We got the deal done — we get the big fights done!” Just judging by that text, I think we’ll finally get Daley vs. MVP.
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 18, 2018
Ariel Helwani also revealed that the much-anticipated showdown between “Semtex” and Michael Page is being targeted for the first-round of this tournament.
Paul Daley and Bellator have finally come to terms on a new deal, sources confirm. Current plan is for him to meet MVP in the first round of the Bellator 170 pound tournament. Date TBD.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 18, 2018
There’s been plenty of back-and-forth jawing between Daley and Page over the years, but a fight inside the Bellator cage has never actually materialized. Daley (40-16-2) is coming off a decision loss to Jon Fitch, which represented the last fight of his old Bellator contract, and it initially looked as if tensions between him and the promotion would lead to his departure. With things smoothed over, attention can be focused on booking him against Page (13-0), who essentially made the usually tough David Rickels quit after taking a sustained beating at Bellator 200.
The tournament field includes current champion Rory MacDonald, Douglas Lima, Andrey Koreshkov, Lorenz Larkin, Ed Ruth, Jon Fitch, Neiman Gracie, and Yaroslav Amosov. A trilogy meeting between Lima and Koreshkov is set for Bellator 206 on September 29th in San Jose. According to a DAZN press release, Fitch vs. Gracie and Ruth vs. Amosov are also lined up. MacDonald, who is fighting middleweight champ Gegard Mousasi on that San Jose card, is supposedly entering the tournament next February.
DAZN plans to stream the entire tournament exclusively on its service, indicating that none of the bouts will be simulcast on Paramount Network.