Paul Daley has left the Strikeforce promotion voluntarily after becoming disillusioned with the lack of fights he’s been offered in recent times.
“I’m happy that Strikeforce has granted my request to be released from their roster as I found it difficult to fight so infrequently,” Daley states in a press release issued today. “My whole career I’ve wanted to fight as often as possible as it keeps me in the best form and condition.
“I felt that I put on nothing but entertaining fights while at the organization. The KOs of (Duane) Ludwig and Scott Smith were some great memories for me, as well as the back-and-forth fight of the year I had with Nick Diaz. My manager has already started speaking to some promotions about my future today following the official release papers from Strikeforce, and I’m looking forward to the next part in my journey.”
In total Daley fought four times for Strikeforce over an 18 month period, going 1-3 during that period. His last outing for the promotion was in March when he lost by split decision to Kizuo Misaki. He also had a previous one-fight stint in the organization back in 2007 in which he TKO’d Duane Ludwig.
Despite his record for them not being particularly impressive his departure is certainly a blow for Strikeforce as he’s a fighter with name value and on his day is capable of producing the kind of highlight-reel knockouts that are good for business.
It leaves Strikeforce’s already rather flimsy welterweight division weakened further still at a time when it needs to find suitable challenges to justify the signing of Nate Marquardt who will fight for the title against Tyron Woodley in the summer.
Strikeforce’s loss will be another promotion’s gain however, and while a return to the UFC is unlikely given the bad blood between Daley and Dana White, you’d have to think that Bellator will be the first in the queue hoping to sign him as they look to continue to bolster their roster in anticipation of their move to Spike TV in 2013.
