Bellator have swooped to sign two exciting strikers, Paul Daley and Melvin Manhoef, ahead of their 11th season in September.
Daley has fought once before in the Bellator cage, claiming a first round TKO win over Rudy Bears back in 2012, but he was then cut by the promotion due to legal and Visa issues ‘Semtex’ was facing due to a bar fight he’d been involved in back in his native England.
The 31 year-old has continued to compete in Europe and the Middle East since then, going 4-1, with all four of his victories coming by stoppage due to strikes, including three clean KO’s.
In addition, Daley has also gone back to his kickboxing roots this year and has four stoppage victories to his name so far. He signed up for the sports No.1 organization Glory (which like Bellator also airs on Spike TV) a few months ago, but has yet to compete for them.
Daley has ties to Bellator’s new CEO Scott Coker, having fought for Strikeforce on four occasions, though it wasn’t a successful spell by his standards, picking up just one victory in four fights, though that did include a highlight-reel KO of Scott Smith and a memorable one round war with Nick Diaz.
Adding more punching power to the Bellator roster will be the well traveled veteran Melvin Manhoef.
In some respects his story is similar to Daley’s – he has also fought for Coker’s Strikeforce promotion in the past (going 0-2) and has a long history in kickboxing (though he’s lost his last five bouts spanning over the course of five years).
He does however hold a win in his latest MMA fight, a TKO victory inside of a minute against Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos and is still a fighter who’s fondly remembered by fans for the wars he’s been in over the years.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: We want Bellator to be a destination for not only the top-tier fighters in the sport, but the first-choice destination for fans to see the most entertaining fights in the sport,” Coker said as he unveiled his latest signings. “Both Paul and Melvin add a level of excitement to the roster that I can’t wait to see inside our cage, and this is just the beginning.”
